I've been thinking about pacifism and epics for some time now. I was fascinated with epics (by which I mean traditional epics) when I was younger. I loved the idea of a culture's most important values embodied in the characters, action, and setting of a single story. Not that I undervalued the action either! But a core of such stories for me was often the ethical decisions the heroes faced and what their choices said to their authors and audiences.
Like most children of the '70s and '80s, my real introduction to epics was not actually a traditional epic, but an imitation: Star Wars. I was thus primed when in high school I read The Odyssey and Beowulf, and fragments of others (some of which might not be considered epics by everyone, I suppose). In college I read The Iliad, which would end up probably being the most influential of all, along with more imitations: The Lord of the Rings, and one might also include Dune. I also encountered some poorer modern attempts, which I shall not name now; these I think prompted me to consider how I would write an epic, if I were ever to attempt such a thing.
At almost the same time I became so interested in epics, my views on war and violence were changing. Somewhere in my middle to late teens (my memory is unusually vague on this point) I began to lean towards pacifism, a position I eventually adopted more or less wholesale. This did not introduce as much tension into my interest in epics as one might suppose. Like most readers, I never accepted the values of the Greeks, but I could still appreciate their literary works. Furthermore, epics are often quite upfront about the negative impact of violence. The Iliad is perhaps the best example of this; when I first read it, I would have said it seemed outright hostile to the concept of war (whether it actually is or not, I will leave to the professional scholars). But, having said that, violence still plays a very prominent part in epics, and is almost always excused as necessary. Furthermore, the idea of an epic as enshrining some cultural values - well, cultures that value pacifism certainly seem left out on that front, at the moment.
So a natural conjunction of my thoughts on constructing an epic (which were admittedly themselves somewhat fantastic) and my thoughts about pacifism - well the end result is a question as to what relation pacifism might play in an epic. Pacifist characters in an epic would be interesting. An epic with pacifists as the heroes would be even more intriguing, if it were even possible - after all it might end rather quickly!
All of which brings us to here and now. I've thought about this so long, but not gotten very far. Writing things down is often helpful and instructive; thus, this journal.
I should add at this point that these thoughts have largely come from my thoughts about how I would write such an epic. I've never noticed any epics or such that did feature pacifism prominently. (If anyone is aware of any sightings of pacifism in an epic or anything that at least tries to be an epic, I'd love to hear about it.)
I don't intend these posts to be very formal, though some may veer that way - it is a predisposition of mine, so I would not advise anyone to take any thing I write here as my "final" take on any idea, unless I say otherwise, and even then. I would consider what I write here to be only a little beyond brainstorming.
For the record, I can't claim to be writing an epic of any variety, with or without pacifism. But obviously, I've thought about it. Whether such a thing would ever happen - well, I'd rather not speculate at the moment! But, I think it's still an interesting thing to think about, at any rate. And who knows, but maybe my thoughts - and yours, should you choose to contribute them - may inspire some future generation of writer and pacifist to construct their own epic tale?
Finally, I'd be very interested in what others think about all this, so don't hesitate to add your input.
