Imperfection Is Quite Perfect

We were sampling some of our finalized chapters in The Perfect Seven to our writing group the other day, and because our MC isn’t the quintessential hero, it dredged up a discussion we seem to continuously revert back to. Unlikely heroes. The majority of our group believe that the last ten years have been the decade of the unlikely hero, but Mathair and I argued that there has always been a plethora of literary works with them in it.

People have been reading for centuries, as the written word is one of the oldest forms of storytelling in the world. And, whether it’s for entertainment purposes or just escaping into a different world, the MC has always been the soul of a novel. It is who the reader takes that journey with, therefore forming a relationship and ultimately connecting, but not every MC is “user-friendly”. I have found, as an avid reader and a writer of fiction, that the more human the main character is, the deeper I become involved in the whole of the novel: the world, the events, the side characters and how they relate to that MC, ect. In an age that is in constant pursuit of perfection, it seems as though we have forgotten how beautiful imperfection really is, how the simplicity of a flaw can be exquisite and that the darkness inside can be something to embrace rather than shun.

The literary world is littered with unlikely and anti-heroes and the Young Adult genre seems to be feeling the impact the most. Protagonists have transformed over the years to nerdy, orphaned wizards, and teenage girls that lead a rebellion against a totalitarian government, but in hindsight, unlikely heroes have been in the forefront of the literary world for years. The appeal of a multi-dimensional character with various ghosts and/or vices is something that resonates deep in the hearts of an inherently insecure society. It forces us to look at ourselves and perhaps, even use this characters emotional, cathartic journey for our own.

And, it isn’t just for an introspective mind, many classic romances have stemmed from readers pining for the Byronic hero, which has captured the hearts of women the world over. I remember reading Pride and Prejudice and finding my fictional soul mate in Mr. Darcy, as many others have, I’m sure. I had, at first, thought him a rather cold, and clinical man, but as the book progresses and Elizabeth inevitably begins to peel back his many layers, I found Mr. Darcy to be a true, honorable and wonderful man with a depth that surpassed even the heroine. Mr. Rochester was another that jumped off the pages of Jane Eyre and his brooding, mysterious mannerisms have made the novel a true romantic classic. Intricate men like this have been the ultimate fantasy for women long before Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte wrote those masterpieces. And, though there are fans with a longing for a more archaic, male lead, I doubt they would ever live up to our beloved, and complicated legends of romance.

Tragic heroes have also been immortalized as fan favorites in the literary world, the tormented souls from Emily Bronte and Gaston Leroux, Heathcliff and Erik, have always been a personal favorites of mine. But, it’s not just romantic literature and YA that have coined the unlikely hero. Comics have been prominent fixtures of the Americana culture for decades and the unlikely hero has been it’s staple. Spiderman, V, Wolverine, and Deadpool are just to name a few and, let’s not forget the unlikely heroine. The most recent are Bella Swan from Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. An awkward, old soul whose only solace is found in the obscured, supernatural world around her, but Scarlet O’Hara is the one that stands out in my mind. Selfish, manipulative, and cruel, she is the embodiment of what a woman with drive and ambition could’ve done in the Civil War era. Not to mention, Elizabeth Bennett, the Pevensie sisters, Hermoine and even Katniss Everdeen.

Breathing, walking, living contradictions are anomalies and fascinate the public because they can identify the most with these characters, so I don’t see the theme dying out anytime soon. After all, isn’t there an unlikely hero in all of us?

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The Case of the Stingy Pig

The human race is the greatest of all God’s creations, intricately designed creatures that are constantly evolving. Education is the largest contributing factor to that evolution, but people tend to forget the second: You can’t know where you’re going unless you look at where you’ve been.

We were looking through the photo album and happened to come across a picture of myself playing with my daughter (Inion) when she was three. I was tickling her toes as I recited “This Little Piggy”. We began to wonder about the nursery rhyme and its origins. As writers, we look at all forms of literature with much respect and try to break it down in an analytical way so we can truly grasp its contents. Children’s stories and nursery rhymes happen to be our favorite to study because of their lyrical rhythms and timeless qualities.

And, so we began our journey into “This Little Piggy”. There were more than ten thousand sites related to it, but nothing concrete in its origins. (That we could find anyway. Yeah, The Hardy Boys we’re not.) We did find that it’s dated as far back as the mid seventeen hundreds. Pretty amazing when you think about it, right? How many families has this small piece of writing touched over the last three hundred years? Ah, the power of the pen.

The author was unknown, but its first publication was in English Fairy Tales by James Orchid Halliwell-Phillips, which was a collection that never named the author.

Now, down to our perplexing discovery. In the midst of doing this research, we overheard a family friend saying the rhyme to her baby. When she got to the third line, she said, “This little piggy had roast beef.”

Whoa! We had always heard that the third little piggy had bread and butter. Why was her piggy eating roast beef? Had we mistreated our piggy with a flimsy meal of bread and butter?

That’s when we began the real research to find out the spectrum of the third piggy’s appetite and why ours had such a limited palate.  According to Miss Hollis, the third piggy was a freaking carnivore! Kinda sick when you really think about it. Our pig’s meal made much more sense in the scheme of things, until I remembered that my father had told me that pigs ate anything placed in front of them.

Then, we decided to grill my mother, who informed me that her mother’s, (my Nanu), piggy had toast and tea. Nanu was a born and bred Aussie that loved her tea time and so, replaced the roast beef with something she preferred. My mother liked her bread un-toasted with real butter, which inclined her to change the third pig’s meal.

In our previous studies, we had discovered that the original third pig ate roast beef, so Miss Hollis was in fact, right. But, three generations of our family had changed the age-old rhyme into something wholly different. Were we the only ones?

We started asking around, close friends, neighbors, even previous coworkers and most of them said roast beef, but… there was a sizeable chunk with various meals. Our friend Tracy, who hails from Georgia, said that her mother served their little piggy chitlins. Those of you who aren’t southern and southerners that aren’t familiar with the “country cuisine”, I implore you to look up what chitlins are.  Those of you, like my daughter and I, (nine generations) will understand when we say that it was a little strange.

Matt, a friend that hailed from our birthplace of South Florida, was a true Cuban at heart and said his piggy had always eaten black beans and rice.

Amanda said her granny told her that the piggy had a nasty sweet tooth and ate a trough of cupcakes.

Inion’s favorite answer came from a childhood friend whose piggy had a pint of draft beer. Aha! Now the piggy’s hitting the booze.

We finished our research with this conclusion, that whether your piggy’s from the south and eating its own intestines. (Ew) Or, your pig is from Down Under and being fed toast and tea, one thing’s for sure, the pig loves to eat.

The last mission in our piggy journey came to a close when we confronted my mother and told her that the jig was up. We knew the little piggy preferred rare roast beef to bread and butter and that she had been knowingly starving our pig for years. Without missing a beat, she informed us that the damn thing was too fat and she was sick and tired of giving him all of the good food. “He’s a glutton, you know. He’s got a pig right next to him with nothing to eat and for three hundred years that selfish sow hasn’t offered him a thing.”

And, so I challenge you with this, try to be kind to your piggy and give him something decent to eat. Like most things, they’re much happier when their fed properly and the better the meal, the more likely they are to squeal all the way home.

Please tell us what your piggy ate and don’t forget to pass on the wonderful tradition to your children.

Blog Envy – a true disorder

It has recently come to our attention, that we have a serious dysfunction within us that we have been battling for the past year. We noticed the symptoms which appeared to be serious and much stronger, while on-line visiting other writers blogs. Before long, the minor side effects were becoming more pronounced with every post and guest spots along with backgrounds, comments and visitor friendly trends.

But it took a real spiral downward, when I noticed we were battling each other by arguing over other blogs. Once we were finally able to confront ourselves about this weakness and admit to it, we decided it was time to take the first step towards recovery. But by this time, the cold sweats and covetous behavior had reached an all time high. So together, we searched for a professional who would be able to help us with this sickness.

Now that we are receiving treatment and have a real name to go with this crippling disability, we now know that it is as common as panic attacks and hoarding. We suffer from Blog Envy. Now for some of you, this will seem trivial and pathetic. Like we seek attention or pity. But you couldn’t be more wrong. And for those of you who can relate to this horrific disorder, you will know exactly how hard this can be to live with.

Our therapist advised my daughter and I to join a support group of writers who suffer from the same problem that we do. You know, the sort of hands on therapy (listening to other peoples problems and yours goes away approach.) So we took his advice to heart and began the healing process. Finding a rather diverse group of perfectly normal people living in the shadow of this shameful phobia. It was hard at first, as most of the twenty or so members spent their first ten minutes of testimonials, trying to get us to look at their blogs and then follow. But soon, we all began purging and before long, we had achieved some real progress.

We were shocked to find out how prevalent this sickness is and how it has managed to cross all social classes and age barriers. At our first group we heard from a woman who said she had been working for two months to make her blog more user-friendly. But at last check, she had yet to achieve that, and was closer to breaking into NASA’s computer system.

The next speaker claimed that she had been working on her blog to make it look as nice as some of her fellow writers, only to find herself angry, confused and cursing her laptop. She was advised by (Doc) to turn her blog creation over to her eleven year old, at which point out of desperation, she did and her result was one of success. She shared with us that she had, or that is her daughter had made her blog beautiful. And how she had more comments by visitors on how pleasant and informative her blog was. She seemed at peace now.

So what have we learned, other than children have the key to technology as well as the best blogs. Not much. My daughter and I still have panic attacks while visiting other blogs and find ourselves wanting to throw the computer when we leave their sweet sites with their guest posts and recommendations.

I would love to tell you that there is a cure for this dysfunction. But we have been told by medical professionals that it is something that must be worked out through time and learning to love your blog as it is.

So, we go onto our blog three times a day and say to it, “Your beautiful, your informative, and your fine without guest posts! It’s okay that you have no comments, soon you will. We love you!”

Oh what the hell are we saying! It’s an ugly boring blog!

If you know someone who suffers from blog envy, please tell them to join Inion N. Mathair at their support group for writers with fears of ugly blogs, and remember there’s hope for everyone.