The Miracle Exemption

I had a debate with my friend James by Skype this weekend about what really worked in the sci-fi movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  He pointed out that the miracle examption is done really well and that it brings the story full circle by the end, making it a thoughtful, provoking film.  So that's where I got my blog post for today.

If your story is not grounded in reality, you really only get one miracle exemption (including more may ask too much of the reader but you never know--it is a risk though). This is the thing that the reader is expected to swallow as being completely plausible. Examples: The yellow sun in Superman...it's the source of all his powers. Or the spray aerosol can in Rise of the Planet of the Apes that essentially forces evolution on primates by increasing intelligence within the brain. 

There are rules to the miracle exemption. One of them is that you need to adhere to the miracle exemption completely. Your story needs to follow it and never deviate from it. That is one of the keys to the science-fiction and fantasy in stories that I've read and liked.  And seeing that I've read quite a few stories, my opinion may be worth noting. 

The second is that if you want your story to come full circle, it needs to come back to the miracle exemption and make it crucial to the story.  In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the aerosol spray ends up dooming the entire human race. So not only is it just a device to make apes smarter...it is the mortar upon which the entire franchise is based.  In a word...brilliant.

What is the miracle exemption for J.K. Rowling? You need a wand to do magic. Does she ever deviate from that? Nope.  Does it come back around to this? Yep in that wand that Voldy wanted to use so badly.

What happens when Superman doesn't get sun for a long time? His powers weaken. Does it come back to this? All the time in movies as he goes to absorb sunlight to do extra-powerful and strenuous stuff.

So if your story has a miracle exemption within it, stay true to it.  My sci-fi series has one miracle exemption and I stay true to it and revisit it often.  No it's not faster than light drive. My sci-fi series takes place entirely on earth.  However, FTL-drive is one commonly used miracle exemption that makes space opera work.  Another is instant communication across great distances. You have to have this in order to have a story work.

Do you use a miracle exemption in your story and how important is it?  Have a great Monday (I should be exempt from Mondays).

The Art Of Good Storytelling

Alert: There are some spoilers ahead for the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

This weekend I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes and I loved it. When there have been so many of these movies done in the last fifty years including a terrible reboot starring Marky Mark...why did I love this movie so much?  What set it apart?  Well the storytelling is awesome.

Hard science-fiction can be challenging to pull off well.  This is where all the science is accounted for, where everything is possible, only you just take it a step further which is what breaks the boundaries of fact and throws in the fiction.  I knew this going into the movie because sci-fi reviewers had given this movie great props for pulling off the hard science-fiction aspects of the story. That and they set up the sequels perfectly.

This is what the writers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes did. They gave us an exposition of ground-breaking work in the world of Alzheimer's disease and took it one step further.  They showed us how the human drive to find a solution to a terrible malady could in fact produce evolution, result in a new life form, and that we...not them...would be the ones responsible for our own destruction.  And it all came about with the best of intentions.  The end result was never supposed to happen.

Andy Serkis

There were several parts of this film that I just absolutely loved. From being mesmerized that Andy Serkis could stand in for the motion capture of Caesar (who does some astounding things) to the lessons about humanity that I learn in just watching this splendid film take shape.  Tom Felton a.k.a. Draco Malfoy seems stereotyped as an asshole on screen.  I hope he can break out of this role and soon because he shows great promise as an actor that can play other types of roles.  James Franco as the scientist who created the drug stood in very well as the tragic genius who turned to all that he knew in order to make life better for his father (played by John Lithgow) who was robbed of his life with each passing day to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.  The film is filled with powerful foreshadowing.

Go see this movie.  As a writer, even if you only write YA or some other genre, you can benefit to see how sci-fi done well can have a lasting impression on you for hours after you have exited the movie.  By the way, if you are worried that you will see apes killing humans, that doesn't happen except by absolute accident or to defend themselves. In the end, it is the humans that destroy each other because our lack of humility with regard to the power of genetic engineering is the source of our own cataclysm.