November 2007 Writing Challenge: Bad Faith
Maximum Length: 5000 words
Contest Begins: When this is posted
Contest Ends and Voting Begins: 1200 EST 28 November
Voting Ends: 1200 EST 1 December
This month's challenge will be to write a story in which bad faith forms a central element.
This can mean one of two things.
On the one hand, your story can revolve around a character or characters who are deceived and betrayed by others.
Or, for a greater challenge and a more character-driven story, it can revolve around a character or characters who deceive and betray themselves--especially by refusing to recognize their own essential nature, or their own freedom of action. (This, IIRC, is the original existentialist meaning of mauvaise foi--bad faith)
For an example of the latter, consider the classic Clint Eastwood Western Unforgiven, which is full of characters who deceive themselves (and others) and act in bad faith.
On the one hand, the old killer William Munny lies to himself throughout the movie, telling himself that his late wife reformed him, that he's not really a bad man anymore, and that their mission to kill the two cowboys will have no consequences. On the other hand, the young Scofield Kid lies to himself and others that he really is a bad man--a hardened killer who can shoot a man without a second thought.
In the end, both Munny and the Scofield Kid are forced to confront their own self-deception and its consequences. The Kid shoots one of the cowboys, and is shattered by the experience: this forces him to realize that killing is a terrible thing, and that his carefully-cultivated persona is a lie.
Munny, on the other hand, loses his friend Ned, and is forced to realize that he hasn't reformed at all: that he's just as bad as he ever was, and that his decision to accept the 'contract' on the cowboys has led to the death of a good man who truly had reformed.
Distraught, Munny rides into town to avenge his friend, and to atone for his own actions by committing "suicide by sheriff's posse." But he winds up surviving--mostly because the members of the posse have also been fooling themselves about their own toughness, and are unable to cope with a truly violent, dangerous gunfighter.
Either approach is acceptable--you can even combine the two, if you're feeling ambitious. But some sort of deception and betrayal must be central to your story.
Okay--ready? Then--WRITE!
Maximum Length: 5000 words
Contest Begins: When this is posted
Contest Ends and Voting Begins: 1200 EST 28 November
Voting Ends: 1200 EST 1 December
This month's challenge will be to write a story in which bad faith forms a central element.
This can mean one of two things.
On the one hand, your story can revolve around a character or characters who are deceived and betrayed by others.
Or, for a greater challenge and a more character-driven story, it can revolve around a character or characters who deceive and betray themselves--especially by refusing to recognize their own essential nature, or their own freedom of action. (This, IIRC, is the original existentialist meaning of mauvaise foi--bad faith)
For an example of the latter, consider the classic Clint Eastwood Western Unforgiven, which is full of characters who deceive themselves (and others) and act in bad faith.
On the one hand, the old killer William Munny lies to himself throughout the movie, telling himself that his late wife reformed him, that he's not really a bad man anymore, and that their mission to kill the two cowboys will have no consequences. On the other hand, the young Scofield Kid lies to himself and others that he really is a bad man--a hardened killer who can shoot a man without a second thought.
In the end, both Munny and the Scofield Kid are forced to confront their own self-deception and its consequences. The Kid shoots one of the cowboys, and is shattered by the experience: this forces him to realize that killing is a terrible thing, and that his carefully-cultivated persona is a lie.
Munny, on the other hand, loses his friend Ned, and is forced to realize that he hasn't reformed at all: that he's just as bad as he ever was, and that his decision to accept the 'contract' on the cowboys has led to the death of a good man who truly had reformed.
Distraught, Munny rides into town to avenge his friend, and to atone for his own actions by committing "suicide by sheriff's posse." But he winds up surviving--mostly because the members of the posse have also been fooling themselves about their own toughness, and are unable to cope with a truly violent, dangerous gunfighter.
Either approach is acceptable--you can even combine the two, if you're feeling ambitious. But some sort of deception and betrayal must be central to your story.
Okay--ready? Then--WRITE!
)
Abandon hope....
