Monthly Archives: November 2013

Protagonist as observer

A protagonist must always have special powers, something which makes them stand out from the rest.

In the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander not only has superhuman hacking capabilities and acute intelligence, she is formidable in hand to hand combat. Gillian Flynn’s Amy, in Gone Girl, is more manipulative than most. She has some kind of personality disorder – an extremely destructive one – and the ability to wield it as a weapon.

The observer

Like the observers of Fringe, my protagonist, Elena, has the ability to see across timelines. She experiences premonitions and she experiences events from the past, both in her dreams and her waking life as she moves through the Borderliners trilogy. Of course, the reader is always free to form their own opinions of her capabilities. Some might see her as psychic. Some might see her as psychotic, someone who sees and hears things which aren’t there. Others, as merely delusional. Others still, may see her as merely human, someone who has the same capabilities as anyone else, if only we decided to pay attention to what was going on around us.

It is up to the reader to decide what is really going on.

In Fringe, the observers are definitely not of this world. They look and behave strangely. They know of their purpose in life and accept it. They are neither good nor evil.

Elena, on the other hand, must decide. As she moves through life and the strangeness of events surrounding her catch up, what will she make of this? Will she move her consciousness up a level? Or will she descend into a pit of delusion?

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Quantum tectonic event

Split SymmetryWhat if a quantum tectonic event split our reality?

So that different versions of ourselves appeared from an alternate universe, to show us what our lives could have been had we made different choices, or what we might become, should we change our behaviour right now?

As Werner Heisenberg said,

‘Atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.’

What if our lives were made up of infinite possibilities, all of which were happening simultaneously, until the observer – you – decided to pin one down? One choice, one life.

Look out for Split Symmetry*, which explores all of these questions – and more – against the exciting backdrop of a mysterious Italian mountain range, a group of friends who become embroiled in the worst earthquake the region has known and a quantum event, which changes their lives for ever. The question is, does it only alter the world for them?

*out late next year or in early 2015

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Charismatic leaders

One theme which interests me in literature is the power of the charismatic leader. Scratch the surface, and often you find an extremely powerful and dangerous individual who has a potent and toxic influence on those around them. How does a person become so charming within their chosen social circles or community that eventually they become revered, a status which gives them licence to commit all kinds of wrongdoing on the unsuspecting people around them?

Among the ‘villains’ listed in the Telegraph article, the 50 greatest villains in literature, my favourites are:

  • The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis
  • Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
  • Iago from Othello, by William Shakespeare
  • O’Brien from Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
  • Fred from The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood

My book, Borderliners, looks at the influence a charismatic leader has on her community, and how she succeeds in hoodwinking large numbers of people – with disastrous consequences.

Psychological traits of cult leaders

In his article about cult leadersJoe Navarro, a former FBI Counterintelligence Agent, says the following:

They demanded perfect loyalty from followers, they overvalued themselves and devalued those around them, they were intolerant of criticism, and above all they did not like being questioned or challenged. And yet, in spite of these less than charming traits, they had no trouble attracting those who were willing to overlook these features.

Often, those who decide to ‘follow’ such people can suffer a range of psychological ill effects, including mental breakdown, and the idea of a vulnerable person who treads a precarious borderline between reality and illusion, health and mental breakdown is central to my novel.

Charisma

Max Weber, a German sociologist and philosopher best known for best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion, defined charismatic authority as:

The external or internal rule over man made possible by the faith of the ruled in this supernatural power of the leader.

Such leaders tend to be:
These characteristics are:
1) Self-confidence and self assurance
2) Need for power and low authoritarianism
3) Expert power
4) Referent power
5) Communications and rhetorical skills
6) Assertive, dynamic, outgoing, and forceful

I’m particularly interested in the article’s statement that they often arise because of ‘cultural unrest’ which leads to a situation in which followers think of the charismatic leaders ‘as “prophets” or “saints”’ who will provide them with a route to salvation.

This would certainly be true of my very own villain, and she is hopefully not somebody I will ever come across in a dark alleyway.

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