On Fiction's Relevance

Hallo, friends! Advent is upon us, and yesterday was the Feast Day of Saint Nicholas. I had hoped to take my dad to see The Return this weekend after his birthday, but circumstances conspired to prevent that–not least of which being that no nearby theater is playing it. I just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and am now reading Feet of Clay!

I’ll be out next week, so I'm unsure if I’ll be able to post a Saturday Note. I hope so.

On Fiction's Relevance

[For the record, I think this Note mostly applies to science-fiction and fantasy; contemporary non-genre fiction set in the real world is probably not going to work with this idea.]

Recently I discovered a review for Wicked, Part 1 (on ReactorMag, I think?--and full disclosure, I haven’t seen the movie) that declared that the depiction of the Wizard, a national leader who lies to get what he wants, was especially relevant now. It reminded me of a panel conversation at YALLFest, too, in which someone made reference to how the villain he or she wrote (I don’t recall which author it was who said this) was, “a malevolent politician”, and then laughed at how obviously inspired it was by real-life events. I don’t hold anything against either of these examples, but they feel a little… odd. It’s not as if 2024 is the only time we’ve had malevolent politicians.

The Wicked example is especially so; the movie is based off of a musical from decades ago, itself based off of a novel released in 1995. The movie was made and released for now, though, so it’s perfectly possible that there are intentional shout-outs to current events. Similarly, Young Justice is based off of characters and storylines that have been included in comics for ages, though they find ways to spin those in ways that make obvious references to real-world events going on right now.

[That being said, I think having Lex Luthor spouting actual lines Donald Trump said in real life is a bit much–especially as previous seasons had him as a much different character. Parallels? Fine, but the actual dialogue is perhaps too over-the-top and unfitting.]

I suppose, then, that I am somewhat frustrated not at applicability, but at people acting like when stories say something about society, that it must specifically be about now, and nothing else. It’s like… you guys realize that these problems are recurring, right? There were a lot of people who thought that the Prequel Trilogy of Star Wars, for instance, was about the Bush Administration, and while I think that’s a possibility, it’s also about what Lucas saw as a recurring motif throughout history: representative governments eroding under corruption, and a charismatic popular leader taking power for himself through manipulation and propaganda.

Likewise, I recall posting a Discworld quote about electing a known criminal to public office in 2016 or 2017–and someone commented that it was especially relevant then (more so now, I think). Though it’s more pointedly a quote not about a specific person, but that representative governments will often get people elected who, in theory, should be disqualified for being absolutely garbage human beings.

It’s a bit frustrating to me when people act as if the problems we have now are all entirely new to history, and once we address them we’ll be in utopia. There’s that one Tweet from after the 2020 election, in which a guy declared that we’ll no longer have to fact-check what the President says! And, like, yeah, my guy, we should still do that, regardless. 

When it comes to storytelling, I am not against telling a story that specifically addresses a specific moment. I am all for it! Understand applicability, though–that a story isn’t just for one specific moment, even if it was perhaps intended for it. It shouldn’t be, anyhow, if it’s to have any real staying power. Again, going back to Discworld, Small Gods was inspired by then-current events in Iran–and yet it’s brilliantly written in a way that it’s relevant even outside of that context.

You want the story to resonate with people, yes? You don’t have to reach everyone, but if you’re trying to convey a specific struggle, it would probably be good to understand that more people are going through it than just you and your fellows in that one moment.

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