Subverting Subversion

Writing with Passion and Sincerity

I love a certain type of Christopher Nolan film. INCEPTION is, perhaps, one of my favorite action movies ever. I am an unabashed apologist for TENET. THE PRESTIGE is an excellent Victorian-tinged thinking-thriller. And yes, I’ll say THE DARK KNIGHT is probably as peak as the “grounded” superhero film can get. It’s a gritty, street-level, crime caper that leans hard into that early 2000’s edge.

James Bond meets someone who reads more books than me.

I also blame it for the absolute deluge of “Dark and Gritty” that absolutely overwhelmed pop culture throughout my college-age years.

Now that’s what I call “edgy”.

In what can certainly be interpreted as a “before it was cool” moment, I will tell you that I was never fully on board with this particular wave of storytelling. That is not to say I didn’t have some fun with certain films and tv shows. I enjoyed much of GAME OF THRONES until the universally agreed-upon tragedy that was that show’s finale. That said, coming into my adult years, I already saw the waking world as complex, amoral, and seedy. I remembered watching the aftermath of the Bill Clinton scandal on television as a kid, probably eating cereal and watching the morning news with dad. I saw the OJ Simpson Bronco Chase live, and recall, even then, questioning the subsequent court decisions. I witnessed 9/11 on my science teacher’s big screen in 7th Grade. The following debacle of the “War on Terror” lasted most of my adult life. The Epstein Files only serve to confirm suspicions I’ve had most of my years.

I understand, all too well, that the world we exist in is “Dark and Gritty”.

What does this have to do with writing?

Good question.

I suppose, if I reflect upon it, this is the lodestone that upholds the structure of my personal writing philosophy. The foundation is certainly rooted in fictional tales of heroes and heroines, Indiana Jones, Jason and his Argonauts, James Bond, and Rooster Cogburn, among others. But placing these characters and their exploits upon a personal pedestal requires a reason beyond childhood nostalgia and “rule of cool”.

I gravitate towards these stories because they offer a beacon, a compass point in a world often devoid of clarity, one favoring ambiguity in all its many guises.

I believe it was Jason Ray Carney, editor of WHETSTONE Magazine, who once wrote in a Discord chat, “There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. Like what you like, and don’t be ashamed of it.” Or at least something to that effect. Also could have been author Ed Erdelac. Seems like something he’d say. Maybe it was both.

Whatever.

The point still stands.

Here’s a recent anecdote: I received feedback on a current project that I dismissed outright. Not that I don’t appreciate this individual taking the time and energy to do so, but the comment they made made it clear to me that they “didn’t get it.”

And that’s fine.

Not everyone has to get it. Not everything is for everyone. No hard feelings.

But the comment in question was in relation to a specific scene that I play completely straight. The commenter expected, and I quote, “subversion.”

Listen, I’m not in the game of trope-flipping, subverting expectations, or critiquing the fictional zeitgeist laid by the many authors before me. I’m not interested in that.

For better or for worse, I write with complete sincerity.

It is true that in both the list of characters above and the cast of characters that appear in HONOR AMONG ROGUES contain certain individuals who are not necessarily upright citizens. Inparticular, I’m thinking about TRUE GRITS’ Rooseter Cogburn and Frank Brogan from CURSE OF THE BONE GOD. Although one could argue that Indy in TEMPLE OF DOOM has morally gray qualities, as well. Likewise, the eponymous tale of my collection leans heavily on Ben Talon’s criminal tendencies.

Fill yer hands, you sonofabitch!

Regardless of their situations, moral failings, and lawful status, these characters have a few key qualities in common. They are decisive men of action, and they consistently rise to the occasion. When there is a need for good, for a hero, they toss aside their baggage and adapt to fit the mold required of them. Sometimes this is simply a matter of survival, as in Frank Brogan’s case. Rooster Cognburn refuses to let down his ward, perhaps the only person to see the goodness beneath his rough-hewn exterior. Ben Talon chooses to do the right thing because his conscience demands it.

But ultimately, none of the characters in the entire volume are the sort to second-guess themselves, to flounder, or waffle.

This is where I believe that fiction shines the most. When it can offer up guiding lights for readers to strive to replicate. Real life and honest history offer few, if any, real heroes worth absolute adoration. Fiction does not have to adhere, in the strictest sense, to this. It can offer readers relatable characters that fight for good, for the sake of good, for the sake of doing right, when in the real world actions are often defined by how much wealth or power might be gained from doing them.

I love writing characters like this, and I am unashamed of it.

My plots are equally sincere.

I just finished writing a Sword & Sorcery story that has all sorts of “silly on paper” elements: dinosaurs, ape men, psychic alien gods. The stuff of boyhood imagination. None of this was written to be schlocky, cheesy, or poke fun. I wrote the entire plot with absolute sincerity because these are things that I unashamedly love. I want to incite readers to wide grinning, not because of the wink and the nod, being in on the joke, so to speak, but because there is genuine passion for even seemingly ridiculous, maybe even juvenile, elements.

Peak Sincerity

That is not to say there isn’t a place for subversive fiction. Of course there is. It just isn’t what interests me most. It isn’t what I want to write. If that is what you, dear readers, wish to write, because you are passionate about it, because you can’t possibly write anything else, by all means, dive in.

In my (limited) experience, passion is the most important element of writing fiction. My projects live and die by the flames of my passion for them. It is for this reason that I write what I do without apology, completely sincere.

And maybe, just maybe, the world needs a little bit more of that.

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If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’d be into checking out my latest release HONOR AMONG ROGUES. You can find it right here!