2. “The inability to touch the moon is not solved by a rigorous regime of jump practice”. I am stealing this. This is mine now.
3. This is EXACTLY the focus of my own work. I'm serializing a novel here called A Little Death, about the American Industrial Healthcare Complex. The protagonist tries every angle he can think of. He fights as hard as he can. In the end, he is swallowed. Because systems like these, they swallow. It is not depressing. It is real.
Like I said, I am serializing it here, and I can't bring myself to post a link because reasons, but I would be honored by anyone wanting to read it, and happy to send anyone the full for free. Because sometimes the market doesn't respond to what we need. But we can.
Really resonated with this - I agree that we need to normalise failure and stop treating it like a dirty word. I loved your point that trying and failing still matters, even without a redemptive arc.
In a recent post, I wrote about Its A Wonderful Life as a kind of inverted hero’s journey - George Bailey never gets the adventure he dreams of, feels like a failure, and never really gets his big win. But the point is he already was the hero, even in the quiet life he didnt choose. That’s the tension I feel with failed heroes - sometimes what looks like failure is actually the story. Sometimes, simply having tried is the victory.
I don’t have much pull in the media world, but honestly, I’d love to see this story come to life. A main character fighting to do what’s right and chase their dreams, only to be clobbered by the cold reality of life... that’s the kind of story that really sticks with you.
It would be such a powerful and real representation.
Most media is meant to be purely entertainment, an escape from reality for a while, so I can understand the excess of the "hero always wins in the end" theme. People want to be the hero; they don't want to be reminded of their failures and shortcomings because society itself demonizes such things, which can be exacerbated by the successful hero rhetoric.
I've seen this in my own life as a bit of a "gifted kid," where failure was kind of a big deal because it wasn't expected; I wasn't supposed to fail. My failures meant something was wrong with me, even if the cause was something out of my control. I wasn't given the space to see that failure, while unpleasant, is something that is, in most cases, inevitable, and that that in itself is ok.
I cheered at the end of Avengers Infinity War because the heroes did all they could and failed. If only the writers had left it at that and rebuilt afterwards.
A really well done movie adaptation of Brave New World would touch on this. I remember being hit so hard by the unusualness of the lack of heroic victory at the end. Phenomenal book.
I do think that Frodo actually counts as one of these failed heroes. The actual mission of destroying the ring didn't fail, but Frodo failed in the sense that after the arduous journey of reaching Mount Doom, Frodo isn't able to destroy the ring of his own free will.
I don’t think that can count as a failed hero. Yes, he fell short by himself, but through Sam helping him they managed to complete the task. So even though Frodo wasn’t the perfect person, outside forces made him succeed anyways. I therefore don’t think that Frodo counts,using Joe’s definition, as failed hero.
I do understand what you mean though. And now I realllly want to watch the trilogy again!
Do you think that it would be fair to say that Frodo had the potential to become a failed hero, and that the reason that he didn't become one, was because he wasn't alone?
Most definitely! He did try his hardest to complete his mission, and if Sam hadn’t been there to help him he definitely would’ve become a failed hero. As Joe says, a fallen hero is one who, even with all their virtues, fails their task due to external circumstances or their task being an impossible one. Carrying the ring to Mordor alone would definitely be an impossible task. So if Sam couldn’t carry Frodo the last stretch and the ring would fall into the hands of Sauron I think he could definitely be considered as a fallen hero. Am I making sense? Its 4am so I’m unsure if I making sense haha
I see your point. And I partly agree. However, this message would be best conveyed if it still attempted to ennoble the audience after showing the character's downfall, despite all their hard work and endurance. This does not mean the hero's failure should be "softened" or anything, but it should serve to harden our own resolve.
I'm really depressed these days about a recent break up and I see myself as failure because of some societal expectations about a healthy relationship and a being successful human stuff who have perfect habits and lifestyle stuff you know to the point I realize I been overly criticizing/sabotaging myself and then I realize self criticism will not gonna bring anything positive in my life I'm just making my life much more miserable each days and maybe I just need to let go of my past failure and me trying is already a win enough even it didn't lasted or attainable consistently or permanently
And yeah I'm building myself again in order to try another attempt to live my live and overcome my dreams I once failed
This concept always resonates with me. My career and life in general has been a series of "failing up" for the last 15 years now. Every single time I failed with grace and ended up in a better place for it. It's so hard to tell people that it's okay and to do your best as you fail and that the world (as in, the people watching you) will see these tribulations and respond in ways that move us in the right direction; whether it's out of a place we don't really belong or into a place we truly do. Our failures are our best teachers.
A few things Joseph.
1. Absolutely love your content/point of view.
2. “The inability to touch the moon is not solved by a rigorous regime of jump practice”. I am stealing this. This is mine now.
3. This is EXACTLY the focus of my own work. I'm serializing a novel here called A Little Death, about the American Industrial Healthcare Complex. The protagonist tries every angle he can think of. He fights as hard as he can. In the end, he is swallowed. Because systems like these, they swallow. It is not depressing. It is real.
Like I said, I am serializing it here, and I can't bring myself to post a link because reasons, but I would be honored by anyone wanting to read it, and happy to send anyone the full for free. Because sometimes the market doesn't respond to what we need. But we can.
This sounds like it would be a wonderful read Eric! Could you please send me the link?
Let me know if this link doesn’t work or if the formatting is poor and I’ll fix it up for you. Thanks for the read!
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ez59o10my98guz3mscqkn/A-Little-Death.epub?rlkey=tfj9g55vs5q09fjzynlzgd60r&st=v6hg067m&dl=0
Hi Eric, I'll be joining Alexis in reading your story! Well done on finishing to begin 👏
Thank you!
The link is working, thank you so much Eric! I’ll come back and give you my thoughts if you don’t mind.
100% thank you
Really resonated with this - I agree that we need to normalise failure and stop treating it like a dirty word. I loved your point that trying and failing still matters, even without a redemptive arc.
In a recent post, I wrote about Its A Wonderful Life as a kind of inverted hero’s journey - George Bailey never gets the adventure he dreams of, feels like a failure, and never really gets his big win. But the point is he already was the hero, even in the quiet life he didnt choose. That’s the tension I feel with failed heroes - sometimes what looks like failure is actually the story. Sometimes, simply having tried is the victory.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ryangrey/p/every-story-has-a-hero?r=1gqzx2&utm_medium=ios
I don’t have much pull in the media world, but honestly, I’d love to see this story come to life. A main character fighting to do what’s right and chase their dreams, only to be clobbered by the cold reality of life... that’s the kind of story that really sticks with you.
It would be such a powerful and real representation.
#bringbacktragedy
Not a movie but this is definitely my life story in one paragraph hwahahahahahahbaha
Most media is meant to be purely entertainment, an escape from reality for a while, so I can understand the excess of the "hero always wins in the end" theme. People want to be the hero; they don't want to be reminded of their failures and shortcomings because society itself demonizes such things, which can be exacerbated by the successful hero rhetoric.
I've seen this in my own life as a bit of a "gifted kid," where failure was kind of a big deal because it wasn't expected; I wasn't supposed to fail. My failures meant something was wrong with me, even if the cause was something out of my control. I wasn't given the space to see that failure, while unpleasant, is something that is, in most cases, inevitable, and that that in itself is ok.
Great piece it was a very good read! x
A film does this. It’s called Rocky
I cheered at the end of Avengers Infinity War because the heroes did all they could and failed. If only the writers had left it at that and rebuilt afterwards.
A really well done movie adaptation of Brave New World would touch on this. I remember being hit so hard by the unusualness of the lack of heroic victory at the end. Phenomenal book.
I do think that Frodo actually counts as one of these failed heroes. The actual mission of destroying the ring didn't fail, but Frodo failed in the sense that after the arduous journey of reaching Mount Doom, Frodo isn't able to destroy the ring of his own free will.
I don’t think that can count as a failed hero. Yes, he fell short by himself, but through Sam helping him they managed to complete the task. So even though Frodo wasn’t the perfect person, outside forces made him succeed anyways. I therefore don’t think that Frodo counts,using Joe’s definition, as failed hero.
I do understand what you mean though. And now I realllly want to watch the trilogy again!
Do you think that it would be fair to say that Frodo had the potential to become a failed hero, and that the reason that he didn't become one, was because he wasn't alone?
Most definitely! He did try his hardest to complete his mission, and if Sam hadn’t been there to help him he definitely would’ve become a failed hero. As Joe says, a fallen hero is one who, even with all their virtues, fails their task due to external circumstances or their task being an impossible one. Carrying the ring to Mordor alone would definitely be an impossible task. So if Sam couldn’t carry Frodo the last stretch and the ring would fall into the hands of Sauron I think he could definitely be considered as a fallen hero. Am I making sense? Its 4am so I’m unsure if I making sense haha
Loved this, my favourite piece of your content so far. Thank you 🙏
Amazingly well said x
I love this ❤️
I see your point. And I partly agree. However, this message would be best conveyed if it still attempted to ennoble the audience after showing the character's downfall, despite all their hard work and endurance. This does not mean the hero's failure should be "softened" or anything, but it should serve to harden our own resolve.
I wouldn’t call Hussain ibn Ali a failed hero but he’s certainly wasn’t a winning one.
I'm really depressed these days about a recent break up and I see myself as failure because of some societal expectations about a healthy relationship and a being successful human stuff who have perfect habits and lifestyle stuff you know to the point I realize I been overly criticizing/sabotaging myself and then I realize self criticism will not gonna bring anything positive in my life I'm just making my life much more miserable each days and maybe I just need to let go of my past failure and me trying is already a win enough even it didn't lasted or attainable consistently or permanently
And yeah I'm building myself again in order to try another attempt to live my live and overcome my dreams I once failed
Rocky is that movie!
This concept always resonates with me. My career and life in general has been a series of "failing up" for the last 15 years now. Every single time I failed with grace and ended up in a better place for it. It's so hard to tell people that it's okay and to do your best as you fail and that the world (as in, the people watching you) will see these tribulations and respond in ways that move us in the right direction; whether it's out of a place we don't really belong or into a place we truly do. Our failures are our best teachers.