June 03, 2004

where characters go

As I am reading Stephen King just now and considering the way he's woven all (or most) his books together into a single universe, I've been thinking about a certain kind of after-life. Because characters live on, even when the author is done with them. Some characters are so powerful that they are passed from author to author over years and generations, like a sacred trust. Think of the way Jane Austen's characters have been revived, in the last years, by authors who couldn't let them go. And of course film makers come along and retell those stories again and again, because the characters have taken on a life of their own.

I've read essays and interviews with Stephen King where he mentions that of all his books, people cling most stubbornly to the characters from The Stand. He's had people say to him, say, how are Fran and Stu doing? Maybe that's part of why he is using this Dark Tower series to weave all (or most) of the books together, because the characters won't let him alone any more than they let his readers alone. In The Wolves of Calla, one of the main characters is Father Callahan, from Salem's Lot. Now, Salem's Lot isn't one of my favorites of King's books, but I can see why he was a good character to show up in this novel. My guess is that Callahan just announced himself to King as one of the cast, and off they went together.

I have characters who poke at me after I think I'm done with them, and whether or not I go back and listen/tell more of their story has to do with how persistent they are. I'm sure my readers would have very specific ideas about which characters they'd like to see more of (I know they have these ideas, because they write to me all the time on this topic), but the ones they are asking for most usually aren't the ones who hang around in my subconscious. Is this a mild form of schizophrenia, do you think?

My husband did the mathematics behind the three dimensional modeling of the human brain and was part of the research group that first quantified the difference between schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic brains, so he would be the logical person to ask. But somehow I don't think I will ask that particular question; just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Or to me either.

June 3, 2004 06:53 AM

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Comments

Hi Sara,

Several years ago I quit reading King novels. It was beginning to feel like the same old story over and over again, just with different character names. However, the new books you are describing sound interesting. I'll have to stop by the bookstore on my way home.......

Tracey

Posted by: Tracey at June 3, 2004 11:16 AM

One of the hardest things I find when writing (or attempting to write) is that the characters who are particularly vivid and alive in my head don't seem to transpose onto paper with quite the same clarity. But because they're nagging at the back of brain, I keep trying...and it's kinda comforting to know that characters nag at other people because they certainly do at me, both as a reader and a writer. :o)

Posted by: Meredith at June 3, 2004 04:26 PM