What is it that so many readers everywhere find SO satisfying about “A Christmas Carol?”
It is a bullet-proof story.
To understand what I mean by that metaphor, think of its opposite: a weak story, full of vulnerabilities, structurally confusing, unable to produce the right effects in the right places, a reading experience that inspires boredom, vague contempt, and (almost always) abandonment by page 2 or 3. Such stories come and go, and never leave a trace.
What is a bullet-proof story? In my world, it’s a narrative so compelling, so evocative, so structurally powerful that you can’t do much to destroy its elemental power to mesmerize a reader.
If it happens that the writing is graceful and eloquent, so much the better, but if not, the story will still stand tall. It is armored, as it were, against failure, no matter how many adaptations, even baudlerizations, it may be subect to. Fire away. It’s bulletproof.
Charles Dickens’ little masterpiece, “A Christmas Carol,” is my favorite example of the bullet-proof story. Start with Ebenezer Scrooge, the perfect “love-to-hate-him” main character. Dickens has built him to carry, in reverse, all the themes of Christmas–warmth, abundance, kindness to others…NOT. Scrooge is the opposite of everything good and hopeful, but in the dreams of a single night, he makes a 180 degree turnaround. Visited by the ghosts of his past and future, humbled by his failures as a man, brought to his knees with fear and self-loathing, he greets the morning a changed man, brimming with every good Christmas passion, and rushes headlong into unheard-of acts of charity. Dickens has equipped him to resolve not only his own story crisis, but also those of several subplot characters–and on his own steam. (the desired goal for compelling fiction).
The book was instantly popular, so much so that the childhood Christmas experiences of Dickens literally dictated the look and feel of Christmas as we know it today. The story has been adapted over and over again. Take a look at the sheer number of adaptations–dramatic, musical, cartoon, transgender, transracial, trans-temporal, trans-cultural–that it has undergone, and still not lost its soul.
Pretty impressive. Fiction writers can learn some powerful lessons by looking at what Dickens was able to do and how he did it.
Good cheer for the Season, and the year to come
I’ll be traveling and otherwise “cheering” it up during the holiday week coming up. I’ll post an item or two, but let this be my official Holiday Greeting to all. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next year.
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