NEW PARIS BOOK IN PROGRESS IN 2024: FRIENDS AND ALLIES – Blog # 16.
In my previous blog about my upcoming Paris book, I wrote about the dark side. But, in addition to dark characters, heroes have friends and allies. Or at least one ‘right hand’ person – their ‘ride or die’ – the one that is extremely loyal to the hero, the main character of the novel.
What is the role of the friend and ally? Their role is more than a companion, more than a trusted buddy, and more than a ‘yes’ person. Their role often involves the giving of wanted and un-asked-for advice – appropriate, or maybe even not so appropriate. In any case, the friend often holds the storyline together.
This doesn’t mean that the role of the friend is simple, requiring a straight-forward character. No! The friend can be quite complex, although it is absolutely critical that the friend has two essential characteristics: unfailing loyalty and extreme reliability – always there for the hero whenever trouble arises. Perhaps!
Throw into the mix the essential characteristics of strength and a mood-lightening sense of humour in tough times.
Or as Octavia E. Butler said,
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny.”
Think of:
Harry, Hermione and Ron in the J.K. Rowland’s Harry Potter series,
Horatio and Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
Athos; Porthos and Aramis in the Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers,
Lena, Tabitha, Bridget, and Carmen in the Ann Brashares series The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants,
Jamie and Shep in Christina McKenna’s The Misremembered Man, or
Jack and Snuff in Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October.
There are different types of friends and levels of friendship, of course. From different sources. And as Joe Abercrombie writes in Half the World, “Where do we find allies?” Father Yarvi smiled. “Among our enemies, where else?”
Think of:
Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and
Elaine and Cordelia in Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood.
There are social media friends, fast-forming friends, long-standing friends, long-lost friends, everyone’s friends, true friends, false friends, work friends, mutual friends, unlikely friends, casual friends, family friends, four-legged friends, childhood friends, close friends, school friends, circumstantial friends, frenemies, friends to enemies, and enemies to friends …
As Alexandre Dumas writes in The Three Musketeers where “all for one and one for all” kind of friends was the norm, in its sequel The Red Sphinx, he concludes:
“Those who are coerced by force become our enemies, those who succumb to reason become our allies.”
As for Paris, my friends, someone said:
Le meilleur ami de la créativité est Paris! – The best friend of creativity is Paris!
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Photographer: Martina Nicolls
