If a romantic hero is a zealot, his flaw may be truly fatal.
What is a zealot? A person who is always right in his own
mind. On top of that cannot tolerate diverse opinions. He thinks lowly of those
who he suspects has the wrong opinion (in the case of terrorists, would rather
see them dead). I say “suspects” because many shy away from discourse with
zealots, but he knows they’re wrong anyway.
Writing a zealot as a hero in romance—proud of the arc
created—is asking for less audience. Readers have been confronted by zealots
and they don’t like them. Even zealots don’t like those who inflexibly stand
against them. The hero would make any reader uncomfortable. In other words, it
is too much to expect the reader to develope empathy for or identify with the
hero.
Zealots who might read the story would be saddened if the
hero started to change. They’ll put the book down and go out looking for
somebody to beat-up mentally or physically (or just call a name).
Zealots often use verbal abuse (bullying) or if literate or
trained may engage in conversation in which their target is forced logically
(as they see it) to agree with them.
The last zealot I had to deal with disliked the Catholic
faith. I like him all right, anyway. An otherwise good man, if misguided. Due
to my—nearly a priest—education, I saw all the sophistry or weaknesses in his
sideways questioning of how devout a Catholic I was. I answered easily with
humor. We continued to play ping-pong. However, I really wanted to focus on the
game!
Would a reader put down a book and declare he needs to see
the dentist.
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