Human culture has been navigating the hero's journey for approximately 2700 years. Twenty-seven centuries ago we were introduced to the Iliad and Odyssey and the names of Achilles, Odysseus, Telemachus, Paris and Hector - among so many others - entered our vocabularies (who never discovered the “Achilles’ heel” of someone or something? ).
When the first young man received the first mystical call, we became witnesses to an endless line of heroes who left their home, found a mentor, discovered possessing an exceptional power, faced many dangers, fell, rose, defeated their enemies to finally return home, triumphantly, now recognized in all their hero splendor (whew!); since then, this cycle has been perpetuated in all arts.
It was in 1949 that Joseph Campbell coined the expression "the Hero's journey" or monomyth. In Modern Times, this narrative structure is as ubiquitous as if it had just been invented.
The characteristic of this “Hero's journey” that has always catched my attention is the recognition of their peers. It is not enough to have a “brave heart”, “great powers and great responsibilities”: at the moment that the hero starts his odyssey, he is mistreated, scorned and often lonely. It is only when he saves precisely those who despised him that everything changes, and he is now invested with all possible qualities of a hero (until the next quest starts all over again).
Even the juvenile audience is a consumer of this narrative. A queen of ice, pandas who are masters in martial arts, a young woman who dresses as a man to face the Hun army, a little boy who ends up facing the greatest wizard of all time ... films, books and comic books, among other manifestations of narratives are saturated with the same message: to have value and a worthwhile life, you must be a hero.
When I started to delineate the first outlines of Berenice, many possibilities of plot passed through my head. Being a fan of the hero's journey theme and fantastic literature myself, I considered something great for her.
But, the more the story of Berenice of Cappadoce got clear for me, the more the heroic model bothered me and I asked myself “what is the point of my story?”. When I finish reading a monomyth or fantastic book, I feel a mixture of excitement and frustration. While I read The Kingkiller Chronicle (Patrick Rothfuss, by DAW/Penguin Books), every time Kvothe's talent allowed him a genius way of solving his problems, I would vibrate in “wow’s” and “phew’s”, for later tell myself that there has never been and will never be anyone like that; and there my identification with the character wavered. This was even more striking during my adolescence and youth. After all, do we only have value when we do something great?
When a child is bullied at school, it is not expecting him to do something extraordinary, that causes admiration in his bullies, that things will work out. It is not possible to pay attention to the forgotten of society only when they have heroic acts, like saving puppies from drowning or returning wallets full of money to they owners. Hero's journeys are very beautiful stories of overcoming and courage but even in times of social overexposure, mostly of time no one is interested in our daily battles. We often just sit and cry over our own losses, not knowing what to do.
For this very reason, Berenice is out of the mold of the Hero's journey. Nothing in her is extraordinary, nothing about her is such: no such beauty, no such intelligence, no such kindness, or courage, none of these attributes are fulgurant in her. If she lived today, she would be the girl next door, or the lady in line at the supermarket. She did not change the course of history. Not even a butterfly effect applies to her story. For as long as she lived, her very existence will only make a difference to those with whom she have lived with. For an estimated population between 60 and 70 million people in her lifetime, the impact of Berenice's existence is nil.
Now you must be asking yourself "but why then write a book about someone so boring". The reason is very simple: for me the simple fact of being alive is extraordinary! Every day, throughout our lives, we are faced with so many situations that require effort and determination from us. I had the chance to meet many unknown but extraordinary people, whose lives deserved to be narrated in a book, but who don't even realize how fantastic they are.
In her own way, Berenice also has a journey that is worth telling. It is a historical novel in which you will be transported to the times of the Roman Empire of the 3rd century. In Berenice of Cappadoce: the no hero's journey the reader will find all the elements that make shine the thread of life. Drama, suspense, romance, friendship and other things are in the book. But all of this is extraordinarily common.
And that is the reason this story is within everyone's reach.
PS: although the word heroine exists in the English language, the term non-hero was chosen precisely to emphasize everything the book is opposed to. But that's a topic for another conversation!