Fred sat in the corner, slowly reading a tattered book he wasn’t supposed to have. Even knowing how to read was prohibited, but he struggled with the words in spite of that. As he did, he thought of his mother. He barely knew her but he had heard she was the only slave in the area who knew how to read.
His stomach growled. He had been denied food by an upset cook and as he turned the page, the cuts from being whipped ached. The pragmatic choice was to collapse into bed and recuperate for the next day, but he turned the page not because he had some great master plan or knew his struggle would succeed but because the only alternative was to give up.
It’s far too easy to look at the life of someone like Frederick Douglass and forget that he didn’t know the ended. In his worst moments, he had no reason to believe he would ever be free or that learning to read would mean anything. The entire world and every system was rigged against him and there wasn’t a logical reason to believe that would change.
I understand that desperate need for hope. Just like Frederick Douglass couldn’t know his story, I can’t always see a way forward when the system is rigged, and the rich and powerful are working against all of us. And following the example of Frederick Douglass I look to books for hope.
No character better represents hope than Superman. He was created in a time and a place where people needed that hope. It was the middle of the Great Depression, the Nazis were coming to power and his creator had lost his father. And instead of giving up Joe Shuster looked to books for hope.
This week I read ‘The Superman Wars’ by William Bernhardt. Since every book and movie about Superman is legally required to be about hope that’s one of its core themes. But it’s not just window dressing. It’s the story of someone who tilted at windmills for sixty years because he hoped it would matter.
The Cliffsnotes version of the excellent books is that Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and DC Comics was allowed to print the comics. DC became wealthy and powerful and so claimed ownership of the character while Joe Shuster fought for the credit, and money even when his family could barely afford to buy food.
For him, like so many of us Superman represented hope. Superman stories are the wish fulfillment of being powerful, they are the hope we will be rescued, and that good is more powerful than evil. But there are times when it feels like the supervillains already won and destroyed everything.
Hope in those situations is difficult and complicated. Science fiction is full of stories about hope in hopeless times. Those stories include The Stand, The Road, The Postman, and other books that have ‘The’ in their title about hopeless times. And by being reading those stories and those of Fredrick Douglas we can find those remaining shreds of hope that things will get better.
I truly hope you haven’t suffered like Frederick Douglass, or even Jerry and Joe, but we all have moments when hope is hard to find. The dark moments of the soul when you’re too tired to keep pretending things can get better. I can’t tell you the end of the story. What I can tell you is that you don’t get to know the end. Neither did any the heroes in those stories. They had lots of chances to give up only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. And next week I’m going to do my best to explain how they held on.
Question of the Week
When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
Maya Angelou
As a small creator, the patrons and those who help in other ways are the only reason I’m able to do this every week. If you can help, that is fantastic, but I don’t want anyone left out. So if money is tight, then grab a free month, and if at the end of the month you want to stick around, please get another one.
The creation of memory implants seemed like a boon for society. Decades worth of study could by uploaded into a person’s mind in seconds. But Professor Roth isn’t convinced so he gathers a small group of students who are willing to break the law to learn a different version of history.
The most dangerous technology ever created has begun to spread across the planet. It is Delvin’s job to track down the molecular assemblers and destroy them before they can be used to sow chaos across the world, or worse.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The easiest way to give independent authors a chance to impress you than a short story. So grab some free short stories and perhaps you’ll find your new favorite author.
Get Free Fantasy and Science Fiction
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie
Anyone who knows me, or has followed this newsletter for long knows that I love Lord of the Rings and part of the reason for that is that hope is one of the themes. One of the best of those moments is when Pippen asks if there is any hope.
And Gandalph responds that there was never much hope. Just a fools hope. I love the subtext of that line that is tied to just how often he has called Pippen a fool. But more than that I want to be foolish enough to believe things can get better.
So next week, I want to talk about one of my favorite books and something even more powerful than hope.
Elton Gahr
To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
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