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What The Dickens?
Of all the authors I’ve read, Charles Dickens remains well ahead of the pack.
Transformation
I think ‘Scrooge’ is the best of the Christmas stories. Every child warms to it because it’s about one man’s transformation. It’s saying that it’s never too late to change, and that’s a good feeling to have at Christmas. ~Leslie Bricusse
One of the things the works of Charles Dickens is most remembered for is how they threw a spotlight on conditions of the times. His stories were intended to point out the problems in society as well as the problems in basic human nature.
That’s a big bite to chew and he did a memorable job of digesting the grim issues of the time and transforming them into tales of hope and redemption for both the characters and society at large. With so much subject matter to work on, it’s not surprising that his stories became intricately woven tapestries of intrigue, villainy, misfortune and frequently of triumph. Most villains got their just desserts and most of his protagonists enjoyed a turn of good fortune.
To some extent, that’s gone out of fashion. People love their antiheroes, antivillains, crapsack milieus and bittersweet anticlimaxes. That’s the fundamental transformation of society the left-leaning intelligentsia would have us embrace. I can appreciate the occasional departure from the glib expectation of a happy ending but I’d rather it didn’t become the norm.
This is neither post-war Germany (either I or II) nor the downtrodden Soviet Union. Not yet, anyway. Most of us would still like to Make America Great Again and by extension, every other country in the world as well. We like the “can do” culture better than the “don’t you dare” cancel culture.
It remains to be seen whether the Rule of Law means anything anymore. We’d prefer that it did. If it does not, it will be the role of literature and popular fiction to try to bring it back squarely into the overall zeitgeist. We can dream of a day when elections aren’t able to be stolen and conniving dickbags are actually prosecuted for their malfeasance.
Christmas, in particular, is a season of hope. I certainly hope the election can be unstolen and the evildoers prosecuted accordingly. I rather dread the alternative. Dystopian fiction is a nice warning of how bad things can get for people living a relatively good life. Dystopian reality is only nice for those at the top of the hill and only for as long as they can remain there. I’ll take a season of hope over a possible century of suck all day long.
No matter how it turns out, I’m hoping to be a voice of hope with my works of fiction. If you’d like a glimpse of my writing style, my current Holiday Season Serial Romance is in full swing over at Christmas All The Time and you can read through the entirety of last year’s story as well.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. ~Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
FULL AudioBook🎧📖 by Charles Dickens
Greatest🌟AudioBooks BEST VERSION V5
This has always been one of the things I look forward to each Christmas season. There are so many wonderful adaptations of this story featuring such talented actors. As much as I generally detest musicals, I even like the musical Scrooge. Serious period pieces or farcical cartoony adaptations all bring something to the tale for audiences of all ages.
I was always put off by the ghost of Jacob Marley’s jaw dropping off his face. Dickens lived in a grim era when people were only too well aware of the indignity of wasting away in the grave. Some versions gloss over Jacob’s ghostly dishevelment and focus on the chains of his earthly selfishness. Some go into gory detail with poor Jacob and the children hiding beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Dickens hits all the notes in this short tale. From the grim offices of Scrooge and Marley to the jolly Christmas party at Fezziwig’s. From the humble joy of the Cratchit family to the servants pawning the deceased Scrooge’s belongings in that squalid little shop. From the miserable state of a man who was every bit as imprisoned in his misdeeds to the delirious relief he feels on Christmas morning. We get all the feelz in a single night of ghostly intervention.
Of all the variations of this legendary Christmas story, I have to admit that I really enjoy the twist that Blackadder’s version brings to the collection. Jolly Ebeneezer Blackadder gets an unexpected visit from the Ghost of Christmas Hagrid who accidentally shows him that “Bad Guys Have All The Fun”. Nice guy goes out the window and he becomes a genuine Blackadder in the end.
Dark Shadows
There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. ~Charles Dickens
There are ways to do it right. Charles Dickens worked out a formula that worked for him and the issues of his day. The problem is that having set the benchmark, everybody wants to have a go at it.
There are more ways to do it wrong. So very wrong.
Excellent storytelling ought to tell us something about humanity or society that we somehow knew deep down inside but needed someone to simply put a finger on for us. Wretched storytelling usually tries to do this by walloping you over the head with ham-handed symbolism or drowning you in half-assed melodrama.
I’d rather not do that but one has to start somewhere. The nice thing about writing is that when things aren’t up to snuff, you can simply hit delete and try again. Sadly, not everyone does this. Some of these ill-conceived works actually get published. I guess the value in this is that you can say, well, at least I don’t write like that. They set a low mark for the rest of us to pole vault well overtop of.
Be that as it may, being above the dungheap still puts one nowhere near the world-changing prose of Charles Dickens. He’s a guide star to try to emulate and even pursue but never quite attain.
It goes back to that inspirational slogan, “Reach high for the moon. Even if you don’t make it, at least you’ll be among the stars.”
Even with that aspiration at heart, part of addressing the problems of society effectively is to genuinely understand them. Part of what made Dickens’ characters so believable was his understanding of their motivations, their resources, their damage. All of these things comprise the heart of a believable character with realistic motivations.
I’m not there yet. Authors tend to be an isolated tribe. Between my close scrape with the van and my general disinterest in leaving the creature comforts of home, it’s somewhat difficult to engage in the kind of research that would make my works genuinely believable and moving.
That’s something to grow on. One has to take these things a step at a time. Dickens didn’t become Dickens overnight, so I’ve still got time to improve.
My holiday season is just about as holly jolly as I’d hoped now that Allan retrieved the box of Christmas specials from the DVD cabinet. Rankin & Bass are on the playlist. I hope you’ve found your holiday happiness, too.