What would motivate a driven career minded woman, focused on her craft and the honesty of it, to become an idealistic believer in someone?
I'm trying to figure this out about one of the most important and colorful characters in my novel. When I search my own experience I realize I have flip-flopped between the two most of my life. I can't tell if it's because of the different situations I've faced or the different versions of myself I have been at the time of facing them. One thing I've noticed is that idealism is seldom taken seriously.
This was well displayed in the movie The Ides of March (which I watched last night). The main character had "drank the Kool-aid" of the candidate he was backing for president. Idealism is something the other characters in the movie seemed to think was cute. Some thought it was down right dumb. This is quite true to life. The end result is the character learns to manipulate and cheat, becoming cold and somewhat inhuman. You could actually watch him take on the jaded attitude toward his own idealistic integrity as his "realistic" cohort
So I amend my question from above:
How could a realistic, career driven woman, begin to be an idealistic believer in someone and still take herself seriously? Could others still take her seriously?
This question feels better to me, but the answer seems further away. And to be honest, that's really, sickeningly sad. What does it say about us that looking for the best is foolish? And I think that answers my question. Instead of my character struggling with cynicism to validate her ideas into reality, she can turn her cynicism on people's lack of dreams...of hope...of striving for the best even when it's unlikely and naive. Maybe that's all idealism really is when you're an adult. It's a driven and serious protest against cynicism and impossibility.
A career minded woman, focused on her craft, and the honesty of it. What motivation would she have to idealistically believe in someone? She's in love with that person is what I would say. And it took me a long time to understand what that means. Career minded, independent, strong women are also usually in control. Love makes you feel out of control and vulnerable, (or it can sometimes) and it isn't very predictable. I would think a woman like that is normally very practical and cautious, and maybe idealistically believing in someone or loving someone (this assumes this is personal and not political) is something that kind of scares the shit out of her. And does in fact make her doubt herself. It's a paradigm shift in a way. And it makes things messy. And it surely sets one up to be hurt or disappointed. In some ways, she hopes he is who he says he is so she can be right, keeping that illusion of control over her environment.
ReplyDeleteI like what you wrote here. It adds a whole new dimension to this. The character in question is the main character's producer and is a lesbian. She does love him, but in a different way. You make a lot of sense with how you talk about her being afraid. I think Jeff (my main character) does, and maybe should, scare her more. Good stuff.
DeleteAhhh ok so by idealistically believing in someone, it's kind of more on a professional level, like looking up to a leader. Hmmm....then I might also think the motivation is to feel inspired and to admire someone who helps you to grow. Just another two cents.
DeleteI think you can be idealistic and yet recognize that putting the faith in your ideals into a person--who is human, fallible, full of contradiction--is dangerous. So I'm not sure what you're wanting to do with this woman character...but maybe her ideals are embodied into that human. Or maybe she also has human faith in him unrelated to her ideals--she believes in him because she knows him. But in the Ides of March, the interesting interplay is in humans using the dirtiest possible tactics to gain a platform for achieving lofty ideals, I think. Humans are both dirty and beautiful--can your woman believe and recognize that all at once?
ReplyDeleteYou seemed to have found my vein of thinking for this character. I think it's best for her to idealize the parts of herself she wishes she was in another. That's pretty validating that you came to the same conclusion.
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