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I have been talking a lot about the space opera science fiction series by Jack Campbell. I have enjoyed reading 11 of them. Things keep coming to mind that explain why I enjoyed them besides the adventures and aliens parts.
In the series, temptation is a big thing that shadows the hero and that bedevils him, too. He is “Black Jack” Geary, a hero to a world that has been at war for 100 years and the epitome of what a hero should be. Rescued from a one hundred year hibernation in an escape pod that was about to fail, he is hailed as having come back to save the Alliance and he does that.
It is a King Arthur kind of thing and as commander of the Alliance Fleet he is both loved and feared. The government thinks he wants to take it over and this is one of the temptations thrown at him. The other is the hero-worship by the populace and his fleet that proclaim he is invincible.
He does not want to be the myth that grew up around him. He does not want to become a military dictator and he walks a fine line to avoid trouble. But trouble keeps coming to him:
The Lost Fleet Beyond the Frontier: Guardian
Pg. 323
Geary: “Why would you say that to me?”
Senator of the Alliance: “Perhaps because you are one of the few left who would not seek to use my words against me. Perhaps because truth is spoken so rarely these days that I wanted the feel of it in my words at least once more…I am a politician, Admiral.
Do you know what happens to politicians who tell the truth? They get voted out of office. We must lie to the voters. Tell them the truth, and they punish us. Lie, and they reward us…Somehow the system stumbles onward, the Alliance survives, but the pressure on it builds with every refusal by its leaders and its people to face unpleasant truths.”
Pgs. 324, 325
Senator: But saving the Alliance is not simply a matter of ending the war. That has become very, painfully, clear to all of us. And now the people of the Alliance increasingly ask themselves whether Black Jack’s ultimate mission is not a military one, not aimed against any external foe, but is instead to save the Alliance from the inner forces that threaten to destroy it.
…But people look at you, Admiral, and do not see a fallible human. They see Black Jack. Do not deny it…And Black Jack can do those things that those who believe in him think he can do. Perhaps even things I believe to be impossible.”
How does a good man overcome temptation to do good as he sees it? How can he say no when people think he is the only answer?
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One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
Avoiding temptation is a theme in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The one ring to rule them all has already caused the enslavement of weaker men who became Ringwraiths. Gandalf and Galadriel each have their moment of choice and pass the test to not take it.
Boromir is tempted by the ring:
...why not Boromir? The Ring would give me power of Command. How I would drive the hosts of Mordor, and all men would flock to my banner!
It does not end well for him. Yet, he does redeem himself and the reader sees how the ring works on people. It seduces them.
Temptation is a common theme in stories. It causes trouble for both heroes and villains.
How does a person face temptation and overcome it?
What kind of strength or past ability or knowledge of themselves helps?
What happens if they can’t overcome it and must face the consequences?
Do all villains understand the consequences?
Shakespeare’s Macbeth succumbs to his wish to be king by giving in to the witches and their prophetic words.
…….…….
SCENE III. A heath near Forres.
Thunder. Enter the three Witches
Enter MACBETH and BANQUO
MACBETH
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
BANQUO
How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
MACBETH
Speak, if you can: what are you?
First Witch
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
Second Witch
All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch
All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time,
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favours nor your hate.
First Witch
Hail!
Second Witch
Hail!
Third Witch
Hail!
First Witch
Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
Second Witch
Not so happy, yet much happier.
Third Witch
Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none:
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
First Witch
Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
MACBETH
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
Witches vanish
…
Enter ROSS and ANGUS
………
ROSS
And, for an earnest of a greater honour,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane!
For it is thine.
BANQUO
What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me
In borrow'd robes?
ANGUS
Who was the thane lives yet;
But under heavy judgment bears that life
Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
Have overthrown him.
MACBETH
[Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor!
The greatest is behind.
………….
To BANQUO
Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?
BANQUO
That trusted home
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
In deepest consequence.
……….
Banquo mistrusts the witches while Macbeth lets his imagination embrace the future they have foretold.
And loses all because of his inability to set aside the temptation to make himself king through murder.
What stories have you read where the hero or villain is tempted and either passes the test or does not, is forgiven or redeemed…or is not?
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! The Hero Goes All In
By James Wells
www.dailykos.com/...
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For my 53rd birthday, I'd like donations to the Hill Country Ride For AIDS
By anotherdemocrat
www.dailykos.com/...
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Introducing the New Kos Katalogue!
By Avilyn
www.dailykos.com/...
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