Good morning, Internets!

[rolanni]

I just realized that the story we *ought* to be telling, that most accurately reflects How We Succeed at Art, is *not* the story of the Special Child who uses the adversity of Tradition to snatch his gift, whole, from the hands of their elders, but the story of the Child who Trades Her Youth For A Gift.

It's funny, that the first story is thought to be uplifting, *true* and one that we therefore write and tell *often*, while the second story, which *IS* true, is, when it's told at all, is narrated as a Warning, and the Trader Child as a fool.

Of course, it could be that those two narratives are the same -- obverse and reverse.

Discuss.

Comments

Belle

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

the perfect picture of fluff!

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

I always thought it went more along the lines of that old (Spanish? maybe?) proverb: "Take what you want," said God. "Take it, and pay for it."

(Or, to put it another way, it's a good thing that "become rich," was not an item on my want list, because it was the trade item for "become a published writer" and "raise four kids from cradle through college.")

[gerald heaton (from livejournal.com)]

With freezing rain and cold, that picture is what I want to be doing, NOT getting ready for work.

Late very Happy Birthday to Trooper!

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

Congrats to Trooper for his Birthday.Didn't know that he is so accomplished what with his award. Also King of the Flying Mouse. .

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes wished I could write a story that depicts well the long hard slog toward competence. Practice, practice, practice.
When someone has a "gift", more often than not, that "gift" at least half consists simply of "loving something and finding it fun to do."
The geniuses *aren't* working, at least at first. They are playing, enjoying every minute, playing all day long and becoming excellent at their play, and then they
find out that some people value the play that they do. Sure, at some point, to continue, they have to actually work, hard, like the rest of us.
But I have always envied those who enjoy the journey, the steps, the practice, the work.

[filkferengi]

I'm strongly reminded of the Lloyd Alexander short story "The Foundling."

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Let's see. The special child who upholds her gift despite the traditions, nasty old folks, and all that, or the child who trades something for the gift? I think maybe the answer is no, they're not really that far apart, nor is the need for a trade that unusual in our tales. After all, the tradition that there are consequences, costs, to almost everything is deeply embedded in our stories. I mean, what is the cost? That's a fundamental question for plotting, right?

Take a look at Starship Troopers. Here's Juan, out there on the plain, marching... And deciding that the cost is worth it.

Or the venerable training montage. Admittedly, some of them are a bit shallow, but many of them do include real pain and loss.

Even Fledgling and company... At many points along the way, Theo and her friends could give in and go along, but she doesn't. And there are real costs to that, again and again.

In fact, I think this may be part of what separates the Mary Sue tales from the rest. Is there a real cost, a price, loss associated with taking that high road?

I do think that sometimes there is a problem. There often is not much time spent on the hours of practice, the dedication, and the other underpinnings that go with mastery. Instead, we have the mentor (or perhaps a shining white Companion?) who comes along and plucks the unknown gifted person out of the mire, and a few flashes of a training montage later, pow! The gift is in full flower. The wrestling with the imposter syndrome, the fears and faltering as one weakness after another is found and overcome, the loss of this, that, and the other in the process, most of that gets passed over lightly. But even in Valdemar, there are costs.a

However, we also have plenty of stories of coming of age, of learning to deal with powers, of pushing across that plain and accepting the price that comes with the decision to pursue that goal, that shining star.