E.B. Dawson's Blog

When I was a kid I definitely underrated Prince Caspian. The narrative and pacing feel all over the place. The main hero spotlight is divided between the Pevensies and Caspian. I have always felt impatient with the Caspian flashback. Compared to all the other books, the Pevensies don’t seem to do much (except Peter’s fighting Miraz). But don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. And there was that one scene with Lucy and Aslan in the woods that has always been my favorite in the whole series. As an adult, the whole book has been growing on me. I think it is one of the most complex books in the series (if not the most complex). Theologically, it is now one of my favorites because of the way it depicts the following four theological concepts:

1. The Already Not Yet

One of the absolute best parts of the story is watching the children live out the eschatological reality of “already not yet.” They have already been to Narnia, have already ruled as kings and queens, have already been adults in this world. Yet, they children again and have to live with that reality. It’s like they have two natures: the children from England nature, and the Narnian royalty nature which they have fully experienced, but they have to grow into again. It’s such a striking picture of our lives as Christians, living in the “already not yet” of the kingdom having come and yet not fully established, and of our being justified and working out the realities of sanctification. Lucy, who could swim as a queen, has to accept the reality that her child’s body cannot swim very well. Peter has to very intentionally step back into the formal language he used to use as king to write his letter. Susan struggles with fear and lashes out at her brothers and sister. It feels like Edmund has to relearn how to own up to his mistakes, first in not blaming Peter for his own ideas and then in supporting Lucy.

2. The Journey of Faith

Everything about this journey is so profound. Edmund and Peter use their knowledge from 1000 years ago to take a “shortcut” to get to Caspian. Suddenly they think they’ve made a huge mistake because the geography has radically changed. And that’s when Lucy sees Aslan. He knew the way they would go and was ready to meet them there and lead them to Caspian, though the way seemed impossible. Here their lack of faith causes them to turn and go down the gorge, losing time and risking their lives. Still, it is not too late, and through Lucy’s faith, the journey is redeemed. There is so much going on here. The children are doing the best they can with the knowledge that they have. Even though that knowledge is faulty, Aslan meets them there. Though it feels like they are blundering around in the woods, none of it is real blundering until they refuse to believe that Lucy saw Aslan. 

Lucy’s reunion with Aslan in the woods is one of the most beautiful and poignant in the whole series. It is the struggle of sanctification: learning obedience, learning not to dwell on past mistakes, learning you are accountable to God and not other people, learning how much he loves you even when you don’t listen the first time, learning that your journey with God is different than anyone else’s.

3. Victory Before Battle

There is a very real sense that as soon as they get to Aslan, the victory is won. Yes, Aslan sends the boys off to help Caspian and they have to face a fight with Nickabrik and his evil friends as well as a duel with Miraz. Peter himself says, “Aslan is nearby and has a plan, but in the meantime he expects us to do what we can.” But even as Aslan sends the boys off, he begins the victory celebrations. All of Narnia is awakened and come rushing to him in pure joy. They sweep in right at the moment of ultimate treachery and easily defeat the Telmarines. Yet, this does not in any way minimize the work that Edmund and Peter do. They come and show Caspian they are on his side. They help establish Caspian as king. Peter gives Caspian a positive example of how a king should rule (the only example he’s had up to that point has been his wicked uncle). Peter’s challenge to Miraz on Caspian’s behalf is a passing of the torch in a way. And in a few short hours we see Peter reinstating old traditions and returning a sense of pride to the Narnians. It’s also incredibly meaningful when you remember that this is Peter’s last time in Narnia. Edmund will get to return, Peter won’t. We know vaguely that Peter fought several wars and faced danger as a king in the Golden Age. But this is different. This is not his kingdom in the way it used to be. He is putting his life on the line for Narnia and for Caspian in a way he never has before. We know in LWW that the Pevensies forgot about England after a while. But this time Peter is very aware of his life in England, and the fact that he may never go back to it. He does it all the same because he knows it is his duty. And in the process, he looks so much like Aslan—stepping in between Caspian and his greatest enemy. Laying his life down, if necessary, for Narnia. I think that fight with Miraz would be important to Peter in the years to come. 

4. Aslan Restores

The final act in Prince Caspian feels very eschatological: Aslan and his followers rush through the land setting captives free, making the sick well, turning water into wine and beating-sticks into budding branches. And yet Narnia still has hundreds, if not thousands, of years of history ahead. It is a foreshadowing of what will come in The Last Battle and yet the world is not destroyed, only made new. It is true eucatastrophe. The book has been full of sorrow for what has been lost. It seems like Narnia could never be restored to what it was in the Golden Age. The Old Narnians have all been driven into hiding. Then, in only a couple of hours Aslan radically reverses the system of oppression and restores a state of freedom and joy. It is such a beautiful reminder of the power of God to bring life out of death, even out of the bleakest political situations. Caspian doesn’t inherit a dead or broken kingdom, but one full of life and hope. The long defeat that Narnia has been suffering is reversed in a single day. In my own life, I have found that when I live in expectation that Narnia can be restored, only then can I fully use the gifts that God has given me. Resignation contracts the soul. 

What elements about Prince Caspian do you find most intriguing or encouraging? Is there another Narnia book you’d like to hear my theological thoughts on?

The alternate title to this post was A Tale of Two Gardeners. There are several gardeners in The Lord of the Rings, but the most famous one, and rightly so, is Samwise Gamgee. I think it could be argued that Tom Bombadil is also a sort of gardener, though his garden is much larger (The Old Forest) and partly-sentient (Old Man Willow). 

I love Tom Bombadil. For me, he is one of the best parts of The Fellowship of The Ring. The Hobbits have committed to this perilous journey. Merry, Pippin, and Sam have figured out that Frodo is going to leave the Shire (possibly forever) on a dangerous quest and they have counted the cost and committed to go with him. They are four small hobbits setting out into the world against dark forces they could not possible comprehend. Their guide, Gandalf, has not shown up when he was supposed to. They have been tracked by the ghostly black riders and have been forced into the Old Forest, a place of dread, in order to escape. When they get lured into the lowlands by the river, all seems lost. Who could come to their aid in a place like this? Enter Tom Bombadil. He comes in like a miracle or one of the few divine interventions to happen in the book. Not only does he save them, but he provides them a place of shelter and emotional and spiritual safety. Tom Bombadil’s house feels like it might possibly be the safest place in all Middle Earth. Is it wasted by entering in so early on the journey? I don’t think so. The hobbits are very new to perils and adventures of this sort and they need to build up their courage and grit. I think it’s noteworthy that Tom doesn’t just save them from one peril but from two, one before they stay at his house and one after. They desperately need to know that good is on their side. Later, they will save each other from perils, and even go on to save others. But first they need to be saved a few times themselves. 

But what are we to make of Tom’s indifference to the Ring? There is something both comforting and disconcerting about it. On the one hand, it reminds the reader, as Sam puts it in Return of the King, that “this evil is only a passing shadow.” At the same time, how can Tom really be good if he cannot recognize the evil of this Ring and the very real destruction it is causing and will cause? Even if it doesn’t harm him, it is harming others. 

It’s easy to want to be Tom Bombadil—to duck your head and care for things which are your direct responsibility. Something of this can be seen in the modern resurgence of homesteading: go off grid, disconnect from the news and politics, work the land, get some chickens, take pleasure in the little things, and build a life of quiet flourishing. It actually isn’t anything new. Thousands of years ago there were two schools of thought who believed peace of mind was the ultimate good to be sought after: the Stoics and the Epicureans. Both philosophies have made a comeback in recent years, Stoicism more prominently (check the philosophy section in your local Barnes and Noble). The key tenants of Epicureanism were to disconnect from the political sphere and focus on the small pleasures of the here and now, such as gardening and friendship. Sound familiar? 

It’s not quite fair to call Tom an Epicurean because we don’t fully know what Tom is or what his role is, and because he is not mortal at all. But that is also exactly why he is probably the only one justified in being Epicurean. He is immortal. Death is nothing to him. He is married to Goldberry who is probably a maiar. He might be a maiar himself. Thus the affairs of this world don’t really apply to him. It is no surprise that this immortal gardener who lives in a perpetual state of peace of mind would not leave his home to go deal with someone else’s problem. What is surprising is that the other gardener in this story, Sam Gamgee, does exactly that. 

Sam Gamgee also comes from a place of peace and mind and harmony. Second to Bombadil’s home, the Shire is the most tranquil place in Middle Earth. Tolkien makes it very clear that hobbits are peace-loving folk. Why Frodo undertakes this journey makes a good deal of sense: his uncle is deeply involved, he’s always been curious about the outside world, multiple people tell him that this journey is meant for him (Gandalf, Elrond). But Sam is a different matter. He goes completely of his own choice. In fact, despite how it’s depicted in the movie, all the hobbits choose to go in full knowledge of the facts precisely because they judge that there are some things more important than peace of mind. Peace of mind is absolutely lovely, but sometimes struggle, suffering, and trial are worth choosing. Tolkien justifies the hobbits by including The Scouring of the Shire at the end of The Return of the King. If they had passed the problem off, if they had ducked their heads and chosen peace of mind, the war would still have come to them but they may not have been in a position to stop it and it might have been far worse.

We are not meant to relate to Tom Bombadil in the story—we are meant to relate to the hobbits. Thus, as tempting as it may be, I do not think we are meant to emulate Tom Bombadil either. 

Speaking from personal experience, it is so easy to organize you life entirely around peace of mind—avoiding people and situations that are stressful, shutting your eyes to conflict and tragedy, bemoaning the ills of reality. As I have thought deeply about these two gardeners over the last year, I have remembered that peace of mind is not my ultimate value. I also value justice, friendship, loyalty, and truth. I am so thankful for the hobbits who didn’t hide in the Shire, peace-loving folk that they were, but fought before the walls of Minas Tirith and the gates of Mordor, and walked into the very heart of the evil realm in order to preserve goodness. 

What do you want me to write on next? If you can think of a book or movie you’d like me to tackle from a philosophical perspective, leave it in the comments!

When I started grad school I really had no idea what I was getting into. Part of it has to do with the phase of life I am in (single woman in her thirties). There is this weird thing about our culture where certain life events have become shrouded in mystery. Nobody really talks about the hard parts of it, or maybe the real truth is that people don’t particularly want to hear about those hard parts. All we want are the highlights and the finished product. I have found that incredibly unhelpful. So I thought I’d put together a post of things I have learned from two years of grad school. I think it will be helpful for me to process and insightful for anyone tackling a big project in their life. Anyway, here we go. These are things that have been life-saving for me.

Keep a Rule of Life

What is a Rule of Life, you ask? It is usually defined as a set of practices and relational rhythms. I found out quickly how different grad school is from undergrad. My undergraduate experience was different than most. I did three semesters on campus, took several years off then finished online over several years. So I had a community for the first half or so but didn’t for the second half. I was both on campus and off campus. Aside from my freshman year, I worked 16- 40 hours a week through my undergrad degree. And yet, I was still young enough that it felt easy to compartmentalize my life. When school was in session, that was my main focus.

Grad school has been an entirely different experience. In between work, family, friends, church, and home, I have had to fight to carve out the time I need for the most demanding academic courses I have ever taken. I have both personal and professional expectations and responsibilities placed on me which take as long as they take, and I cannot just hand them off to someone else. And since I started grad school, my life, and the lives of those I love, has been repeatedly hit with crisis after crisis. I thought I was a good project manager from some of my work experience, being an independent author, and being the editor-in-chief of a marketing collective for five years. But managing grad school has been another level altogether.

Here’s what it comes down to, though. The overwhelming temptation for me has been to drop everything else and put school first. To go back on commitments, to set relationships aside, to ignore what my body needs, to do the bare minimum. But I realized very early on that this isn’t just a season I need to get through. This is my life, right now. And I want it to be a good one, even in the midst of stress and struggle and (sometimes) chaos. So right off the bat, I made sure to continue investing in the things and people that were important to me, even if it took time away from homework. The first year I continued volunteering at my church, which was a good decision. The second year I stepped down, which was also a good decision. I have continually made time for my roommate, my family, and a few close friends. I have sacrificed to be a team player at work, to support my boss, and be the best manager I can be. I have invested more time than ever in prayer, meditation, and time with the Lord. And I have taken good care of my body, with strict bedtimes, vitamins, and extra rest when I need it. I work incredibly hard on my homework, but I also let my best be enough. And I am so thankful because I have seen all of this payoff.

Learn to Say No

This may sound like a contradiction to everything above, but it is not. Part of my Rule of Life for grad school has also been learning to say “no.” As much as I have wanted to keep investing in relationships, to be a good employee and manager, to live my life now, I have also had to put up firm boundaries and say “no” over and over and over again. No to social invitations. No to extra hours at work. I have had to fight to protect my study time, my health, and my rest and recuperative time. This is where it has been hardest to do school long distance. It is so much easier to study when all of your friends have to study. It is so much easier when you are in a community that understands the discipline and work it takes. When people don’t see you going to classes and doing homework, they quickly forget you are in school at all. They don’t understand the cost, the discipline, and the effort. You can try to explain it to them, but unless they have been through it, they don’t quite get it. I learned very quickly that nobody is going to protect my time except for me. It is an incredibly lonely experience. Like shoveling trenches in the middle of the night while the rest of the world is sleeping. You really have to love what you’re studying (I do) and be confident about the path and journey you’re on (I am).

Invest in Your Field Now

This is a much happier one. One of the best decisions I have made is to take myself off a book-buying ban for books in my field. Right from the start I gave myself permission to buy extra books, outside of my course material, which my professors recommended, or which seemed relevant to the topics I am most interested in. At first, this felt a little reckless. But I have already seen it bear a lot of fruit, for several reasons.

First, when you enter deeply into a field of study as broad as philosophy, it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start. It’s extremely helpful to have some boundaries and guidelines of where to look for research and further study. I could have just written these books down and either a) bought them after grad school or b) borrowed them from the library. The problem with a) is that I figured out really quickly that the list would be long and buying them all at once would be intimidating. I would probably talk myself out of it. Plus, these are books that could help me along my journey RIGHT NOW. The problem with b) is that underlining and annotating is critical for me working through these texts, and also limited loan times. It’s difficult to predict exactly when I will suddenly want to reference something, or just skim through a chapter or two. When I started buying them, I quickly found that I could pick up the main gist of the book through skimming and then even start using them on papers and assignments. Having physical copies on hand which I can underline and note and pull out whenever I want has been hugely helpful.

An additional reason is that knowing which authors and books I want to buy I can start watching for deals and can snag them at lower prices (philosophy books are expensive).

Be Open to New Ways of Learning

Becoming an expert in a field is a unique journey. I have never plunged this deeply into any subject before, not even writing craft. Each field has its own unique tools and skill sets and it takes time to acquire them and even more time to use them effectively. While it can be humbling to feel like a beginner (especially at this stage of my life), I have learned that getting frustrated with myself does not help. Not only that, but we learn differently in different stages of life, depending on our brain development, life experiences, self-knowledge, amount of time we have, and mental and emotional bandwidth.

One of the best new tools I have discovered is allowing myself to preview difficult texts before diving fully into them. What this looks like is often just reading the opening chapter, and then setting the book aside for a while. I don’t fully understand why this works for me, but there is something about exposing myself to an author’s voice, style, vocabulary, and the basic topic of the book that helps me prepare for a full reading. I think a lot of it has to do with expectations. The second time around I know what to expect and it helps enormously.

Learning different kinds of reading, in general, has been vital. In my primary education, I learned to skim textbooks with large headings and lots of pictures. Learning to skim highly technical monographs, when necessary, is a whole different ball game. It has been equally important to learn how to read deeply and take notes on a text as well.

I’m also learning how and when to supplement my reading with listening, and experimenting with different symbols for annotating in book margins to supplement my underlining. Simply putting an “x” next to things I don’t agree with and a wavy line next to things that I want to chew on more makes it so much easier to navigate the text when I skim back through.

I have learned so much more than those four things during these last two years, both about myself and the world of higher academia. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek behind the curtain and maybe it gave you something to chew on.

Originally published on ebdawson.com

Isn’t ideology just for religions? No. So what is ideology and what does it have to do with your story?

In short, an ideology is any system of ideas. Every single story has an ideology, whether the author actively crafted it or not. This is more than just worldbuilding. You may have a religion in your story. Great. That’s only ONE aspect of your story’s ideology. You may have politics in your story. That is another aspect of your story’s ideology. Religion, philosophy, politics, magic, character arcs, and themes can all be aspects of ideology.

Another way to put it is that ideology is the epistemological and metaphysical rules you set for your story. Your reader can’t explore your world for themselves. You are their guide. In a sense you have to set up a truth system for them so that they can make judgments on the characters and the plot. What is real? What is true? What is moral? Are there universals and absolutes in your story or is everything relative to culture, country, or individuals? What are we supposed to believe about warfare? Are we supposed to take it at actual weight (gruesome, horrifying) or is it just a metaphorical tool that you are using to tell a different story? (Band of Brothers vs. The Chronicles of Narnia)

One of the biggest mistakes I see in indie books is contradictory ideology. But it’s also becoming much more common in traditional publishing and major films.

Whether you want to admit it or not, ideology is inextricably linked to the author. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and it definitely doesn’t mean your story has to be dogmatic. In fact, when you are actively aware of your ideological biases, and the ideology of your story you are in the best position to temper them.

Nor do all authors stay within their own ideologies. The beauty of fiction is that you can explore ideologies that are not your own. This is especially true of speculative fiction. I don’t have to believe aliens are real to write a story in which they are. BUT if aliens ARE real in my story, that will affect what my characters believe about reality/religion. (If I am writing Christian science fiction, for example, I have to decide how these aliens came into existence: did the same God who created humans create these aliens? And if so, do they have souls the way humans do and can they receive salvation the same way? Or did God create humans, but set evolution into motion on these other planets?)

Most contemporary stories just borrow from the real world. They paint reality as it is. Their characters reflect the different beliefs of our world. But when you get into speculative fiction and start changing the rules of reality, you have to be aware of the ideological consequences. (But even contemporary stories often change “the rules of reality” in order to tell their stories. More on that later)

Let’s look at our first example:

Pushing Daisies

Glossed Over Reality

Set in a world that is a lot like ours, but not fully. There is a fairytale feel to it, set up not only by the narration, but also by the over-the-top colorful visuals, and by what is left out of the story. We don’t see a lot of the stressful elements of “real life.”

Supernatural Element

Add in the supernatural element. Ned, the baker, has the ability to bring dead things to life with the touch of his finger. Whether or not resurrection is possible in our world will depend on what you believe. But in this show, it is a reality.

Perspective on Death

One of the key features of this show is its facetious take on death. First of all, there is no afterlife. This is established by Ned’s conversations with the dead people he resurrects (usually only for one minute at a time). They don’t report getting pulled out of heaven or hell. They awake with their last memory still present in their mind as if they had just fallen asleep. Their bodies are often comically deformed by their dramatic deaths, and the macabre is made comedic. Plus the banter between Ned, Chuck, and Emerson Cod and their dead clients is witty and funny.

The message is clear: you aren’t supposed to take death too seriously in this show. It is a highly stylized, hyperbolic, fairy tale, modern murder mystery show. And it is such a fun ride because the writers stay within their own boundaries.

Now, I would guess the writers of the show were materialists because of the strong undertone that dead means gone and there is no soul, a person is their body, and nothing more. However, it’s a story that can be enjoyed by people with many different worldviews. I am not a materialist. I believe in the soul’s existence after death. But I don’t have a problem going along with show’s ideology, because it works within the confines of the story. It’s not supposed to be a commentary on reality. It’s a fun exercise of the imagination: “If this world existed where nothing happened after death, and a pie maker could bring people back to life for one minute, he could work with a detective to solve murders and it would be great fun.”

One of the big lessons from Pushing Daisies is that crafting your story’s ideology is often about knowing what you have to avoid in order to make the story work. You will not hear any heated discussions about the afterlife, or souls in the show. They do have religion in the show as a monastery plays a prominent part. But serious questions of faith are avoided altogether. Though I don’t always love the way they portray the monastery or the nuns, it really isn’t the focus of the show, and it still is pretty funny.

Now let’s look at a show with a similar ideology that had more inconsistencies.

Psych

I know I may get some flack on this one because so many people love it so much. And I love it too, for the most part. But there were a couple of episodes that irked me a lot because they completely went back on their own rules.

Psych is very obviously meant to be set in the real world: Santa Barbara, California to be exact. But the premise of the show is similar to Pushing Daisies in that death is not supposed to be taken very seriously. If it were, Shawn would be a real jerk, and the tone of the show would be a lot more like CSI: dark and heavy.

There is a slight suspension of reality that allows the audience to be entertained by the murder mystery element instead of horrified and traumatized.

Even though characters often point out that Shawn’s reactions are immature and inappropriate, we still think he’s hilarious. But if he existed in real life and behaved the way he does, we wouldn’t think it was so funny.

It’s dramatized. It’s ridiculous. It’s goofy and you don’t take it too seriously.

That’s why when they tried to insert some “serious” episodes into the show, it really jarred me. After being completely irreverent about the (often gruesome) deaths of so many people, they would suddenly insert an episode where death is taken seriously because someone Shawn loves is in danger.

Now I get that part of Shawn’s character is his emotional detachment. But it felt like a rude trick on the audience. Because every serious episode almost made me feel bad for laughing at all the irreverent episodes. For me, it felt like the rules changed. The serious episodes felt like “this is real life/what if this happened to you?” while all the other episodes were supposed to be detached. You weren’t really supposed to empathize too much with the victims in the other episodes, but suddenly you were supposed to empathize in the few serious ones.

I’m probably a lot more sensitive to this than other people, but I still think it’s a fair critique.

I’m going to give one more quick example of a story with inconsistent ideology.

A Series of Unfortunate Events 

(the Netflix show)

Highly stylized. A sort of steampunk/modern setting with locations that often look like ours, but definitely aren’t. Again, death isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously. This show spent the first two seasons establishing the villain archetype for Count Olaf. He is evil to the core. He is over the top. There are no softening, human sides to him. We love to hate him.

Then in the third season, they suddenly tried to make him misunderstood. “Nobody is completely bad,” I think Klaus says at one point. What? It’s as though we’ve been viewing a movie in black and white and suddenly the writer pretends it has been in color the whole time. It hasn’t. It’s been in black and white, and to try to deny that it’s been in black and white is disrespectful to the audience, who has invested emotions in the story.

“That’s not ideology,” you say. “The writer just started with archetypes and decided to make them more complex later.” But it is also ideology. Outside of this story, I agree that you can find good in people. I put aside that ideology for the sake of the story, and embraced the story’s ideology: that this archetype character is truly evil. And when that got twisted around it left me feeling confused and betrayed.

Let’s say this loud and clear so everyone can hear:

If you want to change the rules and ideology part way through, write another story. 

(This is a huge reason why large franchises become battlegrounds. The story ideology changes. Some fans like the changes, others do not.)

Conclusion

No matter what your ideology is, your story has a unique set of rules that you want your reader to accept in order to best enjoy the story. When you break them, when you contradict yourself, it will throw the reader out and make them feel confused and betrayed.

If your story is founded on dualism (light versus dark) and archetypal characters who represent the dark and the light, don’t muddle things by making the Light characters suddenly morally suspect (*cough cough* I’m looking at you Star Wars). If that is your plan from the beginning then you aren’t really writing a story on dualism and also you need to FORESHADOW it from the beginning, so the reader is prepared.

If your story is supposed to show the evils of war and demonize a culture that derives entertainment from bloodshed, don’t glorify and romanticize combat and turn bloodshed into entertainment for your audience. (*cough cough* Hunger Games)

If the entire premise of your story is that the heroes have to face the consequences of the last movie, don’t suddenly give them a solution that will make everything better.

Honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope it has got you thinking. In magical fantasy, creating clear rules for your magic system and sticking to them is essential. To me, having a consistent ideology is just as important. The average reader may not be able to express why they didn’t like the ending or a certain plot choice, but they can often sense when something is wrong.

Updated November 2023. First published on ebdawsonwriting.com

This is a topic very close to my heart. We live in an interesting age. There is a very real sense in which globalization has put us more in touch with the world around us. But there is another sense in which we are more ideologically isolated than we have been in decades. People are getting their news and discussing their ideas predominantly online. But search engines and social media tailor the posts that you see. And in social media, it is all too easy to unfollow or block people you don’t agree with.

Way too many people have lost the ability to have a respectful conversation with someone they disagree with. Black and white thinking is dominating our society–the idea that there are only ever two sides to an issue and that if you don’t believe A you must believe B, not recognizing that there may, in fact, be a C and D. It’s a logical fallacy, a very dangerous one, which creates division. Some people even believe that just listening to an idea means you agree with it and therefore they refuse to listen to anything they don’t agree with. Even just typing those words scares me.

Ideas certainly are powerful. But you don’t have to be afraid of them. The best way to prove the strength and validity of your own ideas is by testing them against others. If you have a belief that has never been challenged then you’re little more than a yes-man. It’s okay to question yourself and to feel uncomfortable. That is how we grow and how we learn to understand others.

This is incredibly important when it comes to art. Art is based around ideas whether that idea is representationally simple or propositionally complex. All art comments on value and beauty at the very least. But stories, in particular, are full of complex propositional content, usually of an ethical nature. There is nothing wrong with reading stories full of ideas we agree with, as long as those are not the only stories we read.

Now I’m not saying you need to go out and read stories that go beyond what you can handle. For the most part, I know what gives me nightmares, what makes me irrationally angry, and what sends me into an unhealthy bog of sadness. Yes, stories can do all of that because stories are powerful. They stimulate images and thoughts in your mind, which aren’t easily erased.

However, there is a difference between being negatively impacted by a book and being just a little bit uncomfortable. I have found that the more I read stories just a little outside my comfort zone, the more I am able to understand people from all walks of life and to engage in conversation with them. On the other hand, when everything I read, and watch, and listen to is completely homogenous, I isolate myself from the world around me.

There are several accounts on social media who I continue to follow because they believe things completely different from me. Sometimes they post things that make me angry and frustrated. But in a recent conversation with some of my extended family, I suddenly realized that I had perspectives and insights that they didn’t have. Social media gives me the opportunity to interact with people I might not interact with in real life. If I block out everybody who doesn’t fit my cookie-cutter parameters, then I am depriving myself of healthy growth and accountability. 

The same applies to books, to a degree. The last few years I have branched out in my reading. Before that, I had pretty much given up on modern fiction and only occasionally read classics or non-fiction. Now I read a variety of indie authors, small press, and once in a while even trad press (fantasy, science fiction, contemporary). I used to never pick up a book until I was completely sure I would love it, cause I hated being disappointed. Now I take risks on new books all the time.

And I think it has actually been good for me. Not only has it taught me A TON as an author about writing craft and my own style, but the content of these books have made me think. Some had content and ideas I disagreed with. Some made me uncomfortable. Some have helped me more clearly define boundaries in my mind of what I read and what I write. Some have pushed those boundaries back. All together they have challenged me emotionally and intellectually and made me a stronger, wiser, more compassionate individual.

As the year is coming to a close, I would encourage you to take a look at next year and take steps to widen your circles and your reading material. Don’t let yourself live in a homogeneous bubble. Keep challenging yourself to be open-minded. Be humble enough to admit that maybe your perspective is limited and there might be value in listening to another perspective. The more you are able to genuinely listen to other perspectives, with intent to understand, the more you will be able to present those perspectives in your books.

New to my work and not sure where to start? Or just itching for a rerun through all my books and what makes them unique? I’ve got you covered.

Sing to Me of Rain

My Summary: An Asian-inspired middle-grade fantasy for all ages. If you’re looking for a rich, transportive fantasy with vivid settings, complex characters, and wholesome themes which touch on difficult issues with a light hand, this book is for you.

Themes: wonder, friendship, common grace, forgiveness, redemption

Content: Mild (Family friendly)

Tropes: talking animals, naiads, weather magic, journey quest

Influences: Studio Ghibli, George MacDonald, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander, Peter Pan

How Readers Describe It:

“Sweet. Heartfelt. Bursting with wisdom…there’s really no way to describe the strength of sorrow and hope in this story.” –Goodreads Reviewer

“The setting was so rich and vibrant! I loved seeing the beautiful world that Dawson created, and the interesting creatures that inhabit it. It’s such a beautiful blend of bright and soft, as if the world were painted in jewel tones and then the edges were softened by hazy light.” –Amazon Reviewer

“The depth and truths and level of everything in this book were fascinating and one of the things I think older readers will like too. It asks hard questions and doesn’t talk down at all, which is something I dislike about some middle grade books these days—it’s just a book that happens to be about young characters…it feels deep and made me think and showed me things…but it’s also very fun and I just enjoyed it. It makes me so happy!” –Amazon Reviewer

“Sing to Me of Rain is one of the most beautiful books I have read. It is full of creativity, relatable questions, gentle wisdom, and hope with real substance.” –Amazon Reviewer

Buy it Now!Watson and Holmes

My Summary: The cyber/space opera I’ve always wanted but no one has ever given me. It’s Sherlock Holmes in a city full of aliens and with two female leads. I rarely see women portrayed with the nuanced complexity I want and never as a lead pair of friends. This story was such a treat to write. Full of witty banter balanced with real emotional payouts, clever plot twists, and vibrant alien cultures. This is a popcorn story with real heart behind it.

Themes: friendships, justice, healing,

Content: About the same as your average Marvel movie (No graphic content)

Tropes: aliens/alien cultures, bio-engineering, female friendship, cozy mystery

Influences: Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock, The Great Mouse Detective, The scenes of “underground Coruscant” from Attack of the Clones, My own experiences living with a dear friend.

How Readers Describe It:

“Better than Netflix.” –Amazon Reviewer

“The world-building, always a highlight of Dawson’s books, is superb yet again…I felt immersed in the extraterrestrial world of the story and could clearly visualize the various alien creatures that populated it. The mystery element, always a tricky part when writing a Holmes adaptation, is handled beautifully. The big reveal at the end came as a genuine surprise to me, and yet enough clues to it had been seeded throughout the earlier portions of the book for it to make sense…My favorite element, however, was the brilliant and hilarious dialogue…in short, this is my favorite book from E.B. Dawson yet, and one of the best Sherlock Holmes adaptations I’ve had the pleasure to read.” –Kyle Robert Shultz

“I love this story. There is so much complexity and beauty. The visual descriptions are gorgeous, and the twists and turns are just awesome.” –Amazon Reviewer

“Dawson writes a clever story with good pace and suspense that leaves us guessing. I found both Watson and Holmes to be tremendous creations and I so hope we see another story involving them.” –Amazon Reviewer

Buy it Now!Ahab

My Summary: My guilty pleasure book. Basically I reimagined Moby Dick in a scifi setting with all the Treasure Planet vibes. Lots of liberties were taken because I wasn’t trying to rewrite Herman Melville’s classic, but comment on it in a unique way. The two biggest changes are perhaps the establishment of a deep, equal friendship between Ahab and Starbuck, and instead of being a living creature, Moby Dick is a machine verging on artificial intelligence. I believe both these changes actually help the reader establish the proper sympathies with the story which Melville intended. At the core, this is a story about a man, in the midst of circumstances outside of his control, trying to take control in the only way he knows how. That is what makes him a tragic hero. But it is not a pointless tragedy. There is beauty and warmth and friendship and also hope all along the journey. I believe it is a journey worth taking.

Themes: friendship, human agency, man vs machine, man vs himself

Content: About the same as Star Wars (No graphic content)

Tropes: male friendship, Byronic hero, space travel, A.I., PTSD, spaceships

Influences: Moby Dick, Treasure Planet, Master and Commander

How Readers Describe It:

“This book is a gem…full of rich and beautiful language, old sensibilities, and complex world-building.”  -Amazon Reviewer

“It’s a deeply human and moving book full of heart-pumping action and quiet, intimate, everyday happenings…it knit me ever more tightly with the characters until I cried at the end.” -Amazon Reviewer

“The seamless combination of paranormal talk and the hard realities of this science fiction world is endlessly impressive.” –Goodreads Reviewer

Buy it Now!The Lost Empire Trilogy

My Summary: My own twist on a portal fantasy, an urban dystopia turns into a vibrant crossworlds fantasy when Anissa discovers that the world she can travel to in her dreams is real and her government has been exploiting it. This series is a complex exploration of globalization and the clashing of ideologies, all set within a rich fantasy environment.

Themes: justice, identity, international responsibility, adoption

Content: About the same as your average Marvel movie (No graphic content)

Tropes: travel between worlds, supernatural science, chosen one, found family, adoption, government secrets, romantic subplot,

Influences: Avatar, Divergent, Tin Man, The Giver Quartet, Lady in the Water

How Readers Describe It:

“Character-driven futuristic political-thriller with elements of sci-fi and fantasy=something for everyone!” –Amazon Reviewer

“If you love fantasy or feel a passion to right the wrongs in the world, if you have wanderlust or love beautiful nature, if you enjoy books with unique and genuine characters or want themes you can chew on, you need to read [this series] right now.” –Amazon Reviewer

“The more I read of her books, the more I realize that E.B. Dawson is a master of deep characters, intricate plots, vivid world-building and honestly, words themselves.” –Amazon Reviewer

“There are moments of intense action, beautifully complex character study, and hints of poetry through the work. Once again, E.B. Dawson shines as she teases out complex politics, and the spirit of travel and adventure.” –Amazon Reviewer

Buy it Now!The Creation of Jack Series

My Summary: A unique, character-driven scifi series that starts on earth in the not-too-distant future. I wanted to write a story about a girl who had every reason to be a victim but refused to be victimized. Really, this series is my thesis on healing from complex trauma and finding meaning and agency in a world where other people want to control you. It’s an empowering journey full of heart-stopping action, a large cast of lovable characters, and an ending that will make you feel more whole. Plus, it’s packed full of pretty much all of my favorite scifi tropes.

Themes: personal agency, found family, healing from brokenness, forgiveness, redemption

Content: About the same as your average Marvel movie (No graphic content)

Tropes: AI, bioengineering, time travel, robots, alternate realities, space stations, colonization, super soldiers

Influences: Ender’s Game, Stargate SG-1, Serenity/Firefly, The Bourne Identity, Star Trek Voyager

How Readers Describe It:

“This book is a treasure and a gift. I recommend it to all fans of dystopia and science fiction, especially if you feel like you’ve lost more than you were willing to give or like the world asks you to give too much of yourself.” –Amazon Reviewer

“Jack has become a fixture in my life, as I know she has for many readers. Strong. Kind. Steady. Willing to face down great evil. Each book has progressively broken my heart more and more. If you are a regular reader of the COJ series, just the title alone is enough to break your heart.” –Amazon Reviewer

“I particularly loved the theme of th[e] final volume: that we must move forward no matter how unfair life is and regardless of how we feel. If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s not hard to see that life often presents us with days that we do not want to face, challenges that we do not feel like overcoming, and obstacles that we would rather avoid. Yet, “if we waited for the ideal circumstances to live our lies, we’d never live them at all.” If there’s one thing that Jack has taught me, it’s to keep moving forward…the outcome doesn’t always have to be perfect, and you don’t always have to feel up to the challenge, but you can manage when you stand with the ones you love and work as a team to take life “one day at a time until the end.” –Amazon Reviewer

“The first word that came to mind while reading Out of Darkness was: powerful. Powerful, honest, raw, and gritty.” –Amazon Reviewer

Buy it Now!

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been teasing this series for a while and (despite my feelings of inadequacy) I believe the time has come to take some steps forward. Why? Because the market is flooded with stories that don’t mean anything, or worse, have destructive messages carelessly hemmed into them for the sake of action and plot twists. Let me be clear: every story communicates something. The author who says, “My story has no messages or themes and was written purely for entertainment,” is deceiving themselves. Their story may well have been written purely for entertainment, but it will also communicate multiple messages to the reader, even if those messages are as subtle as: sometimes well-intentioned people make mistakes, friendship can help you get through hard times, or it doesn’t matter if you break your promises as long as you are good looking. 

An author has the right to put whatever messages they want into their story. But they ought to know what they are saying. Anything less is as irresponsible as repeating random words in a foreign country without looking up what they mean.

There is a degree of personal interpretation in all art. But the power of art lies in its relation to reality. And the artist needs to understand their subject matter as it exists in reality before they can turn it into art. Color theory, form, and perspective are all essential building blocks for the visual arts. 

Ideas are the building blocks of stories, and authors who do not understand the language of ideas will assemble their stories based on how it makes them feel at that point in their lives. 

Or they will try to copy their favorite stories (whether or not they understand what makes them work). The results of both will be unpredictable. Some authors have better instincts than others. But here’s the clincher: it doesn’t have to be a constant guessing game. There’s a whole field of the study of ideas and it’s called PHILOSOPHY. Even just a perusal of some of the basics will strengthen your writing by leaps and bounds. 

But let’s back up a second because I know there are some people who are not yet convinced that ideas are the building blocks of stories. Plot, characters, rising action, climax, falling action. These are the technical elements of stories. But behind each one of them are IDEAS. Ideas about what shapes and drives human beings. Ideas about the nature of the world around us. Ideas about choices and their consequences. 

Let’s look at the major branches of philosophy and how they drive the stories you love.

Axiology- What is Valuable? (Includes Ethics and Aesthetics)

I’m starting with this one because I believe it is the most self-evident. I haven’t done the research, but I think if you did, you’d be hard-pressed to find any story without a moral dilemma or value statement of some kind in it. Conflict is the major motor of most stories, and conflict always involves questions of morality. Even stories driven by wonder and discovery contain assertions about what is good. Character arcs are rooted in ethics. For a character to grow or change in any way for the better or for the worse, there has to be some value standard. 

There are so many interesting examples to draw on, but I’m going to bring up The Odyssey. What is fascinating about this book is that it depicts the axiology of humans thousands of years ago. That’s why it makes people so uncomfortable. You don’t have to agree with its ethics or aesthetics to find the story fascinating (in fact, you probably shouldn’t). For the purpose of this blog I’m going to skip right over all the questionable morals (you know what they are), and talk about two of its more interesting elements. The first is hospitality. In an undergrad English class I wrote a whole paper on how the concept of hospitality as sacred was vital to Greek culture on a practical level (trade and travel), and the importance that their literature reinforced this. The second element is their seeming equivocation of idleness with ultimate happiness. The upper class is depicted as doing little other than throwing feasts and sleeping and this is meant to represent the human ideal. I don’t know about you, but that actually sounds rather boring to me. I do think it’s significant when contrasted with the ten-year war they all just finished fighting. But it does raise lots of questions about what a good life actually looks like and where we as humans find our identity and purpose. 

Issues I’ve Seen: 

Way too many modern storytellers dismiss moral and emotional consequences of plot-central and character-central decisions. At worst, this can create a damaging impression that we aren’t really accountable for our actions. At best it ALWAYS removes the story a degree away from reality and a degree closer to fantasy (see metaphysics). 

Metaphysics- What is Real?

Metaphysics ties into every story, most frequently in questions about the nature of humanity, the existence of God, and the presence of an afterlife. The metaphysics of your story will affect its ethics and aesthetics. If you have created a whole world for your story, then you know the answers to all of these questions (but that doesn’t mean your characters do). If your story is based in the real world then you do not know all of the answers to these questions. Whatever you believe and whatever evidence you have to back up those beliefs, there is still so much we really don’t know about the nature of this world we live in and the nature of our own existence. 

For example, if you believe in the human soul, how does that soul relate to the physical human body? Is it attached to it as a whole, or contained in a specific part of the brain (the pineal gland), as Rene Descartes believed? What happens when a person donates blood, or a kidney? Do they lose a part of themselves? What happens when a person falls into a coma? Is their soul still contained in their body? What about brain transplants? 

While these questions may never come up in your story, the point is that you do not have concrete answers for these questions. None of us do. But the answers to these questions would change the morality of certain choices within your story. When authors write from their own limited experience and worldview without leaving room for different experiences and opinions they shrink the complexity of our world down into a sort of imitation reality which will ring false for most readers. 

If you are writing speculative fiction, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that you can remove metaphysical elements which you don’t want to implement into your story. Maybe you don’t want there to be an afterlife so the entire weight of consequences for characters’ actions lies in the material world. Okay, great. The bad news is you still need to build a lot of things from scratch and add in layers of complexity to make this world feel real. And you need to know how the metaphysics in your world affects the ethics of your characters. 

Issues I’ve Seen: 

There are a lot of stories out there that so blatantly ignore human psychology and/or the laws of causality that they would have been far more effective if set in a different universe.

Epistemology- What Can We Know?

At first glance this branch may not seem to affect your story much at all. Epistemology is all about knowledge, truth, and justification. It sounds like pretty heady stuff (and it sure can be), but there are also a lot of extremely applicable aspects of epistemology for storytelling. For one thing, everyone has a personal epistemology about what they can be justified in knowing, whether they can articulate it or not. Your personal epistemology will shape your book, so it’s good to be aware of it. But more than that, you need to understand the basics of epistemology in order to create a diverse cast of characters who will surely have different epistemologies. Perhaps one is a scientist who firmly believes only things we can be justified in knowing are observable phenomenon. Wouldn’t it be interesting to pair that person up with a psychic who can’t explain why he’s right all the time, but has full faith in his psychic intuition? The study of epistemology gives you a better glimpse into human nature and how humans think. If you’re a spec fic author, it can also launch some brilliant story ideas (The Matrix, anyone?). So many concepts we take for granted come from epistemology such as empiricism, the scientific method, coherentism, induction, argument from analogy, probability, inference, and skepticism. 

Why is this important to story? Believe it or not, a lot of these concepts are tools you will use in your story to get your reader to connect and engage with the plot. Your story is trying to convince your reader of something, if only that certain characters would behave in certain ways. In that sense, your story needs to compile a body of evidence, much like an inductive argument and remain internally coherent. Foreshadowing, for example, is a form of inductive prediction. 

Issues I’ve Seen: 

One of the biggest mistakes I see in modern fiction is a lack of epistemological coherency in stories. Every story has a set of truth claims it is making. If those truth claims contradict or undermine each other, your story will lack coherency. This will often break the suspension of disbelief which is needed for all stories to succeed, and lessen the emotional impact on the reader. 

Logic- What is Reason?

If you do nothing else…if you ignore the rest of this blog…please, please do yourself a favor and do something to strengthen your reasoning skills. Not only will this HUGELY impact your writing and ability to dissect other stories, but it will benefit you in all other aspects of your life. (But as we are focused on the subject of stories I will not break into a tangent rant although I am sorely tempted.) 

Logic is all about combining premises to lead to a conclusion. Yes, this is extremely relevant to storytelling, not least because most stories have at least one educated character who would probably have been exposed to some sort of study of logic and reasoning. In truth, just as we said your story needs to have epistemological coherence, it also needs to have a consistent internal logic. 

Some of this is pretty foundational stuff: jumping to conclusions and assumptions are faulty reasoning. If you use them in your plot you will lose credibility with your reader, not to mention, pull them out of the story. 

If the entire conflict of your story is based on a logical fallacy, and you never acknowledge within the story that it is a logical fallacy, it looks like you have no idea what you’re doing. Especially if none of the characters ever challenge it, even when several of them are well-educated scientists. (I’m looking at you Captain America: Civil War)

I wish I had the time to go into logical fallacies in this post because they are fascinating. But I am going to list a few particularly relevant ones here:

False dilemma– two alternative statements are given as the only possible options, when in reality there are more.

Slippery slope– some small action will lead to a chain of events resulting in something negative, therefore it shouldn’t be permitted. 

Cherry picking– only presenting the evidence that supports your case, when other evidence contradicts it.

Poisoning the well- presenting adverse information about a person in order to discredit their argument, without actually addressing the argument itself.

Gah. Aren’t these fun? I wish I could keep going. They are so great for driving story conflict, character dilemmas, and villain speeches. They are not so great when the author slips them into the story as if they are legitimate arguments. 

Are you beginning to see how all of these branches of philosophy tie together to strengthen your story? I mentioned The Matrix without much explanation, but let’s take a look at it now. 

In the movie the The Matrix, the main character Neo discovers that the life he thinks he has been living is all a giant simulation created by machines who have enslaved humanity. It raises metaphysical questions: is what we perceive around us actually reality or just sets of impulses in our brain? Once Neo is aware of the truth he learns that he can manipulate the matrix code to bend the laws of physics as we know them. It raises epistemological questions: if we gather knowledge through our five senses, and our senses are capable of being deceived, then are we even capable of finding truth on our own? The only reason Neo learns the truth about reality is because someone outside of the matrix tells him. And both of these questions lead to questions of morality. If the world as you know it is a simulation and all of humanity is enslaved by evil robots then suddenly things like trespassing and stopping at red lights don’t seem so important anymore. The metaphysics affects the epistemology which affects the morality of the characters. 

So there you have it. An introduction to how philosophy forms the backbone of good storytelling. 

This series is going to consist of a couple different things:

A breakdown of specific philosophical concepts and the role they play in storiesA breakdown of specific stories and how they embody certain philosophical questions and concepts

I’m really excited about it and I hope you are too because I’d love for you to get involved. Do you have any specific questions or topics you’d like me to focus a blog post on? Leave a comment below!

The power of art lies in its relation to reality. And the artist needs to understand their subject matter as it exists in reality before they can turn it into art. Ideas are the building blocks of stories, and authors who do not understand the language of ideas will assemble their stories based on how it makes them feel at that point in their lives.

The post Philosophy of Story: An Introduction appeared first on ebdawsonwriting.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions over the past (almost) five years of my author career. But lately one seems to be popping up more and more. “How many books have you written?” And when I answer “Ten,” the response is almost always the same: “Wow.” Compared to other authors, ten books hardly makes me a prolific author. Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Lloyd Alexander, and Neil Gaiman have all written well over 20 books. As have independent authors […]

The post Where to Start: A Guide to My Books appeared first on ebdawsonwriting.

A most unusual bear with no memories escapes from a forest where time has no meaning, and discovers a lonely little boy. The friendship that follows is the stuff of storybooks…but when the boy grows up and the bear’s dark origins are revealed, how will the story end? Yes, I said it. Kyle Robert Shultz is brilliant. Even when his stories don’t match my particular taste, I sit in awe of him. He is one of my favorite authors and one of […]

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