It’s not often that something or lack of something in a book bothers me enough that I feel the need to respond to it. I even waited a while to give me some space between reading the last page and writing this post. Keep in mind that everything beyond this sentence is my opinion and my imperfect experiences as a person and a writer for many years.
Books are subjective, I totally get that. What one reader will love can bore another. As a writer, I do notice when an author has been lazy or is choosing to not do the work their story deserves. There were a lot of things that weren’t working in this novel, but I am only going to write about the one element that tipped the scales against it.
A bad case of the straw man is what brought me to it. No, this has nothing to do with the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. A straw man is a term used by writers to mean a character or group of people with opposing ideologies to the protagonist (and often the author themselves) who are unsubstantial and have flimsy motivations for their actions. What is even more obvious is that the author has chosen not to research anything opposing their protagonist’s views. This isn’t to say that writers need to make arguments supporting terrible acts such as hate crimes, racism, sexism, and so on; however, they need to give their antagonists their due and make them more than a straw man to be hoisted up and burned by the protagonist.
In this book that came out recently, the villain is a straw man. He is a businessman who is every kind of “ist” and “phobe.” Appearing to do anything after the halfway mark of the novel had passed, his only purpose was to do and say mean things to the “good guys.” As the book went on, any subtlety or nuance into this man’s character gave way to the cheapest reasonings I have read in a published piece of writing. One of his ending scenes is his attempt to create his perfect vision of a paradise of super soldier people—free of everything he doesn’t like—for no discernible reason except that the author wanted someone for the reader to hate. Apparently, the fate of multiple worlds wasn’t enough tension to drive the story.
This character was truly a villain, no argument there. Yet, I found myself struggling to understand his motives or believe in his part in the story. Unfortunately, this meant that I wasn’t believing in the protagonists or their acts either. There was no storytelling, only a long, long attempt to show the reader how great their protagonists were simply because they weren’t that guy. In the process, a potentially wonderful concept dealing with space, time, and the nature of the universe was lost in the crossfire.
Whether you’re reading or writing, it’s important to remember that villains and antagonists believe they are the heroes of their own stories. They have reasons for their actions that can run painfully deep. Refusing to acknowledge that diminishes a powerful character and a wonderful story. And I know that there are so many wonderful stories out there to be told!
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