StanleyWheeler

In preparation for a future viewing of The Forbidden Planet, I decided to re-read Shakespeare's play upon which the film was loosely based.

"Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground..."

"Good wombs have born bad sons."

The two quotes above come from The Tempest; they illustrate a part of my view of the play. They also underscore one of the problems with magic in literature.

The Tempest, according to Wikipedia and others, was the bard's final play that he wrote on his own. The play relies heavily on magic and fantastical elements. Prospero has been exiled to a small island by his brother Antonio who has usurped his station as Duke of Milan. During his twelve years on the island, Prospero has mastered the art of sorcery which allows him to control Ariel and other spirits. By magical means he conjures a storm which casts his brother; Alonso, the King of Naples; and Alonso's son Ferdinand, along with some others upon the island. Through his sorcery, Prospero separates the group so that Prospero and his daughter Miranda can find Ferdinand. Romance between Miranda and Ferdinand blooms rapidly and without any interesting hindrance.

Meanwhile the rest of the castaways are gathered. Caliban, a wicked and savage monster whom Prospero has mastered, plots with some of the castaways to kill Prospero; he desires Miranda for himself to populate the island with his offspring. There is also plotting among some of them to slay Alonso the king. Ariel tells Prospero of these plans. Prospero puts Miranda and Ferdinand through a sort of betrothal ceremony which emphasizes the requirement for chastity before the marriage lest it be cursed: "Look thou be true: do not give dalliance too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw to the fire i' the blood."

Prospero has Ariel thwart the plots against him and Alonso. Alonso consents to the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda. The plotters run away. The ship has not been wrecked and the castaways may leave the island. The play closes with Prospero putting away magic, promising to throw his sorcerer's books into the sea.

After reading the digital version of the play, I had to check it against my paper copy in my large volume of Shakespeare's works. I couldn't believe that there wasn't more to the story--there wasn't. This may have been the bard's swansong, his final bow with Prospero representing him as he retired from the stage (that idea make more sense to me than the ridiculous theories that the play is meant as a commentary on European colonialism), but the play is not his best work.

The fatal flaw in The Tempest is the lack of conflict that cannot be solved with magic. The magic does everything; it brings the boat and passengers ashore and conveniently separates them for Prospero's purposes; it even informs Prospero of the conspiracies and ruins those plans. Prospero has merely to look on and direct Ariel to do his bidding. The romance between Miranda and Ferdinand could have been beyond the control of the sorcery but it proceeded without obstacle. Shakespeare pitched himself a big fat fast ball. He could have concocted a thrilling tale of a near triple play or a breathless run and slide for home plate by means of some romantic complications, which he wrote so well in so many other works, but instead simply had the batter hit a home run with the bases loaded and never allowed the other team to score. The magic in this play destroyed the magic of the mystery and conflict which should have been present in the story.

"There be some sports are painful, and their labour delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone and most poor matters point to rich ends."

Regardless of how rich the end was in this play, what might have been a treasure of delight for me was as that thousand furlongs of sea. I would have traded it for some small grounds, some conflict, some excitement. Although it did spring from a good womb, it was a bad son. Such is the weakness of magic in literature--whether that literature be as venerated as Shakespeare or something more contemporary. I've seen a video in which Brandon Sanderson says something like, "The weaknesses in the magic system are more interesting that its strengths." (I think this is the video). If I understand him correctly, the problems that the magic cannot solve are what makes a story interesting; how characters get around those weaknesses to solve the problems and overcome the opposition deliver the delight we seek; the rest is mere setting and build up.

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Now that I've presumed to criticize Shakespeare and to explain what Brandon Sanderson means in one of his own lectures (color me unabashed), I can say that I had a nice week in writing. Power to Hurt has passed the 65K word mark. The more I write, the more I realize that my 80K word target is probably a good ten thousand words short of what it will actually take to get the story to end that I have planned for the book. It will be a little longer than Threading the Rude Eye, the first book in the series, but it will also be more exciting in my opinion. If it takes me an additional ten or twenty thousand words to make that happen, I accept the challenge and savor the taste to the very end. Indeed, I might say as Prospero, "Now does my project gather to a head; my charms crack not; my spirits obey; and time goes upright with his carriage." Seriously, some of these scenes have been in my head since the start; it's a pleasure to finally write them.

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Here are a few left over quotes from The Tempest:

"And all the more it seeks to hide itself, the bigger bulk it shows."

"He that dies pays all debts."

"...the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance..."

"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!"

"Let us not burthen our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone."