Challenges by Ben Bova

Author:Ben Bova
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

(With gratitude, and apologies, to Edgar Allan Poe.)

Bushido

The challenge of “Bushido” was to make the reader feel sympathy for an enemy, a character who hates the United States. Who hates you. How well I succeeded is a question only you, the reader, can answer. But I can tell you how I went about making this “bad guy” as sympathetic as possible.

First I gave him a crippling terminal disease. Then I made him a brilliant scientist. And I showed enough of his background to make the reader understand why Saito Konda hates the U.S. and Americans.

Finally, I brought onto the scene a character out of history who stands in bold contrast to the protagonist: Isoroku Yamamoto, Grand Admiral of the Japanese Imperial Fleet at the outset of World War II. Whereas Konda is physically crippled, Yamamoto is a warrior, a man of action. Whereas Konda feels helpless and impotent, the admiral is a leader of men in war. But there is a flip side to their relationship, as well. Konda knows Yamamoto’s fate and can save him from the death that he suffered in the war. Helpless and impotent to save himself, Konda can nonetheless save the man he most admires—and by doing so, he can gain revenge on the United States.

How can you feel sympathetic toward a man who wants to reverse the outcome of World War II and make Japan conquer the U.S.?

I have long felt that writers should erase the word “villain” from their vocabulary. Scrub the concept out of your mind, in fact. There are no villains in the world, only people doing what they feel they must do. I’m sure that Adolph Hitler felt he was doing what was best for the German people and the entire human race, no matter how horrible the actions he authorized.

Nobody sits in a dark corner cackling with glee over the evil they have unleashed. Not in good fiction. But every good story has not only a protagonist (the “good guy” or gal), but an antagonist, a character who is in conflict with the protagonist. As a thought experiment, try to visualize a story you admire told from the point of view of the ostensible villain … oops, excuse me! the ostensible antagonist. Imagine Hamlet being told from Claudius’ point of view. (Frankly, he seems to be the only sane person in the whole castle.)

Incidentally, there’s a bit of science in this story that most other writers have conveniently ignored. Time travel requires faster-than-light travel. Which explains, perhaps, why no one has yet built a time machine.

So: Did I succeed in making Saito Konda a sympathetic character? Crippled in body, brilliant in mind, warped in spirit—yes, he is all that. But do you feel sorry for him?

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