Keep Your Enemies Close

In fictional worlds, the abolitionist concept of restorative justice is often baked right in.

Greetings, writers, readers, thinkers, and all-around word babes! It’s 2022, kids are in school or maybe not, book deadlines have been met, and we’re bleary-eyed but present and accounted for. Fingers crossed that most of this is true for you, too.

Before our prompt, BIG FUCKING NEWS: Allison and Erin Kate are going to be INK SISTERS. What does that mean? After 15 years of writerly friendship, millions of writing group hours and critique conversations, we BOTH have books coming out the SAME MONTH: March 2022.

Holy shit, you say. YES, say we. Allie’s short story collection, SPLENDID ANATOMIES, is forthcoming from Veliz Books (You can’t order quite yet, but here’s a teaser). Erin Kate’s novel, QUANTUM GIRL THEORY, is on the way from Random House (preorder here; really, PLEASE DO); it’s already a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by CrimeReads, and has gotten a really lovely Kirkus review.  

Anyway! Speaking of lengthy community relationships, we’re jumping back into the writing prompt pond with some deep thinking about how antagonists, even the most evil of them, become essential to the ongoing story of a serial TV show... and how that models non-carceral concepts of justice. 

Over seven seasons of THE 100, Clarke commits numerous unforgivable acts, including genocide. Yet she's always forgiven. She might exile herself for a few episodes, but her friends pull her back into the fold. In the end, her friendship means more to them than literal immortality. The radical forgiveness is partly because we're in a dystopian world where Clarke’s skillset is particularly needed. We're sure it also has to do with the showrunners' desire to cash in on a popular character. But whatever the reason, Clarke’s multiple redemptions give us an alternate way to understand accountability. 

This happens all the time on TV, of course: teams will fracture, families will rupture. Someone will do something unspeakable and everyone will get angry. There may even be a period of banishment. But after the proper number of episodes, the team will come back together to face whatever the next super-threat may be.

In the most recent season of SUCCESSION, Kendall is let back into the family just in time to face down his dad with his siblings  — largely because they recognize that all of them suffered through abusive and terrorizing childhoods. In BIG LOVE, each of the three women at the center transgresses the union of their shared marriage and family by withholding essential information or acting on the temptations of the outside world. Over and over, they are pulled back into the family when the looming threat to the whole requires unity. And as many folks noted about a viral photo of a cop arresting the Grinch on Christmas, the GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS is a story of redemption, of justice through restoration, of forgiveness and abundance —not carceral politics. (One might suppose, given how many stories there are of bad guys being thrown in jail, that the redemption arc is precisely why the story endures.) 

No time for grudges if you're fighting evil, or if you’ve got a Roast Beast to eat.

THE MAGICIANS, another closed-world ensemble story, similarly saw characters seek and gain forgiveness and redemption over and over: Julia for nearly killing Quentin, Alice for being a villain AND trying to cancel all magic, Josh for spreading his werewolf affliction, and so on and so on. And in the CHARMED reboot, the sisters are constantly negotiating their relationships with frenemy Abby who betrays them or saves them depending on the stakes.

Some characters just can't die. They're too necessary for the story. And no matter what they do, they're always brought back to the team. In a closed fictional world, dystopian or otherwise, we can see how every character is valuable to the dynamic, is irreplaceable to the story. If it’s harder to see real people that way, maybe your art can help.

Is this restorative justice? Or is it just Hollywood, catering to viewers (or readers) who want to keep watching their favorite characters? Either way, it does show that the average contemporary American viewer is more comfortable with non-carceral accountability—at least when it comes to entertainment—than they might admit.

Writing Prompt: Consider the cast of characters you've been working with in your own project. Aren't they a sort of community? What's an "unforgivable" act that one member could commit against that community? Make them do it. Now figure out a non-carceral way for the community to keep that member. What can accountability look like within this fictitious community?

Recommended Viewing: The 100; The Magicians; Black Lightning: Charmed(2018 reboot): Wynona Earp; Big Love; The L Word: Generation Q; Pose; Jane the Virgin; Dynasty (2017 reboot); Real Housewives franchise: Gossip Girl(reboot & the OG)

Reflection: Art has the power to change minds; we know this. Serialized television, with its long-running stories that stay with viewers, can create scenarios that either reinforce existing belief systems or slyly undermine them by demonstrating how alternatives can play out. Viewers of police procedurals like LAW & ORDER are more likely to think that the criminal justice system is fair, because the ongoing story requires faith in that system. Stories like those we’ve discussed will — if not explicitly erode faith in the existing U.S. system of criminalization — reveal that justice, restoration, and reconciliation can be found in other models. 

What systems will you challenge in the worlds you create? How can you imagine characters within an alternative system, demonstrating a clear-eyed vision for a different world?

Minneapolis Storytelling Workshop is a joint project from writers Erin Kate Ryan and Allison Wyss. MSW celebrates the tiny weirdo inside you and elevates your love of television and film into a literary endeavor.