The Lie the Hero Believes

I ran across the word pourri in my French reading. It turns out pourri means rotten, decayed, corrupt, etc. Pot in French means pot. Therefore a pot pourri is a rotten pot. Suddenly, potpourri makes sense.

I'm up to book 3 of the Hunger Games. One of the criticisms of it is that the male love interest of the female main character is emasculated. Let's see if that's true. In book 1 he's injured and cannot fulfill his role as a man. In book 2 he is once again injured and cannot fulfill his male role. Book 3 starts out with his having been captured by the enemy and thus unable to fulfill his male role. Yes, he's emasculated. He's basically cast as the helpless female who needs rescuing. Very Hollywood.

I mentioned last week that I didn't entirely like book 1. The emasculation thing isn't too much of a problem. The main character has to drive the story not a minor character. If the love interest was more realistic, the main character wouldn't be doing anything. She's far too weak and unmotivated as a person to be around strong characters. The author was forced to team her with weak companions. I hope it will make sense by the end of book 3. Maybe she'll find some kind of inner strength.

The main reason I couldn't get more into it was because of how the main character used the love interest like a puppet. In the story they're thrown into an arena of 24 combatants in a fight to the death. There can be only one. . .winner. The judges change the rules to allow people to team up in teams of two. As part of the rules, the combatants can receive rewards from sponsors. Once the main character and the love interest are teamed up, she figures out that if she kisses him or shows affection she gets a reward. From that point on she slashers on the kisses and hugs and cuddling, etc.

Before the combat started, the love interest declared that he loves the female main character and always has. So, he's with the woman he loves and thinks she loves him, too. She's only using him to get rewards from the sponsors. At the end of the book after they win and she's out of danger, she throws him away like a used, snotty tissue. Exchanging sexual contact for payment? I call that a spirit of prostitution. With all the Hollywood sex scandal stories lately, I'm not surprised they wanted to make that into a movie to teach children how it works.(For more on Hollywood's grooming of children, check out this review of the recent children's movie Show Dogs, a movie that was teaching children how to go to their happy place and let adults touch their private parts.) The prostitution angle in the book is a bit subtle. I've cut through the fluff and nonsense to call it like it is.

The other reason I couldn't get more into it was that the main character was dumber than a box of hammers unless the plot needed her to be smart for something specific. She kept believing lies and getting confused about the truth. One of the lies she made up in her head was that the love interest didn't really love her. She didn't have a good reason to believe that. All his actions were love and caring. Her reaction didn't make much sense. In writing there's something called the lie the hero believes. I think it goes back to Greek stories. The way it's supposed to work is the hero believes a lie until almost the end. Along the way a minor character knows the truth and keeps telling the hero the truth, but because of the lie the hero can't accept the truth. Right before the final battle with the enemy, he learns the truth for himself and uses the truth to win the battle.

If you've ever read a book in which the hero believed a lie until nearly the end, and I know you have, that's where it comes from. The problem is it almost never works. Very, very few writers can make the lie the hero believes believable. It nearly always makes the hero look like an idiot. That's why I don't use it in my books. It's annoying to read about a character who's being slapped in the face with the truth the whole book until it finally clicks at the end. What kind of a moron is that? And how often is the hero able to use the truth, an intellectual knowledge, as the means to win a physical fight? Hmm, hard to remember. I'm not saying I'll never use that device. It can be very powerful, but I don't like it. It almost never works. Ancient Greek literature is boring for a reason. I would have to find exactly the right idea for it to work the way it's supposed to. Maybe that could be a personal challenge.

 The water is still out. Next week could be the week.

Have a great weekend.