Gene Kim: 'Dear Michi Trota: Hero with a Thousand Faces"

Hero with a Thousand Faces

By Gene Kim

Dear Michi Trota:

Ms. Townsend provides a substantial amount of stories for the geeks in Speculative Fiction Studies. Of all the stories I most thoroughly enjoyed The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle.  Was it because of Schmendrick’s slap stick humor?  Was it because the villain, King Haggard, manic behavior to collect unicorns?  Or was it because Peter Beagle masterfully balances humor and serious themes?  I enjoyed this story for its amazing balance of humor and literary elements.  Peter Beagle uses his humor to make the reader reflect.  However after the punch line, the reader feels more sympathetic toward the characters. 

Schmendrick is an immortal wizard searching for a way to improve his magic.  Schmendrick’s teacher describes his student, “My son, your ineptitude so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power” (Beagle 150).  This line alone, connects to every student who feels incompetent, but believes they can be successful.  The Last Unicorn also causes me to reflect on the character’s weaknesses.  However, it does end happier.  Schmendrick achieves his goal of becoming a more magical wizard, and he finds happiness with Molly, and “he laid his arms softly around Molly’s shoulders” (Beagle 291).  Even with more magic, he finds a new happiness with the people and events around him.   

Although not all genre stories are as entertaining or reflective.  I believe this shows in some of the most famous stories that apply for Hugo and Nebula awards as well.  I remember reading your post on Hugo award nominations.  At least in class, I attribute the similarities in stories to some of the Gernsback ghetto.  During class we analyzed how fantasy stories follow the monomyth, and the sad part is that bothers me.  It seems like every character is the same when they copy the monomyth.  There is no development, and so writers have not truly escaped the Gernsback ghetto.  As a result, I feel no need to reflect.  I can connect more when human protagonists are given an opportunity to succeed and repair their failures.  

I want more books like Super Toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss, since it focuses on human folly rather than robot failure.  The short story highlights the relationship between a mother and her cyborg son.  The argument is that the story is about the mother’s failure as a human to love her adopted child.  She does not know why she cannot connect with her son.  The story “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,” she gets an answer from her son’s robotic teddy bear.  She asks “Why can’t we communicate?”

“David’s upstairs.”

In this case, there was no solution.  This story shows a human inadequacy rather than a machine error.  When stories choose to have the protagonist fail, it makes me realize human folly, and it warns me to change.  Not every ending is pleasant, and it serves as a reminder in speculative fiction.  Although successful heroes are interesting too.  I feel the monomyth acts as a crutch for some stories, and causes the stories to seem repetitive. 

So what works for everyone?  The truth is, there is no general answer.  I find that genre stories that have themes of loss or human failure the most appealing because it reveals the inner most fears of humans: the truth.  Themes that reveal to other people that humans are supposed to mess it up.  It breaks the ideal victory that people see, since life is not about that. 

For me, I wanted a story that shows how the hero deals with failure.  That is one reason why I enjoy science fiction so much since it analyzes the consequences of a new idea.  Stories with a human centered problem are the ones that cause me to reflect most, whether I’m thinking about it in the library or with friends.  Going back to The Last Unicorn, I have to attribute my enjoyment to the group discussions since we compared the motives of different characters.  While Schmendrick wanted to improve, I felt he was selfish.  My group thought otherwise.  We never agreed, but I loved analyzing a character as strange as the book, and I hope to find more stories that alter the monomyth structure.