Fiction: Why it became the trustworthy role model

Recently I was invited to watch ‘the Hobbit’ at the cinemas by the two biggest Tolkien fanatics currently living in the North of England, and who are currently my roommates.

Frankly I didn’t hate it, but while we do have quite a geeky household I’m more into my SciFi, and not so much the Middle Earth fanatic. However what I did observe was that amongst the Dragons, and Elves, and Orks, there seem to be a large interest in the geography of this universe. (How else could my housemates pick out the missing in links and characters in the LOTR and the hobbit trilogy?)

Anyway why am I talking about Tolkien?

Fiction defines childhood; it matures with individuals, and seems timeless. Also due to the development of film it has only expanded across a larger audience because it removes that sense of elitism that you have within literature.

(Question me? Ok, well Lion King is simply Hamlet. Nuff said...)

In fact it becomes scary to think that fiction has become more integral to a child’s development then parental guidance…

Because how involved are parents anymore with kids?

Now this is a patchy area because a lot of the ground has been pulled and pinched by the media.

• TV – “wow your all super lazy because you allowed a kid to watch TV”
• Rude TV – “wow you don’t care because kids are exposed to bad language”
• Video Games – “wow you don’t care because kids are exposed to… erm video games?”
• Computers – “wow you don’t care because kids are exposed to the earth’s vast quantity of cat memes”

People who write this stuff obviously have never had a child in which both parents are working, alternative nights off to look after a child, relying on grandparents (who are also working) to look after said child. Maybe everyone is so exhausted that 40 minutes of TV doesn’t sound like such a bad idea…

Because before it’s not like parents just let their children willy nilly wander off in the streets to play… right?

So is that it? Can I leave that stupid dummy conversation in its stupid ventriloquist box?

Awesome.

After watching the Hobbit last night I thought it was interesting how involved my housemates were involved with Middle earth as much as they were. It seems that much of what fiction provides is absent within the modern family structure. This is what I feel should be explained before I move on any further… That is; what seems wholesome and complete in the land of fiction is unapparent in the adult world today. This in then reflected in the day to day behaviour of parents, and through a series of cherry picking, or just downright ignoring problems; children only see their parents interact with this incomplete world.

Alternatively fiction is intertwined with the narrative discipline that any writer must (at least by the end) provide a history which explains the decisions made by characters. Therefore by the end of various works characters in some part are honest with their demons.

Ergo these characters become more honest role models then fallible parental figures.

 Back to Tolkien: in Middle Earth there is a very honest depiction of the failure of one man echoing throughout history and effecting his linage eg. Isildur not throwing the ring in the bloody fire of Mount Doom. However in reality humans are not quite that honest with themselves. There is no outside narrator; everyone has been quite happy with blaming some far away reason why they act the way they do.

This can be explained in some sense that people suffer from personal demons…

Those who are unable to confront issues in their lives will act irrational to others, and not only this but they will repeat the same mistakes but not understand why.
In our narrative worlds; stories will usually conclude that someone can actually remove the demon from their life.

The movie ‘Legend’ is an excellent example; Bruce Lee is played by Brandon Lee (his son), and this actor has a great challenge exploring the great martial artists life. The beginning scenes present Bruce Lee’s father (Lee Hoi-chuen) unable to defeat this kind of samurai demon, and in which losing dies. This echoes throughout the movie until which point Bruce fights his father’s Demon. Of course this is a universal idea that children are cursed with their parent’s demons; something that I accept, however it will split any dinner table…

Never talk about Religion or politics at a dinner party… or family demons.

If you take anything from this blog: take that.

Nevertheless fiction really does create the perfect scenario for children. It is a complete universe in which trusting in fictional heroes is a safe bet. Parents must take something from this, because why would a child feel that it was necessary to do this? These perfect worlds must be a defence against something right, even if it psychological.  Demons have a nasty way of travelling down family tree’s (either nurture or nature it really doesn’t matter) and it helps is when before criticising a child’s behaviour look inside and know where it’s come from. Because sometimes the nasty stuff is not just come around by coincidence.

Nevertheless this is not to say that this is a blame game scenario.

It’s just much easier if the family structure accepts these demons, and works together to conquer it.

But until then it’s far easier to hide in the logic of fiction.