Gossip - More Than Meets the Eye

 

“You do not know me, and rest assured, you never shall.” — Lady Whistledown in
Netflix Bridgerton

Today I want to examine gossip by exploring its link to storytelling. Yes, even Fantasy Fiction can utilize this age-old human proclivity to talk about others behind their backs. Some novels even have plots that revolve solely around the revelation of such unverified "truths".

For the purpose of this post, I am defining gossip as talking or writing about other people's business in a sensational, judgmental and/or unverified way. In writing, it's easy to see the usefulness of this tool, but the question is, why do we do it in the first place? What's the fascination? 

Why We Gossip

Samantha Holder from the International University of Florida says, "Gossip has served as a survival tool since prehistoric times. In fact, the citizens of Ancient Greece relied on idle talk and rumors to determine which members of their community could not be trusted."

René Magritte - at the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium

But why?

Evolutionary biologists tell us that, as humans, we are hardwired to connect with a social group of up to 150 individuals. From where I'm sitting it seems like a lot. I sure don't have that many people in my life. 

I mean, how would I keep track of such a large clan?

One of the ways our ancestors managed to connect with so many others was to know their business. In other words, to gossip about them. By doing so, according to research, earlier humans reinforced community bonds, stimulating the prefrontal cortex (our ability to form complex relationships). All this was done by sharing information and expressing feelings. The results was to better understand the current social order. 

Add to all this, gossiping can light up the pleasure centres in the brain. ie, it's entertaining and fun. At least, it can be.

Gossip in the Modern World

With nuclear families, isolation and city dwelling vs agrarian communities, contemporary humans are hard-pressed to feel connected to 150 important others, save through a wider, parasocial circle. This includes politicians and leaders, celebrities on the big screen, small, and heroes in the sports/science fields. 

And of course, there are content creators on YouTube to follow. :)

When we talk about or gossip about these others in our life, we are fulfilling our drive to stay connected to the clan. 

Basically, we gossip to survive.

Gossip in Storytelling

Given this history, it seems quite natural for fictional characters to gossip about each other. When authors write such scenes, it  can provide the reader with one of four things:

Information (What's happening)

Insight (Why it's happening)

Interest (Entertainment!)

Instinct (Who the character really is)

As Cynthia Ozick says in The Novel's Evil Tongue:  Gossip is the steady deliverer of secrets, the necessary divulger of who thinks this and who does that, the carrier of speculation and suspicion. 

In this capacity, gossip becomes one of the writer's best tools. 

By using gossip in dialogue and plot, authors can inform the reader of many things without bogging down the narrative in information and description. As well, this kind of dialogue can help readers draw their own conclusions as opposed to being spoon-fed the story one bite at a time. 

Alice Sun can turn invisible, and oh
the secrets she learns.

Gossip can also introduce topics and ideas about the plot and characters without the use of backstory. To top it off, gossiping characters show something about themselves without needing the author to spell it out.

Here's an example from Crown of Bones

From Marcus's POV, he and his company ride through the rolling hills of Palrio on a dangerous journey to the Isle of Aku. Belair, an unknown peer who has just joined them, strikes up a conversation with the reluctant Marcus. 

Note what you learn about all five characters discussed in this snippet without even trying.

***

“They’re adorable,” Belair says, nodding to Samsen and Piper as they ride ahead, out of earshot.

“I guess.” Adorable? Why are we talking about this? 

“There’s a story there, I’ll wager.” Belair sounds more than a little curious. “She’s older than him, right?” He asks of Piper, but his eyes stay on Sam.

“I... ” I’d rather discuss anything else, training on Aku, his warrior phantom, navigating these enemy lands. 

Ash, who rides on my other side, clears her throat. The sound is a familiar one. It’s her way of telling me to be nice to our new company member, no matter that I resent him.  

I nod my head toward the healer. “Ten years ago, when Piper was sixteen, she’d just earned her orange robes…”

“That’s young.”

“It is, and well deserved. Anyway, she was in the hills behind Baiseen, gathering herbs when a band of Gollnarians cornered her.”

“They were far from home.”

“A scouting party. She was badly outnumbered.”

His brows lift. “What happened?”

“Samsen, thirteen at the time, was hunting nearby. He heard the fight and sent his phantom in.”

“Form?”

“Golden eagle, talons like grappling hooks. But by the time Samsen reached her, his phantom was pinned under a Gollnar winged-demon, and Piper was at the bottom of a ravine, her snake chopped in half, going to ground.”

           “How did they survive?” 

“He doesn't like to talk about it, but from what I gathered, Sam stayed in phantom perspective, in spite of his wounds. Fought them off. Killed or cut up every last one. By then, he was bleeding so badly he nearly died.”

Belair rests his eyes ahead as his face reddens. “Truely bonded to each other then?”

“Truely.” 

          “Ahh,” he exhales as if impressed and disappointed at the same time. “So be it.”

***

This snippet of gossip doesn't just reveal more about the characters, but it helps Belair, the new member, catch up to his companion's history and adjust how he might fit in. 

Like gossip in the real world, it allows him to feel more connected. 

How about you? Have you noticed this aspect of dialog in any recent reading? 

And authors? Have you consciously used gossip to shed light (true or false) on a character or situation?

I'd love to hear about it! 

Let's gossip!

xxKim

***

Kim Falconer, currently writing as A K Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site 

Novel Inspired Visual Art

Moby Dick or The Great Whale by Lisel Jane.

Last month I looked at the Art of Inspiration, namely, novels inspired by artists like John Waterhouse, Rene Magritte, Leonardo Da Vinci...  This month, I'm turning it around, exploring artistic expression rising directly from novels.

One of my favorite pieces is the above image of the whale, inspired by Herman Melville's Moby dick. The enormity of the creature comes across immediately with the contrast to the tiny human presences in the great sea.

“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure..... Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?” - Herman Melville, Moby Dick.

 And then there is the artist I've been in awe of since the 60s - Salvidor Dali. Did you know he did a series of paintings, twelve in total, for an illustrated reprint of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865)?

Salvador Dalí, Mad Tea Party (1969). Image courtesy William Bennet Gallery

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked."Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.""How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice."You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”  ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

I love Rene Magritte's  Domain of Arnheim, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's work by the same name (1847)

Rene Magritte, Domain of Arnheim (1962)

“There may be a class of beings, human once, but now invisible to humanity, to whom, from afar, our disorder may seem order—our unpicturesqueness picturesque, in a word, the earth-angels, for whose scrutiny more especially than our own, and for whose death—refined appreciation of the beautiful, may have been set in array by God the wide landscape-gardens of the hemispheres.” ― Edgar Allan Poe, The Domain of Arnheim

Another artist who has influenced me for decades is John William Waterhouse. Bellow is his 

1888 oil painting, The Lady of Shalott,  based on Tennyson’s 1832 poem by the same title.

The Lady of Shalott by Jon William Waterhouse 1888

“She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces through the room, She saw the water-lily bloom, She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot. Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack'd from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott.”  ― Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

Finally, for today's journey, Pablo Picasso's depiction of Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha and companion Sancho Panza.

Don Quixote (1955). Pablo Picasso.

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”  ― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

It's stunning how these classic novels have morphed into visual art, answering questions as well as asking new ones.

If you have a favourite work of art inspired by a novel, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

* * * 

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out in 2019 - The Bone Throwers. 

Also, check her urban fantasy out now - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. 

You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.