Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing (6 page)

“Ophelia” by
John William Waterhouse

Another c
ostume
used in
The Lord of the Rings

“Oh
What’s
that in the Hollow” by Edward Robert Hughes

Resonant image from
The Lord of the Rings

The point that I want to make here is this: Tolkien was not content to simply draw
inspiration
from high-brow operas.
He took it from some of the most famous poets of his time, from ancient legends, from animated films
,
from great painters,
and
even
from
children
’
s books
, such as
Wind in the Willows
.
(Compare “mad” Bilbo Baggins’ journey from his underground home with that of Mole from
Wind in the Willows
.
If you look closely, you’ll see some interesting similarities.)

In short,
Tolkien
was like a sponge, seeking to draw resonance from tens of thousands of sources, and in doing so,
create his
own work
that
grew in strength and power.

T
hat
’
s
how
I suggest you try to imbue your work with resonance.

There
are other ways to gain resonance in your work than to simply draw from other works of art, or to listen closely to the sounds of the names that you create.

A third way to use resonance is to discuss
experiences
that are fairly universal.
Tolkien does this as well.
At one point, as Frodo prepares to leave the Shire, he stops and thinks about how this is a grand step in his life.

Who hasn
’
t done the same?
I remember my first day of school,
at age six,
thinking about how important a step it was in life.
Again when I left high school and left home, I was much like Frodo, taking one long
,
last look at my
house
before I drove away.
Anyone who has gone to college or to fight a war understands how keen that emotion can be.

Similarly, Tolkien reminds us of plenty of other moments that each of us has felt in life.
When reading of Frodo and Sam creeping into
Mordor
, you might recall Frodo peering up and seeing a star.
Smitten by the beauty of it, Frodo suddenly takes heart and marches forward boldly.
Who hasn
’
t felt inspired by the beauty and grandeur of nature?

Or when Gandalf falls into the crevasse
—
who
hasn
’
t ached with grief when a mentor is suddenly stripped away?
Tolkien had to have seen good men
“
fall
”
in combat during WWI, and I believe that when he wrote that scene, he was trying to dramatize for us how this all-too-common emotion feels.

So Tolkien
touches us with wonder one moment when we meet the elves, or with delight as his
Hobbits
get a fine meal of mushrooms from a local farmer, or relief when Gandalf finally realizes the secret of how to open an ancient door into a mountain.
He reminds us of the love we might have felt for a good animal one moment, and a longing to be home another.
At every turn, we are reminded by the
Hobbits
of how frightening and dangerous larger people can
be
,
an emotion that is overwhelming for children at times.

That
’
s one of the keys to drawing and holding an audience
—
creating scenes that resonate with
readers
emotionally, that touch them deeply because they themselves have lived through a similar experience.

A similar thing can be done with themes
.
One great editor
, Sol Stein,
mentioned that by simply touching upon a univer
sal truth, we as authors can create a bond with our reader
.
Thus, when Tolkien writes about the corrupting influence of the One Ring, it’s something that we all connect with
.
Tolkien was undoubtedly familiar with Lord Acton’s quote, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Tolkien’s dramatization of that theme is outstanding.

T
here are a number of
other
ways to write an epic
, though, to try
capture
a picture
of life
.
The
Russian critic argued
that in order to write an epic, to give
readers
the illusion
that a book
captured the
whole
life,
the author
had to use
all of
the various levels of language of
his
society
.
This makes sense in Russian, where a commoner, a merchant, and a lord had vastly different dialects, and one can see a master at this technique in a modern fantasy writer, Patrick
Rothfuss
, in his epic masterpiece
The Name of the Wind.

This
concept is similar to
Chaucer
’
s
belief
that by writing about people in various occupations
—
lord, knight, merchant, serf
—
he could try to capture all of life.
After all, nothing marks a person
’s class as
much as
his
language.

Other
critics
have
sought
to cover the various stages of life in order to create an epic
—
childhood, young love,
courtship,
the raising of a family, old age and death.

Certainly Tolkien uses each of these techniques to some degree
.
But more importantly, I believe that Tolkien was trying to capture a world of
emotions
in order to give his work epic scope.

For those of you who want to write epics, you might want to take note of what he did.

But there is another way that you can create resonance in your story
—
th
r
ough resonance within the work itself, or
“
internal
”
resonance.

Internal resonance occurs when a writer sets up a motif to a story, and deepens the readers’ emotions by playing upon that motif. Let’s discuss a couple of examples from Tolkien.

The Lord of the Rings
is a story of loss, a tale of how each of us experiences the wonders and the beauties of the world, and then must leave them behind. Tolkien begins setting us up for this loss right from the beginning. Frodo Baggins is
hesitant to leave the Shire when he was supposed to, for he doesn’t really want to lose his home, Bag End. Yet he puts it up for sale and makes a big show of leaving, spending many a night to walk its trails in the starlight and say his goodbyes. This almost does him in, for he is nearly captured by the Nine Dark Riders.

Yet he finds refuge from them in the home of Farmer Maggot, and reluctantly says goodbye to a new-found friend.

Then again, the same type of action is repeated in the home of Tom
Bombadil
.

And once again he finds solace and friendship in Rivendell, and is forced to leave.

Frodo then finds friendship among his traveling companions, but Gandalf is torn from the party in the Mines of
Moria
, and once again Frodo is forced to flee with his life in danger.

In
Lothlorien
Frodo takes refuge, and like a man who has been jilted by his lover, he offers his ring to Galadriel. But all too soon he realizes that in order to keep her safe, he has to leave
Lothlorien
.

Indeed, he decides to leave everyone behind at the end of
The Fellowship
of the Ring, and races off even as the Orcs attack his friends.