Blue Book Inspiration

Well, not quite. More like analytical essay grading inspiration. But it will do.

I've been finishing up a set of essays on quest stories that my sf&f class wrote. They had to generate a theory of a quest story based on The Hobbit and Star Wars: A New Hope. There's been some good thinking in these papers!

Some of the more common elements my students have been identifying are a journey that causes the hero to undergo some positive change, and a eucatastrophe that results in the quest's success. One young man, though, merely said that "the hero has to experience change," to which I commented, "What kind of change?" His analysis, as the others', suggests that it should be positive change, but it got me thinking. What about a quest that causes a negative change in the hero? An "anti-quest," if you will.

An anti-quest, it seems to me, would be a quest story in which the hero undergoes a gradual demise, from noble and virtuous, to ill-willed and selfish, prompted by the premature death of a mentor. The eucatastrophe is replaced by a catastrophe and tragic turn of events (which includes the loss of the goal and failure of the quest), but ultimately causes a catharsis that redeems the hero, even as he is permanently changed (or damaged) in some way. Essentially, it would be a quest story informed by the elements of tragedy rather than by the traditional elements of a fairy-story.

Add it to my "to-write" list. It's quite possible that it's a completely unoriginal idea, but I think this plot might work well with one of the fictional worlds I've already got floating around in my head and my idea notebook. One more grandiose personal project on the back burner.