Can these ideas ever work? Are they doomed from the start?
Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 11:41 pmThinking back on "The Phantom Of Manhattan" - it was a bad book overall, shot through with retroactive continuity and contrived plot twists (not to mention one of the most egocentric and self-serving introductions I've ever had the misfortune to read).... and yet there were moments where it seemed like there was a good book buried beneath all the fanwank, struggling to get out, moments where Forsyth managed to create a very palpable period atmosphere.
I've had that feeling with a lot of published Phan-Phiction - thinking that there were moments here and there which showed promise, and which hinted at the good book that could've been if just a few things had been done differently.
Which makes me wonder, is there a "right" way to handle certain fannish tropes, or are these concepts so wrong-headed that building a novel around them is just doomed from the start?
For instance:
A sequel in which Christine realises her "mistake" and goes back to Erik?
This just seems doomed from the start for me. If you can ignore the fact that Erik is dead by the end of the book (I suppose you can write it off as a case of mistaken identity on behalf of the authorities, confusing the decayed corpse of one of Erik's victims with Erik himself) then there's all these other hurdles to overcome.... the psychological differences between Erik and Christine, the age difference, Christine's love for Raoul.... most phan phiction, rather than confront these head on, decide to make Erik younger and less insane and turn Raoul into a wife-beating alcaholic. Which is just a cop out, IMHO.
I must admit that the prospect of a Phantom sequel along these lines seems slightly less doomed if it's a sequel to the Lloyd-Webber version of Phantom - who is younger, less nuts and who doesn't die in the end. The ending of the Lloyd-Webber version is just ripe for sequel whoring and the characterisation of the Phantom in the Lloyd-Webber version is such an extremely watered down version of Leroux's original that I'm not willing to write-off "Love Never Dies" just yet - I think that if enough things are changed from Forsyth's book then it could be a genuinely entertaining musical.
A sequel to Phantom in which Erik falls in love with another woman?
Actually, I think this could work - provided the author comes up with a convincing way to explain away Erik's apparent "death" at the end of Leroux's book, doesn't ignore Erik's age or his violence or his mental problems, said woman isn't just a Christine-clone or a Mary-Sue/author-insert... in fact, if the author is going to portray this woman as reciprocating Erik's feelings then in order for this to work, methinks, said woman would have to be older, world-weary and with considerable psychological baggage of her own, rather than another innocent and wide-eyed ingenue.
Oh, and don't pair Erik off with Meg Giry, that's just doomed from the start. Why is so much fan fiction built upon this idiotic concept, I'll never understand it?
A prequel to Phantom in which Erik falls in love with another woman?
Actually, this is less problematic since it means you don't have to explain away Erik's death at the end of Leroux's book, and you don't have to deal with the whingeing of Christine-loyalists who consider it impossible for Erik to live and love after losing Christine. But this is also a drawback, as it's basically a given that, being a prequel, this relationship isn't going to end well - either the two will be seperated or this other woman is going to die. Also, if you portray said woman as reciprocating Erik's devotion then it has the effect of diminishing Erik's hardships in the original story.
And again, it's vital that said woman be credibly flawed and not an idealised author insert.
A story in which Erik gets in touch with his long lost children?
This is just idiotic because ERIK DOES NOT HAVE SEX WITH CHRISTINE. Therefore, him having children by her is stupid and entails the injection of retroactive continuity.
I suppose Erik discovering he's got a child that he's fathered via a one night stand with a prostitute is marginally more plausible...
I guess the other alternative would be an aged Erik taking on a student for purely musical reasons, and developing something of a paternal feeling for said character.
The problem I have with all these plots is that it would be difficult to make this work whilst at the same time taking all of Erik's psychological problems into account, that and, again, you'd have to find a way to explain away Erik's "death".
Now, I am happy to have my preconceived notions proved wrong. I have yet to read any fiction based upon the abovementioned premises that was both good as a standalone story and was something I could reconcile with Leroux's text.
If anyone can point me in the direction of a text which handles the abovementioned premises in a way that isn't incredibly lame, then I'd be happy to give it a try.
I've had that feeling with a lot of published Phan-Phiction - thinking that there were moments here and there which showed promise, and which hinted at the good book that could've been if just a few things had been done differently.
Which makes me wonder, is there a "right" way to handle certain fannish tropes, or are these concepts so wrong-headed that building a novel around them is just doomed from the start?
For instance:
A sequel in which Christine realises her "mistake" and goes back to Erik?
This just seems doomed from the start for me. If you can ignore the fact that Erik is dead by the end of the book (I suppose you can write it off as a case of mistaken identity on behalf of the authorities, confusing the decayed corpse of one of Erik's victims with Erik himself) then there's all these other hurdles to overcome.... the psychological differences between Erik and Christine, the age difference, Christine's love for Raoul.... most phan phiction, rather than confront these head on, decide to make Erik younger and less insane and turn Raoul into a wife-beating alcaholic. Which is just a cop out, IMHO.
I must admit that the prospect of a Phantom sequel along these lines seems slightly less doomed if it's a sequel to the Lloyd-Webber version of Phantom - who is younger, less nuts and who doesn't die in the end. The ending of the Lloyd-Webber version is just ripe for sequel whoring and the characterisation of the Phantom in the Lloyd-Webber version is such an extremely watered down version of Leroux's original that I'm not willing to write-off "Love Never Dies" just yet - I think that if enough things are changed from Forsyth's book then it could be a genuinely entertaining musical.
A sequel to Phantom in which Erik falls in love with another woman?
Actually, I think this could work - provided the author comes up with a convincing way to explain away Erik's apparent "death" at the end of Leroux's book, doesn't ignore Erik's age or his violence or his mental problems, said woman isn't just a Christine-clone or a Mary-Sue/author-insert... in fact, if the author is going to portray this woman as reciprocating Erik's feelings then in order for this to work, methinks, said woman would have to be older, world-weary and with considerable psychological baggage of her own, rather than another innocent and wide-eyed ingenue.
Oh, and don't pair Erik off with Meg Giry, that's just doomed from the start. Why is so much fan fiction built upon this idiotic concept, I'll never understand it?
A prequel to Phantom in which Erik falls in love with another woman?
Actually, this is less problematic since it means you don't have to explain away Erik's death at the end of Leroux's book, and you don't have to deal with the whingeing of Christine-loyalists who consider it impossible for Erik to live and love after losing Christine. But this is also a drawback, as it's basically a given that, being a prequel, this relationship isn't going to end well - either the two will be seperated or this other woman is going to die. Also, if you portray said woman as reciprocating Erik's devotion then it has the effect of diminishing Erik's hardships in the original story.
And again, it's vital that said woman be credibly flawed and not an idealised author insert.
A story in which Erik gets in touch with his long lost children?
This is just idiotic because ERIK DOES NOT HAVE SEX WITH CHRISTINE. Therefore, him having children by her is stupid and entails the injection of retroactive continuity.
I suppose Erik discovering he's got a child that he's fathered via a one night stand with a prostitute is marginally more plausible...
I guess the other alternative would be an aged Erik taking on a student for purely musical reasons, and developing something of a paternal feeling for said character.
The problem I have with all these plots is that it would be difficult to make this work whilst at the same time taking all of Erik's psychological problems into account, that and, again, you'd have to find a way to explain away Erik's "death".
Now, I am happy to have my preconceived notions proved wrong. I have yet to read any fiction based upon the abovementioned premises that was both good as a standalone story and was something I could reconcile with Leroux's text.
If anyone can point me in the direction of a text which handles the abovementioned premises in a way that isn't incredibly lame, then I'd be happy to give it a try.