I Wanted a Roc’s Egg

My wife and I were discussing how to make characters appealing to readers, especially to science fiction readers. My theory is that science fiction readers are a special breed who are seeking something invisible to mainstream readers, something not found close to home, not found within the Fields We Know, perhaps not found on Earth at all.

So an appealing character, according this particular method of approach (there are many other methods) is to give the hero that same homesickness for the unknown realms and higher stars which many a science fiction reader knows so well.

I notice that there are many characters with this particular trait: Frodo Baggins wishes his comfortable life were interrupted with adventure, and this mood comes upon him strongly in autumnal months. Luke Skywalker mocks his planet as being the world farthest from any bright center of the universe there might be. Harry Potter suffers with Oliver Tristian levels of abuse before discovering he is  a wizard, and that the world of muggles is not his home. Belle from the Disney musical BEAUTY AND THE BEAST yearns for so much more than “they have planned”, and Jasmine from ALADDIN has the same yearning. Kip from HAVE SPACE SUIT WILL TRAVEL opens his story with the arresting and simple line: he wants to go to the moon.

One of the best expressions of this homesickness for somewhither comes from the pen of Robert Heinlein, put in the mouth of Oscar Gordon, the hero of GLORY ROAD, and Heinlein’s homage to the swashbuckler genre. (And my thanks to Mary for reminding me of this quote http://accordingtohoyt.com/2014/09/03...)

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.