SHADOWS AND SUBSTANCE
“They aren’t real people. Who cares? Grow up.”
There is a cultural rift that has been going on for quite some time. New battles occur weekly, it seems. Every time a television or film adaptation is made of a popular work of fiction. Often, the fans of those properties will have some outcry over the way their favorite characters or stories are being handled by the people adapting it. And on the other end of the spectrum a reactionary group will say some variation of the words above. More and more, it is accompanied by accusations of bigotry.
For the purposes of this discussion, I will focus on the former and disregard the latter.
It isn’t real.
There is a philosophical argument to be had on what makes something real. In a literal sense, fictional characters are obviously not actual people. And even the truest of stories, when recounted or reenacted takes on an element of fiction.
But flesh and blood do not necessarily encompass everything that is real.
If an idea has an effect on the lives of people and the world around us… is it not real?
The most obvious version of this is of course religion. Is God real? Neither the wisest of Priests nor the most learned of scholars and scientists can possibly answer that question without dying first and permanently. But in the short run, it doesn’t really matter if there is a God, only what your faith or lack thereof leads you towards.
God is most certainly real in that the idea inspires both the best and the worst in all of us. Without that one idea, the world would be radically different.
This is, of course, an extreme example. Comparing God to a Hobbit or the Flash might seem ridiculous to most people. I get that.
The thing is, we all need some sort of… for lack of a better phrase… emotional sustenance. The thing that keeps us going in a world that is harsh and relentless. For some people it is religion. For others it is sports. Maybe you fell in love with music. And for some of us… the loners, the outcasts and the freaks… it was works of fiction.
A moment ago, I mentioned the Flash. There’s a good chance that the name makes you think of Barry Allen, from the recent television show or the movie. When I was growing up, the Flash was a man named Wally West. Wally was our guy. He was the screw up elder brother who had to step up when your Dad passed. He was a good friend. He didn’t always get it right, but he always tried. Over the last twenty years, DC Comics did a lot of character assassination on our boy, Wally. They even made him a murderer.
This upset quite a lot of people, including myself.
But why? Wally West isn’t a real person.
What you have to understand is that to us, these aren’t just words or illustrations. They’re old friends. They were there for us in our darkest hours as children or teenagers. They provided comfort when we needed it. They even taught us things. They reminded us to never give up and to do the right thing. They never failed us.
Seeing Wally West rebranded as a murderer feels real to me, because I remember all the good times.
A few years ago, a writer named Jeremy Adams wrote a redemption arc for Wally. I was just re-reading the issue where Wally finds out that everything he -and we- thought he knew was wrong. He didn’t kill his friends. And as Wally cried at the revelation… so did I.
I got to see an old friend find his footing again. And there he is standing tall and still not giving up. Still running. Still fighting.
As silly as it may seem, it reminded me to do the same.
Maybe it’s just fiction. But it’s real to me.
