1. Galadriel says:

    Wow…there’s so much to reflect on here that I’m not entirely sure where to begin or what to say…mark of a good blog post, I suppose. To focus on one aspect, that of icons placed in stories–I have one that is a strange hybrid. The story grew from an image of three roses darker than black and more vivid than crimson. They represent the King, and the people of the story belive that, but then outside the story, I realize they’re more of a Holy Spirit sort of thing. Which I did not know when I was writing it, but kind of hit me one day.

  2. Bainespal says:

     Who do you like? Who is already “iconic” in popular story franchises? Who should be iconic — perhaps a lesser-known character who you believe “images” you most uniquely?
     

    I’m sorry I couldn’t reply sooner. This topic deserves some discussion! I was busy, and it took me a while to come up with this:
    One of my favorite archetypes or icons is the True Seeker — the person desperate to find meaning and truth, and not willing to accept easy or partial answers, someone absolutely certain that there is a greater destiny. I give two examples of this icon, both from television shows — Fox Mulder from The X-files, and Jeffrey Sinclair from Babylon 5. (I got the term “True Seeker” from a Bab-5 episode, too ;)).

  3. From Galadriel:

    Wow…there’s so much to reflect on here that I’m not entirely sure where to begin or what to say…mark of a good blog post, I suppose

    Or another kind of blog post — one that says too much! 😀

    The story grew from an image of three roses darker than black and more vivid than crimson.

    Recently I was reading about the idea of the MacGuffin — an object that drives the plot of characters’ quest, without a whole lot of explanation. It would seem that if I’ve thought this out right, we’ve found the opposite of a legitimate story icon or symbol, an imposter. Icons make sense; they have meaning. But MacGuffins make little sense.

    If I’d had time, I would have explored the iconography C.S. Lewis evidently used when writing the Ransom Trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis believed that archetypes represented by the medieval planets — Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn — were being lost in modern society, and that we really ought to recover those timeless mythologies. Author Michael Ward in Planet Narnia argues that Lewis, by accident and then by intention, based each of the seven Chronicles on one of these medieval planets. No, it’s not a superstitious Da Vinci Code-type theory, and no, this doesn’t nullify the Chronicles‘ Christianity, Ward suggests. Rather, Lewis was doing what he always did: taking ancient mythology “captive” in service of Aslan/Christ.

    Anyway, because much Christian fantasy is inspired on Narnia, it seems authors could:

    1. Unintentionally repeat some of the Chronicles‘ themes without knowing the underlying meaning. Result: vague reminiscence of the Chronicles, but that’s all.
    2. Try to capture the “flavor” of Narnia, while leaving out one crucial base ingredient — redeemed mythology and time-proved archetypes. Result: a well-intended but ultimately cheap imitation of the Chronicles.

    Lewis was Lewis, and authors shouldn’t all try to “be” him. Yet authors or readers who wish to follow in his thoughts need to explore ancient mythology, and Art and all that.

    • Galadriel says:

      Actually, that makes a lot of sense. As a frequenter of TV Tropes, I see a lot of references to MacGuffins and such…but I never though of it as the opposite of an icon.

What do you think?