See now, here's the thing: I don't think "Stephen" is helpless. Needy, yes - compulsive, yes - oh hell yes - but helpless? I don't think so. He is desperate for affection, and approval, and sometimes he gets it - from the Nation, I would say, definitely he gets it - and sometimes he doesn't, and it's the fact that sometimes he does - and that he's capable of making steps towards getting it, that he puts in motion plans/words/ideas that he thinks stand a good chance of getting that approval - that, to me, suggests that he is not helpless. Ineffectual.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that the problem is, as you put it, 'the walls he builds around himself'; I don't necessarily agree that they keep him from connecting with people. He makes a connection with his audience, and it's a connection he certainly needs; he's aware of the connections between people even if he's not all that perceptive; and he is capable of making that connection with individuals. The walls aren't fully solid. They're just not. He makes that connection with the baby - and yes, early on, even before the vast majority of his growth occurs - the fact that he is panicking on the way to the hospital, I think, shows that. Even before then - the moment where he decides, at Christmas, to brave the facts in all the hospital leaflets/info Moreau gave him. And he loves Jon, even if - like I said, not all that perceptive - he does not recognise that. To me, hopeless would mean 'incapable'. It's an extreme that "Stephen" hasn't yet reached. His compassion is, as you said yourself, 'inhibited' by his ignorance - it's not ground out. I think there's a difference, and that it's a subtle one, and I think our disagreement is probably just precipitated on grounds of semantics - but that's what I mean. "Stephen" is capable of growth - hell, that's what this whole story is driven by - Stephen's growth, powered by that within him.
And when I say, 'hopelessly inconsiderate' elsewhere - I mean that I have no hope of him being considerate. Our view changes, much like Stephen's, as we go along - and I think that's a real credit to the story, and to your writing; but here we don't yet expect that much of him; we don't dare to hope.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly that the problem is, as you put it, 'the walls he builds around himself'; I don't necessarily agree that they keep him from connecting with people. He makes a connection with his audience, and it's a connection he certainly needs; he's aware of the connections between people even if he's not all that perceptive; and he is capable of making that connection with individuals. The walls aren't fully solid. They're just not. He makes that connection with the baby - and yes, early on, even before the vast majority of his growth occurs - the fact that he is panicking on the way to the hospital, I think, shows that. Even before then - the moment where he decides, at Christmas, to brave the facts in all the hospital leaflets/info Moreau gave him. And he loves Jon, even if - like I said, not all that perceptive - he does not recognise that. To me, hopeless would mean 'incapable'. It's an extreme that "Stephen" hasn't yet reached. His compassion is, as you said yourself, 'inhibited' by his ignorance - it's not ground out. I think there's a difference, and that it's a subtle one, and I think our disagreement is probably just precipitated on grounds of semantics - but that's what I mean. "Stephen" is capable of growth - hell, that's what this whole story is driven by - Stephen's growth, powered by that within him.
And when I say, 'hopelessly inconsiderate' elsewhere - I mean that I have no hope of him being considerate. Our view changes, much like Stephen's, as we go along - and I think that's a real credit to the story, and to your writing; but here we don't yet expect that much of him; we don't dare to hope.