“I shall not
altogether die”, Horace 65-8 BC
In writing about death (yet again), I am aware that many may
be a tad concerned at my fascination with the ultimate end game! (But there
again, I am a thriller writer…) And as someone once said the two things you can
depend on in this life are death and taxes!
In fiction writing, life extension or immortality has been a
popular topic. It would seem that it is the ultimate goal of many a villain,
one way or another. But immortality is one more step into the realms of
fantasy. I guess it’s because none of us actually knows what lies waiting for
us at the end and for lots of people it is still a fairly scary (if not taboo)
subject. The origins of striving for immortality go right back in the annals of
story epics – in fact in the Epic of Gilgamesh which dates back to 22 BC, there was a quest to become immortal.
Many religions have, as their foundation, a belief in the
existence of an ‘Afterlife’ and it is a popular subject in supernatural
fiction. Wraiths, Spirits, Ghosts, Vampires and Zombies all use the plot device
of actually dying at a particular point and then returning to some kind of
life.
The other interesting point with all these supernatural
characters is that they all have a (according to their genre’s) a weakness.
Otherwise they would have taken over the entire universe by now! So to make
decent adversaries for our stories they must have an Achilles heel.
In the case of vampires, for example, they may be killed by
sunlight, burning or decapitation. Their bodies have an absence of heart rate,
breathing etc but somehow they continue living (although needing to imbibe
blood to do this). This requires the reader to suspend belief to step into this
vampiric world.
Wraiths and Spirits can pass between this world and the next
but there weakness is that they grow weary and long for everlasting peace.
The Undead (Zombies) are similar to Vampires, in that they
appear to be alive but are not. They have no soul so cannot experience emotions
of any kind. Stakes through the heart seem to be the way to do for many of
these – or basic dropping off of body parts!
All of these creations make for fascinating fiction and
whilst the whole genre is make-believe there are certain rules that all genre
writers tend not to break. It is almost as if these beings were real ‘people’
in the first place!!
So , are you a fan of this kind of fiction? Do you expect
the characters to conform to rules about immortality?
I don't like rules when it comes to things like immortality! I do like this kind of fiction - not as much as I used to when I was younger I must admit x
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of that type of fiction, but immortality makes me think of Apollo, who gave it to (I'll probably spell this wrong) the Cumaen Sibyl without the gift of eternal youth. Eventually, she became a pile of dust that could talk.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I think that paranormal writers should twist and bend the rules when playing with any of the old myths and legends. That's what keeps them fresh!
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a reader of this kind of fiction. I've always been interested in vampires, but never enough to read about them. As for rules, they can always be broken no matter what the subject matter is about.
ReplyDelete