The Whole Point of The Harrisons
To be honest, when I created A Year with the Harrisons it didn’t have much of a point. I just thought it would be so fun to create a serial novel. As the story progressed, I grew to think of it as a little satirical—satire on modern life being literally one of the oldest genres out there. We’re talking ancient Romans old, and probably older. I remember reading a Chinese poem ages ago in which man sarcastically wished his little heir would be a great, wise, and noble man who helped people and was a philosopher—“oh, who am I kidding?” He interrupted himself. “If I really want him to be happy, I will hope he writes enough junky required poetry to get in doing paperwork at court.”
Probably paraphrased since I didn’t memorize this poem. But you get the idea. In the end The Harrisons grew to have that sort of point—corruption and a mild sort of bullying, expectations with no real moral foundation except a social group that created them, pressure to do things that don’t even matter because people interested in them have leverage, and all the folly of that sort—well, that can pop up in the most unexpected settings. And wherever it appears, it is categorically funny. No one would ever accuse the people who appear in my story of being exactly corrupt. Silly, boring, or out of touch perhaps. But corruption sounds far too near Washington. Far too . . . well, too political. With high stakes and high dollar amounts on the table. Small town families in small town churches, talk of homeschooling and college, even musicians and sports—sure some of those might be ingrown or competitive. But corrupt? Not so much.
Possibly people think this type of person is not important enough. Corruption is for someone vaguely near Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars. The people in the Harrisons aren’t important enough to be really corrupt—they’re just good ordinary people. Well, they are ordinary people perhaps. But I’m not so sure about good and I’m glad they aren’t. Good ordinary people are nice, but they aren’t very funny.
And there will be more updates.
Probably paraphrased since I didn’t memorize this poem. But you get the idea. In the end The Harrisons grew to have that sort of point—corruption and a mild sort of bullying, expectations with no real moral foundation except a social group that created them, pressure to do things that don’t even matter because people interested in them have leverage, and all the folly of that sort—well, that can pop up in the most unexpected settings. And wherever it appears, it is categorically funny. No one would ever accuse the people who appear in my story of being exactly corrupt. Silly, boring, or out of touch perhaps. But corruption sounds far too near Washington. Far too . . . well, too political. With high stakes and high dollar amounts on the table. Small town families in small town churches, talk of homeschooling and college, even musicians and sports—sure some of those might be ingrown or competitive. But corrupt? Not so much.
Possibly people think this type of person is not important enough. Corruption is for someone vaguely near Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars. The people in the Harrisons aren’t important enough to be really corrupt—they’re just good ordinary people. Well, they are ordinary people perhaps. But I’m not so sure about good and I’m glad they aren’t. Good ordinary people are nice, but they aren’t very funny.
And there will be more updates.
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