As I mentioned in this blog a couple of weeks ago, I was in Boulder, CO last month. A book group had invited me to attend their monthly meeting where they planned to discuss my novel, RUN - which had been the club's book choice for September. Part of the discussion involved viewing RUN's characters in the context of another book, Masterminds and Wingmen, by Rosalind Wiseman.
Being a single guy, I had not read any of Wiseman's works - and there are a good number. She is, perhaps, best known as the author of the book, Queen Bees and Wannabees. That book, about girls and girl culture, would become the basis for Tina Fey's excellent movie, Mean Girls. Masterminds and Wingmen is Wiseman's sequel for boys and boy culture.
When Masterminds and Wingmen (M&W) was mentioned a few days before my trip, I hit up Wikipedia and Wiseman's website in order to be slightly conversant for the book club's meeting. Since then, I have read the book, and I posses a fuller understanding of why M&W would come to mind for someone reading RUN.
In researching RUN, I spent a huge amount of time looking at videos of college and high school cross country teams. I probably viewed 300-400 races. But more importantly, I looked for teams that posted videos outside of races. I watched to see how they interacted both during training and downtime. I followed a lot of Twitter feeds, team Facebook sites, Instagram postings, and paid particular attention to the lexicon used by young runners in comments and photo descriptions. As part of the research, every time a music group, show, or star was mentioned, I'd dutifully track it down and familiarize myself with the subject as much as possible. For instance, I watched a whole season of Zoey 101 (something I would not recommend to anyone over the age of 14), after the show was mentioned in a tweet. In that case, I learned that Zoey was one of a number of shows (ie Saved by the Bell, Degrassi, and Leave it to Beaver) that each generation looks back on as sort of an electronic comfort blanket. It is not that unusual to have a twenty-something watch an episode of the (to me, insipid) show, Zoey, because it is familiar and nostalgic.
In creating M&W, Wiseman went further than looking at how boys/young men talk and act. On an ongoing basis, she spoke with boys from different socio-economic groups, as well as from differing geographies and urban/suburban/rural settings. Rather than simply report, she analyzed what was behind the way boys/young men interacted with their peers, adults, and the world around them. And because she was thorough and inclusive in her research, Wiseman created a work that describes the forces behind the boy culture experience better than anything I've encountered. I found several instances in the book where I was thrown into a reverie - which could be quite emotional - as universal adolescent experiences were covered. At the book's conclusion, I could see the importance its contents would hold for parents of boys. I could see the benefits that I, a single guy, would (and will) derive from Wiseman's insights as well. As people, we all are better off if we are able to understand those around us - their motivations, emotions, thoughts, and the triggers for their actions. It is also helpful to be reminded of lessons we learned, but may have forgotten, as we have matured. M&W is, in some ways, a guidebook for how to positively coexist and collaborate with a significant portion of our population.
Looking at RUN through M&W glasses was a fun and informative experience. The process taught me a bit more about my characters. I also was able to look backwards at M&W through RUN, and had some additional thoughts for Wiseman's work as well.
If you have read both books, keep reading below. If not, you still might find the following discussion interesting, but it won't likely be as meaningful as if you were familiar with both.
In the context of M&W, RUN's main character/narrator, Andy, could be described as a former associate who has become a champion (ital. are terms used to describe boy culture types in M&W). While Andy has mild OCD and ADHD, he has still been able to rise to a high social level because of his talent as a runner and because he can keep his conditions just enough under the radar that most people don't notice them. Chris, in some ways, is an associate, and in others, a limited mastermind - he leads the team, but is not the best runner on the team. Juniors Skids and Ben are both champions and associates, who will no longer be associates once Andy, Chris, and a character named Kit graduate, and Skids and Ben become seniors. And Chad, the antagonist, has obviously been a mastermind. But now he is a mastermind without a posse since he has transferred to Westborough High from his old school for his senior year. So Chad, who many readers have found to be one of the more interesting characters, has trouble fitting in because, as a mastermind, he has only had to adhere to social norms that he created in the past. And now, in a new school, he finds the act of conforming to the culture to be nearly impossible.
Since the book is about cross country running, there is a good amount of content that, on the surface, fits neatly into Wiseman's descriptions of boy culture in relation to sports. Though cross country is not one of the most prestigious sports (ALMB, "act like a man") in M&W's estimation, it still has its own culture, practices, and contracts of conduct.
One thing M&W does not cover well (at least the edition I read) is gay/gay and gay/straight boy relationships and friendships. The book is hetero-centric with little examination given to the topic of gay boys. Even in discussing the 'friend zone', Wiseman only uses examples of boys wanting to date girls. Since 'friend zone' and sports are only discussed from a straight perspective, a good percentage of parents raising gay sons will find no easy answers from M&W. And that is too bad, because a big strength of Wiseman's book is that it can almost be seen as a go-to quick reference guide for many situations. I am hopeful that there will be a future edition that addresses gay and transgender kids. With suicide and substance abuse levels running high in that segment of our younger population, having more clear and supportive resources like M&W would be helpful to both parents and their sons.
The lack of a lot of gay information made it a bit difficult to fully cover the aspects of sports and friendships in RUN from a M&W perspective since a gay character plays such a large role in RUN (the narrator's best friend is gay). Yet there are certainly instances where examples are present. When a couple of kids break team rules, they learn that their actions have consequences. They are not hated or abused, but instead are made to follow the rules they had agreed to when they joined the sport. In another instance, bullying and rough talk are addressed by a coach. The kids, particularly Skids, a gay runner, are good at not letting too many sexist remarks fly by without challenge.
While Andy may be a M&W champion in disposition and in most of his actions, he is unable to act against the biggest issue the team faces. His associates, Chris and Skids (who, as I wrote earlier have some mastermind and champion traits), are ultimately the two who try separately, and in their own very different ways, to fix the problem.
I learned a lot by taking another look at RUN after reading Masterminds and Wingmen. I better understood my characters' motivations. I spent time looking back at my own childhood to think about how I fit in. I also examined how I interact with boys (and kids in general) in my life as an adult. Am I sending them the right message? Or am I falling into an ALMB role? With different kids, I think I probably do a bit of both. And that will, I hope change for the better in the immediate future.
While I am working on a new book (with very different subject matter) at the moment, I have been asked many times about writing a sequel to RUN. When I do, Wiseman's Masterminds and Wingmen will certainly be a top reference guide.
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