It’s that time of year again, when people singing Christmas songs and dwelling on exactly what is a miracle. My kids and I (mostly, admittedly, me) have really been enjoying watching “Miraculous: The Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir.” I’ve also happened upon some really impressive fan fiction by some very talented authors.
The show is charming, with main characters as two Parisian high school students. Aspiring fashion designer Marinette has a crush on her fashion model classmate Adrien. Thanks to some Far Eastern magic and unknown to each other, they have been gifted little deities called “Miraculous.”
This jewelry transforms them into the superheroes Ladybug and Chat Noir.
On the opposite side of the mask, pun-making hero Chat Noir has a crush on super-competent save-the-day Ladybug. The comedy of it all and the absurd solutions to the ridiculous villains deserves its own “Why Engineers Shouldn’t Watch TV” series. I may yet write that as I cycle through the series again.
Perhaps someone my age should not take such enjoyment from an animated series intended for a tween audience. But I find it helps me get into the heads of my own teenage characters in a more believable way.
What is a Miracle?
My daughter peeked over my shoulder at a Ladybug fanfic I was reading. An advanced reader for her age, she came across the word “miraculous.”
When she asked me what it meant, I hit a wall trying to find an explanation for this word to my six-year-old.
Enter my trusty dictionary and the habit I cultivated in high school preparing for the PSATs. Anytime in the course of any of my reading (personal and scholastic) I found a word that I couldn’t immediately define or identify a synonym for from my extensive vocabulary, I looked it up. Needless to say, I ACED the PSAT and SAT verbal section. I still do this exercise, albeit a little less frequently and needfully, but still very consciously. It’s definitely given a certain specificity to writing a particular feeling or emotion when you understand the difference between “cackle” and “giggle.”
Anyway, back to the point of today’s “Word Wednesday” and T’s question…what is a miracle?
After scouring various sources, here’s the definition I gave T this definition for a miracle:
“an unexpected but welcome (or positive) event that cannot (currently) be explained by science and therefore is attributed to God.”
My Latin and theatre-loving heart thinks of deux ex machina here. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it refers to machinations of the gods resolve a plot, except supposedly in real life.
A Note on FanFics
I’ve always enjoyed reading fan fiction. Earlier on, I did write some of my own, well before I wrote publication-worth material. Recently, I wondered about the value of talented authors spending their efforts writing fanfics. These are stories they will never be able to make money from. But then I concluded that they really write because they want people to gain enjoyment from their stories. Certainly the longer fanfics I’ve read tell well-developed stories with interesting plots and beautiful language. In many cases, these authors stay true to the style of their source material and write stories that offer the same flavor as the original.
About Word Wednesday
Learning new words and being able to find the word that means exactly what the story needs can mean the difference between a mediocre story and a brilliant one.
On Wednesdays we will identify an unusual word, provide its definition, and discuss its application or its impact.