In honor of the season, I thought we might talk about wise men in fantasy--the non-religious kind, otherwise known as mentors. One of the first bits of
advice given to new writers of YA, and even middle grade fiction, is that their
kid protagonists not only have to solve the central story problem themselves,
they need to do it pretty much on their own.
Wise adult advisers, who teach them what to do, get the same exasperated
eye-roll from young reader that their parents do in real life.
And yet, the Mentor, who is
pretty much the epitome of the wise adult advisor is a classic fantasy archetype—and
if you’re going with the hero’s journey model, a necessary story element. So how do modern fantasy writers, who write
for modern teens, reconcile these two truths?
Personally, I’m not a huge
advocate for the hero’s journey—and one of the reasons I’m not is that I don’t
think the wise mentor is necessary in today’s fiction. On the other hand, I have to say that model
can still work fantastically well. Up
(which is one of the best stories I’ve seen in a very long time) is a classic
hero’s journey—and the wise mentor in Up is Russell, the kid boy-scout. I also have to admit that several of my own
books have wise mentor figures. I think
the trick to making the wise mentor work, is to keep the mentor’s role entirely
subordinate. If the mentor offers wise
advice and the protagonist simply accepts it and acts on it, that’s when the
story fails. If the mentor offers wise
advice and the protagonist rejects or disregards it, and then goes on to
discover his own truths for himself, then it’s OK if one of those truths is
that the mentor wasn’t such an idiot after all.
So how do other fantasy
writers feel about wise mentors? An idea
whose time has gone? Or something that
reflects a perennial human truth? How do
you use them?
