The Beauty of Damaged

In the shower, where I get most of my important thinking done (memo - must get Shower Notes) I started to muse about how beautiful damaged people can be. 

Damage itself is very ugly, and of course I wouldn't wish trauma or sadness on anyone. What some people go through, either as kids or adults, can be terrifying even to contemplate.

However, the pain can be a type of bridge, almost a gift, to lead a personality from a basic, settled view of life to a new set of visions - perhaps that life is incredibly precious. Perhaps the damaged people get, more than anyone, the realization that nothing is more important than the people you love, and from the depths of agony, courage and strength can arise. 

In fiction and in film, I've always been "caught" by certain characters, by what their hideous pasts have done to them. Sometimes the pain makes them badass, sometimes they are in therapy or worse, or trapped in a long spiral down.

Yes, the spiral is fascinating, and I don't say this as a sadist. I repeat - I would never wish trauma on anyone. But to see a character spin out of control - it's a lovely dance...

ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE OFFERED REDEMPTION.

That's the key. An endless descent becomes a VH1 "Behind the Music" special - you know what's going to happen - wealth, fame, and the onslaught of drink, drugs, insanity.

But if there is the possibility of escaping the spiral - an incredibly difficult act to accomplish, and one I do not take lightly - at that moment, I'm hooked. I love when Butch and Marcellus create their own 'honor among thieves' code of conduct. Ditto the friendship which elevates Andy Dufreyne and 'Red' Redding.

The downward / redemption concept captured me in Wool, in the Sherlock Holmes BBC series, in The Fault in Our Stars. 

Hazel Grace by spockward on deviant art

In the last one, Hazel Grace and Augustus are damaged by a dreadful thing beyond their control - the evil villain known collectively as Cancer. Bring two damaged people together and watch them find beauty and redemption - yeah, I read that book twice. And I'll read it again.

It's what sucked me into Darkness Rising, books 1,2,3 and now 4. It hooked me in The Lord of the Rings - the horrifying darkness surrounding Gollum and how (SPOILER ALERT, AND FOR GOD'S SAKE READ THE BOOKS) he is the key at the end to deliverance.

Son, that downward spiral has just begun.

I don't mean to belittle those who have had perfect lives, happy childhoods, plentiful friends, fantastic careers. If this describes you, receive my congratulations and a hearty handclasp! 

But, as I say, in fiction and in film and also in real life, those damaged people can be very beautiful. Their eyes are hooded with secret knowledge. Complex passageways are carved through their thoughts. They are careful with their own words, so they do not betray themselves.

They are human: scarred, tattooed, wounded.

They are beautiful.

A True Kind of Love Story; Or, An Ode to Friendship

There are loads of romance novels out there, and I have enjoyed quite a few of them. Georgette Heyer, for example, is a goddess to me. A well written romance, especially if it includes humor and some nice historical touches, is a delight. I'm talking a rainy day outside, a fire within, me, the couch, and a pot of tea... and a book in my hands.

Nurse Gwen must choose between Dr. Jack or a man about town!!!!!!!!

As a woman, I find romance very important. But there is a different kind of love that is also important, nay, vital to my happiness. I mean the relationship that I have with my girlfriends, the ones I chat with on the phone, the ones who are there to hear me vent, the ones who used to listen to me sob over the end of some great romance in my life.

There are some stories out there about friendships. During the seventies, the move Julia told the story of Lilliam Helmaann's friendship during the second world war. The Turning Point looked at the friendship between two ballerinas.

In the nineties there was that great love story about two friends, The Shawshank Redemption, but naturally that was about male friendship. I'd love to see a female version of that.

I wish there were more stories like this. Friendship is sometimes seen as a background. You have the sassy friend, the supportive friend, the rebellious friend, the bitchy friend, and they're usually there to help the main character through a mystery or a love affair.

But how about the development of the actual friendship itself?

Friendships sometimes grow, like romances, over time. Friends bump heads. We quarrel, and make up. We chat. We go out. We are there for each other, no matter what.

I wish, as an author, that I had the creds to detail that relationship. The story and the importance of friends, after all, is a special thing, and it is a bit neglected.

Anyone out there writing anything about pure friendship?

The End (Spoiler alert!)

After finally finishing The Lamplighter's Special, my sequel to The Night Watchman Express, I've learned one thing: Endings are hard to do. It is a very difficult, complicated thing to increase suspense and interest  in a group of characters, and arrive at a conclusion that is either happy or sad, in a way that balances the beginning and the middle of the book.

Seriously, I'm just realizing this. You'd think it would be obvious. Miss Writer starts her book, develops a plot, and therefore she must find a satisfactory way to end that book. However, I don't think I'm all alone in having this difficulty. I heard, for example, a lot of people criticize the final book of the Twilight series.  Ditto with the Harry Potter series. (For the  record, I rather like the chapter that begins, "Nineteen Years Later....") Stephen King is well-known for having a hard time with endings; his son, in Heart Shaped Box, seemed to have inherited the tendency.*

There must be some good endings  out  there, though. and by good, I mean well-done, finely executed. Here are some of my favorites:

1. The Shawshank Redemption - The scene of Red walking across the beach to see Andy Dufresne still gives me chills. The credits roll, and I like to imagine what  happened next. Did the men hang out, go to a little Mexican place and have some food and a few "Bohemia style beers?" Did Andy introduce Red to a nice woman who lived nearby? Did they settle down there at Zihuatenejo? I like to think they did.

2. Apollo 13 - That last  line of the  narration is incredible. "I sometimes catch myself looking up at the Moon, remembering the changes of fortune in our long voyage, thinking of the thousands of people who worked to bring the three of us home. I look up at the Moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?"

3. The Road - I didn't see the movie. The last paragraph of the book, however, describing the beauty of river trout, is pure horror. 

4. Frequency - This movie won't win any lifetime awards, I suppose, but my husband actually stood up and cheered (in our family room, not a theater) at the end.

5. "Reader, I married  him..." But of  course.

What endings  to movies or books (or songs, or poems, or anything) have you enjoyed? Please share them in the comment section, because I'm still working on that ending thing.

*Do go and read Heart Shaped Box, though.  It scared the bejeesus out of me.