So since I write mostly Young Adult Novels I’ve begun to
wonder about this as when I’ve been looking at novels lately I’ve found quite a
few with this similar theme, characters with mental illnesses or perceived
mental illnesses and locked up in mental hospitals. I think if used appropriately
it can give depth, challenges, anxieties and difficulties to a character just
as nearly 1 in 5 real life Americans alone each year suffer from a mental
illness but I find many of the stories aren’t like that but rather the
character is locked away in as some say in the novels a loony bin, whack shack,
or other derogatory term and they aren’t crazy but are there for some insane
reason which really seems a way to just get the character where the authors wants
them so the character can uncover some deep dark secret or conspiracy and get
to the adventure of solving the issue.
I mean there was a story I contemplated writing that had
three different possibilities of where the character is, either a mental hospital,
living the life of a ballerina who looses her senses and leaves the ballet to
live on an old farm or is whisked away to an alien planet and the same man is
in all possibilities and she falls asleep in one only to awaken in one of the
other three with no clue as to which is true and I leave the readers
questioning her sanity and sometimes their own, or rather I was going to if I
ever write the story, lol.
So you see even I’ve played with the idea of mental illness
or perceived mental illness but stories now seem like they are trying to make
the character have a perceived illness to make them interesting but the character
falls flat as they are just too perfect and it’s the whole worlds conspiring
against them kind of thing which I don’t really like. I would rather a character
straight up have an illness even a little bit or make it more interesting as to
why they are locked away not just because some insane government agency or person
wants the main character gone as they are the key to saving the world or something.
So I am hoping that the
perfectly perfect character
locked in a mental hospital thing isn’t the next fade in YA literature unless it’s
handled in a way that makes it different and unique but I’ve yet to really see
that.
This has been Musings of a Lonely Writer! If you have any
thoughts on this topic please leave a comment in the comment section of this
post! Keep Reading
If I have any further thoughts I’ll come back and edit again! If anyone has any thoughts on this post, edit, or comments again leave a comment in the comment section of this post!
Edit November 5, 2016:
So fellow blogger Jasmin Weaver left a comment on this blog
post and I replied but thought some of what I added should go under this edit
so I better explain my views on this topic.
I try not to handle such weighty and complex subjects as
mental illness unless I’m willing to put in the time and effort into doing
plenty of research and interviewing professionals, ect. In a rare case I have
had a character that slowly drove herself to insanity as did her mother through
a serious of events but I never really tackled it straight on but rather from
the sidelines kind of thing.
I don’t think every author tackles mental illness the same way as I have seen some that have handled weighty subjects as mental illness, sexual assault, murder, and suicide in as proper a way as one can with such subjects. But then there are authors that have romanticized it too much and made it only a perceived illness so as to not really get into it and handle it as a proper illness or disorder and to show it’s ok to have an illness, well its not what anyone is supposed to ever have but because of inherited imperfection people have such illness for the present time but not in the future, but show a person can live a fulfilling healthy life even with a mental illness or disorder.
I’ve seen two instances where it was handled oddly to me. First one the character was locked away in some big bad mental hospital but through some handsome orderly or something she finds out she’s a Princess from a different realm and isn’t crazy. Which I think romanticized it and didn’t handle illnesses in such a great way. The second story showed people locked away all willy-nilly for not choosing the right group of people to be with, a weird reason to lock people up in mental hospitals for.
I think mental illness and hospitals that house mentally ill individuals would be interesting but not to just entertain or to say someone needs an illness to be interesting or anything but rather to tackle a real issue but in a unique but honest way but I haven’t found a YA novel that does so fully but maybe just not fully to my satisfaction but I need to realize I can’t get my way when it comes to other peoples stories but I can only have a strong opinion, lol!
The blogger mentioned Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ or ‘Hamlet’ but I only read what was required Shakespeare reading in school so I never read those but I have heard of them and how those characters were.
What I find interesting is ‘A Tell-Tale Heart’ by Eagar Allen Poe which basically I like the narrator trying to convince everyone of his sanity but all the while his murderous activities were anything but sane. In those kinds of gothic literature novels of that era and later very much had a lot to do with insanity and manipulation into insanity which really was handled in a creepy but interesting way in my opinion.
The blogger Jasmin Weaver mentioned gaslighting and yes I have heard of the term gaslighting and even seen the 1944 movie which I was just talking about the other day, lol! I saw the movie some years ago and I found it to be really interesting how that was played out and how the phrase came to be and what it means. I even have a soon-to-be-written story called ‘The Gas Light Murders’ set in 1890’s London or I’m thinking of moving it to America but same era and my character is hearing about a rash of murders and as the investigation lands on her husband her sanity is called into question as little things and then big things begin to point to her as the murderer and she fears what she’ll do and worries for her sons life but as the story will unfold the lead detective begins to figure things out after basically being a victim of gaslighting and the reader figures out my main female lead has also been a victim of gaslighting by the real murderer who is closer to her home then she thought. The title of the story has to do with that phrase gaslighting but also the murderer leaves notes on gas lamps within the city to lead the detectives to his crimes and as a way to mock them as well.
So anyway I agreed with her that gaslighting would be an interesting take on mental illness but also psychological abuse.
I don’t think every author tackles mental illness the same way as I have seen some that have handled weighty subjects as mental illness, sexual assault, murder, and suicide in as proper a way as one can with such subjects. But then there are authors that have romanticized it too much and made it only a perceived illness so as to not really get into it and handle it as a proper illness or disorder and to show it’s ok to have an illness, well its not what anyone is supposed to ever have but because of inherited imperfection people have such illness for the present time but not in the future, but show a person can live a fulfilling healthy life even with a mental illness or disorder.
I’ve seen two instances where it was handled oddly to me. First one the character was locked away in some big bad mental hospital but through some handsome orderly or something she finds out she’s a Princess from a different realm and isn’t crazy. Which I think romanticized it and didn’t handle illnesses in such a great way. The second story showed people locked away all willy-nilly for not choosing the right group of people to be with, a weird reason to lock people up in mental hospitals for.
I think mental illness and hospitals that house mentally ill individuals would be interesting but not to just entertain or to say someone needs an illness to be interesting or anything but rather to tackle a real issue but in a unique but honest way but I haven’t found a YA novel that does so fully but maybe just not fully to my satisfaction but I need to realize I can’t get my way when it comes to other peoples stories but I can only have a strong opinion, lol!
The blogger mentioned Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ or ‘Hamlet’ but I only read what was required Shakespeare reading in school so I never read those but I have heard of them and how those characters were.
What I find interesting is ‘A Tell-Tale Heart’ by Eagar Allen Poe which basically I like the narrator trying to convince everyone of his sanity but all the while his murderous activities were anything but sane. In those kinds of gothic literature novels of that era and later very much had a lot to do with insanity and manipulation into insanity which really was handled in a creepy but interesting way in my opinion.
The blogger Jasmin Weaver mentioned gaslighting and yes I have heard of the term gaslighting and even seen the 1944 movie which I was just talking about the other day, lol! I saw the movie some years ago and I found it to be really interesting how that was played out and how the phrase came to be and what it means. I even have a soon-to-be-written story called ‘The Gas Light Murders’ set in 1890’s London or I’m thinking of moving it to America but same era and my character is hearing about a rash of murders and as the investigation lands on her husband her sanity is called into question as little things and then big things begin to point to her as the murderer and she fears what she’ll do and worries for her sons life but as the story will unfold the lead detective begins to figure things out after basically being a victim of gaslighting and the reader figures out my main female lead has also been a victim of gaslighting by the real murderer who is closer to her home then she thought. The title of the story has to do with that phrase gaslighting but also the murderer leaves notes on gas lamps within the city to lead the detectives to his crimes and as a way to mock them as well.
So anyway I agreed with her that gaslighting would be an interesting take on mental illness but also psychological abuse.
If I have any further thoughts I’ll come back and edit again! If anyone has any thoughts on this post, edit, or comments again leave a comment in the comment section of this post!
Edit November 12, 2016:
The Gas Light Murders novel details have changed as I no
longer want a murder mystery but am going with a different type of mystery so I
won’t be incorporating murder or the gaslighting phrase in that novel now, so
just wanted to say so, lol!
I try to avoid mental illness, especially in young people when I'm writing. It' s not that I don't want to write about it, I just don't know enough about it to do so and I don't want to do a half-ass job at it. Mental illness is serious and complex and I don't want to make it sound romantic or depict it in an inaccurate or stereotypical way, which I think happens a lot, both in fiction and the media.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have written characters suffering from depression and bipolar disorder, not because I think it's cool, but because I don't to exclude characters suffering from those. I don't treat it as something that's cool or to make a character interesting- I don't think you need to make a character mentally ill to make them interesting anyway.
If you've ever read Shakespeare's Hamlet or King Lear, it portrays the two title characters descending into their own madness. I've always liked them because it portrays the characters as men who gradually fall into insanity.
Have you ever heard of the term "gaslighting?" It's when someone uses psychological abuse to make a person believe they are going insane when in reality it's just the person making them believe so. It's basically taking a sound and mentally healthy person and through manipulating events- hiding things, moving things, etc., make them doubt their own sanity and perception.
The expression comes from a a play called Gas Light (1938); I saw the 1944 version of the movie and it was an interesting movie. I think this would be an interesting take on mental illness.
I try not to handle such weighty and complex subjects either unless I’m willing to put in the time and effort into doing plenty of research and interviewing professionals, ect. In a rare case I have had a character that slowly drove herself to insanity as did her mother through a serious of events but I never really tackled it straight on but rather from the sidelines kind of thing.
DeleteI don’t think every author tackles mental illness the same way as I have seen some that have handled weighty subjects as mental illness, sexual assault, murder, and suicide in as proper a way as one can with such subjects. But then there are authors that have romanticized it too much and made it only a perceived illness so as to not really get into it and handle it as a proper illness or disorder and to show it’s ok to have an illness, well its not what anyone is supposed to ever have but because of inherited imperfection people have such illness for the present time but not in the future, but show a person can live a fulfilling healthy life even with a mental illness or disorder.
I’ve seen two instances where it was handled oddly to me. First one the character was locked away in some big bad mental hospital but through some handsome orderly or something she finds out she’s a Princess from a different realm and isn’t crazy. Which I think romanticized it and didn’t handle illnesses in such a great way. The second story showed people locked away all willy-nilly for not choosing the right group of people to be with, a weird reason to lock people up in mental hospitals for.
I think mental illness and hospitals that house mentally ill individuals would be interesting but not to just entertain or to say someone needs an illness to be interesting or anything but rather to tackle a real issue but in a unique but honest way but I haven’t found a YA novel that does so fully but maybe just not fully to my satisfaction but I need to realize I can’t get my way when it comes to other peoples stories but I can only have a strong opinion, lol!
I’ve not read Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ or ‘Hamlet’ as I only read what was required Shakespeare reading in school but I have heard of them and how those characters were.
What I find interesting is ‘A Tell-Tale Heart’ by Eagar Allen Poe which basically I like the narrator trying to convince everyone of his sanity but all the while his murderous activities were anything but sane. In those kinds of gothic literature novels of that era and later very much had a lot to do with insanity and manipulation into insanity which really was handled in a creepy but interesting way in my opinion.
Yes I have heard of the term gaslighting and even seen the 1944 movie which I was just talking about the other day, lol! I saw the movie some years ago and I found it to be really interesting how that was played out and how the phrase came to be and what it means. I even have a soon-to-be-written story called ‘The Gas Light Murders’ set in 1890’s London or I’m thinking of moving it to America but same era and my character is hearing about a rash of murders and as the investigation lands on her husband her sanity is called into question as little things and then big things begin to point to her as the murderer and she fears what she’ll do and worries for her sons life but as the story will unfold the lead detective begins to figure things out after basically being a victim of gaslighting and the reader figures out my main female lead has also been a victim of gaslighting by the real murderer who is closer to her home then she thought. The title of the story has to do with that phrase gaslighting but also the murderer leaves notes on gas lamps within the city to lead the detectives to his crimes and as a way to mock them as well.
So anyway I agree with you gaslighting would be an interesting take on mental illness but also psychological abuse.
Thanks so much for commenting on this subject and giving me your thoughts as thoughts from all are always welcome!:~)
I was going to mention A Tell-Tale Heart in my post but I guess I forgot about it. I always thought it was an interesting short story, as well as "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado"- Poe can really create a sense of atmosphere and these dark, disturbed characters in his works.
ReplyDelete