The Mind Parasites Q7 - Describing inner life and conflict

RichardAbbott

Wilson is trying to write about conflicts happening within a person's psyche, and mentions that he tried to do so without drawing heavily on tropes of physical fighting. Do you think he was successful? What authors have you read, who have in your view convincingly described inner conflict?

NeilNjae

It still came across as being a conflict outside the identity of Austin. It was a non physical space, but I don't see how Austin changed as a person through his struggle with the parasites. He didn't change his core identity and the parasites were always outside him.

RichardAbbott

There was, I think, very little character change in Austin - he just got better / more powerful at the Jedi mind tricks (to shamelessly borrow)! Maybe as @Apocryphal has suggested elsewhere this is just part of the pulp magazine trope - EE (Doc) Smith's lensmen never really change and grow, except in power. Even as young individuals they are heroic and morally incorruptible. Are there pulp characters who develop?

Apocryphal

I think there probably are, but quite often the stories were one-offs that could really be assembled in any order, and that's largely because there isn't an arc between the stories. Or not a strong one. That's not universally true, though - Moorcock's Hawkmoon stories definitely progress. The character himself doesn't change all that much (though as I recall he does change allegiance over the course of the tale).

clash_bowley

I am fairly sure that all the other people in this story were figments of Austin's imagination - slightly distorted mirror images of himself. No one else actually existed, and Austin himself never changed.