I’m not going to discuss the Democratic end of the drowning pool, since the contest between Hillary and Barack I find simultaneously heartwarming and the most depressing bit of business I’ve seen in a long time. I was thinking of the Republican side, as in what is Mike Huckabee’s problem? Long after common sense says he can’t win, there he is. My take on it is that Huckabee looks at McCain’s age and figures if he can be enough of a pain in the butt he can give the old guy a heart attack and since he never withdrew like Romney, guess who’s the candidate? Talk about a spoiler!
Maybe not. Maybe that’s a political thriller I’d like to read. But here’s the point I’ve really been pondering–it’s obvious what’s in it for Huckabee for him to stay in the race, but what about McCain? Why doesn’t he get someone in the party to thump Huckabee on his hard head and tell him to sit down?
That’s what I pondered (okay, thought about it once or twice) until I was watching the political shows this Sunday morning. I think it was on the McLaughlin group where someone posited that McCain needs Huckabee to stick around to keep his name in the newspapers the same way Clinton and Obama act to generate press for themselves and each other.
I can buy that. As an author I can appreciate the use of a good foil. Using one character to illuminate the character of another is as pervasive as having a title. However, how we make use of that foil can either enhance or detract from the story.
Most often in romance the foil is the best buddy, who can generally be more outrageous, outspoken or otherwise unsuitable to be the protagonist of that particular story (though they may come back somewhat sanitized in a story of their own). Foils work best when they are fully formed characters in their own right, or at least fully formed in the aspect that is being compared. Think of Hamlet and Laertes. Laertes is the obedient son and dutiful brother, while Hamlet stumbles around, unable to figure out if and it what way to avenge his own father. (Incidentally, if you haven’t seen the Gilligan’s Island Hamlet-a-go-go interpretation, it’s a must-see.)
Come to think of it, mysteries and other genre fiction works basically the same way, as well. Main characters are usually more conventional than their foils. Think Spenser and Hawk or Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. That’s just off the top of my head. There are probably better examples if I really think about it.
One thing is certain in my mind, especially if you are creating a series in which the same characters will appear more than once, you really need to do some analysis of not only each character but how they will relate together, what their relationship is, how it started, what each of them really wants from one another, etc. if you want that pairing to be dynamic and not fall flat. Just one more thing to think about while plotting and planning a novel. Oy!
