Obsession: Love, Hate, and Passion
The best love stories aren't really about love at all.
They're about obsession.
The best murder stories aren't really about the act of murder at all.
They're about obsession.
The best detectives aren't really about following clues
and solving a crime.
They're about obsession.
Think about it. To me, that love affair between two people who literally crave each other physically--and mentally--who feel sick over separation, who would die for one another, who will never recover the loss of that person . . . that's a love story you can never forget. I am working on one now in the very early stages about a reincarnation of lovers from the 12th century--they're obsessed. Jane Eyre, one of my favorite love stories . . . she felt for him as an intellectual soul mate.
Murder stories. A killer who stalks his victim, learning every detail about him or her, invading their space on the fringes until he can strike. Terrifying. You can even extend that to characters like Dracula . . . and Mina and Lucy.
Detective stories or mysteries. Lots of detectives do their jobs--admirably. But the ones who live and breathe a case, not resting, they cross over to the most powerful novels. I know in TRACE OF DOUBT, I gave Billie Quinn the most personal of motivations for solving a case--the death of her mother. I love the Andrew Vachss BURKE novels. (I highlighted one there--they're all utterly fabulous.) Burke's obsession is there for reasons you never quite know. It's dark and gritty and over the edge--and brilliant.
Personally, the most compelling love affair of my life was one way too obsessive to be healthy. The things that obsess me in terms of the work I do, and the volunteer work I do . . . sometimes exhaust me. They consume me and keep me from sleeping sometimes. I know that about myself. I've seen friends wreck their lives over email affairs; I knew one woman who left house and hearth (husband and kids) and jetted off to California to meet a man she only knew from the internet. Obsession is responsible for more wrecked lives than nearly anything. Obsessed with a drug, gambling, alchohol--you'll lose it all. In DOUBLE DOWN, writing as Tess Hudson, I chronicled a woman's addiction to gambling, in particular sports betting. It was only until Skye filled the emptiest part of herself with something else that she was able to stop her obsession.
How 'bout you? Obsessed with anyone? Anything? Or know a great book that paints the suffocating horror of someone in the throes of true obsession?
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:19 PM
16 Comments:
This is an awesome post. Yes! Obsession is what it's all about. From the earliest-known Greek dramas to the latest releases at B&N, it's all about obsession. If your characters don't care deeply about their goals, then why should the reader care?
I can't think of any great book that ISN'T about obsession.
I think writers have to be rather obsessed to finish a book, too. There are all sorts of easier paths. Watch TV, goof off on the internet, go out and party...
If you're not 100% committed to finishing your novel, then you probably never will. People might think we're weird, spending so much time alone and all, but that's what it takes. If you're really a writer, you get on with your work and ignore all but the most pressing outside obligations. You write, and you're weird and obsessed, and you don't care if the rest of the world thinks so.
Jude:
Thanks. You know, it wasn't until I wrote this that I realized something. As an editor, I have come across manuscripts that are technically great. Every "i" is dotted, every "t" is crossed. The dialogue is natural. The plot is servicable. But yet . . . it just never takes me to that realm where I am lost in the book. Why do you pick up a book at B&N and are unable to put it down, versus the one you start ten times but never finish? I think it's the obsession factor a lot of times. I have to FEEL a detective's passion and obsession for solving a crime. Why does it get under his skin? What IS it about this case? Some people can write funny detectives, quirky ones . . . but the obsessed ones . . . those are the ones I gravitate toward.
E
At every stage in life, a person is obsessed with different things. Sometimes there's an overriding obsession that, in some way or other, affects every part of a person's life.
In some ways, I think that the reason why the best books are about obsession is that people who do not have that one, single obsession are boring.
Plus obsession goes very well with conflict.
milady:
Great point. Obsession and conflict go hand in hand. Anything--anyone--who stands in the way of a person's obsession is naturally to be defeated, killed, removed, whatever. Patrick McGrath (who wrote ASYLUM, among many others) is the master of painting obsession among modern writers, I think.
If you ever follow real-life murder trials . . . in which there's been a love triangle, obsession and conflict. It's astounding to me that someone like Scott Peterson, or any one of hundreds of murderers, can kill a person because they got in the way or tired of them and wanted another, or whatever.
E
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is all about obsession. Gollum, Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir, Pippin, Meri, etc., all have their own individual obsessions.
Do you think perhaps obsession equates passion (or passion equates obession)?
Kate:
Tolkien is a great example (I'm a huge fan).
But I don't think passion and obsession are the same, honestly. I have had several "grand passions" in my life but only one relationship I considered crossed the border to obsession. I am passionate about many things--from quantum physics to sushi to Beethoven's Ninth--and don't even get me started about politics. But obsession leaves passion in the dust and crosses over to something more dangerous and unbalanced. Obsession can take your appetite for weeks on end, cause you to lose endless nights' sleep, and propel you to do things that if you were of a right mind you wouldn't do. It's a form of mental illness in some ways. I think you lose your way and your boundaries and meld to the other person or thing. Just my opinion, of course. I'll be curious as to what others think.
E
You're absolutely right, Erica. Obsession is a very unhealthy thing, really. In my previous comment about writers, "passion" would have been a more appropriate word.
One of the scariest things I can think of is to be stalked by an ex-lover. That's obsession. It's definitely a form of mental illness. If a woman tells me she doesn't want to be with me anymore, I say adios and good luck and walk away. Some people can't seem to do that, though. It's like they want to force themselves on you. It's scary in real life, but makes for interesting situations in fiction.
Jude:
Well, I think your writing example is actually a good one in a way. We all know writers who will tell you they write better drunk . . . or on drugs or hallucinogens (Hunter Thompson, anyone?). We all know writers who are belligerant or nasty or feel they can storm their way through life and relationships because they are "artistes"! They are obsessive in their work. The COURT the sleepless nights and the agony.
There are others who are passionate about writing. They can talk passionately with other writers way into the night over bottles of wine and arguments about plot vs. character or whatever . . . BUT they may have unhealthy habits (Jude has more than once told me to lay off the coffee--LOL!) yet it doesn't cross over to that other type.
And yeah. Been stalked twice. Scary both time. Good for fiction, would prefer to avoid it at all costs in my personal life.
E
Erm, I don't think that I'm obsessed about anything in particular, but I am passionate about certain things. I think a thin line separates passion and obsession, with passion being healthy, and obsession crossing into the unhealthy.
So let's see, my passions:
- Conservation
- Fitness
- My writing career
- Travel
Writing is an obsession, isn't it?
It's gotta be more than a passion, if you ask me. Because I ask myself all the time why in the world am I doing this to myself. LOL.
I ask myself the same question sometimes, milady. But I think someone who is truly obsessed probably doesn't have the capacity to question why. They just do what they do at all costs, and never reflect on how insane it is until they hit bottom.
milady:
Yeah, we all ask ourselves that sometimes. It's an internal thing--this NEED to write, this calling. But like Jude says, I think the truly obsessed sink down a hole in which they can't really judge their behavior rationally.
E
Cathy and Heathcliffe. That's who I think of when I think of obsessive love. "Wuthering Heights" is one of my favourite books, with some beautiful, heart-rending obsessive love moments.
naomi:
Another great example. And it raises a good point to . . . some obsessions are really--as much as people might think it's love--about destruction at the same time. ASYLUM by Patrick McGrath is a great example of that, too.
E
What an awesome post. It's so true.
Keep me posted on that 12th century reincarnation story. It had me at hello.
Have a good one!
:) d
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