A while back, someone mentioned my post about the pieces of media that make up the Four Quadrants of my heart. Looking back at it, I found that while I still love the stories on that list, they aren't things that I actively engage with as much at this point in my life. I needed an updated list. If those first four quadrants are the base layer of my heart, this is like a second tier--the pieces of fiction that define my inner life at a different stage of life.
I think my current Four Quadrants are:
Tolkien: Specifically The Lord of the Rings, for its emphasis on holding onto hope in the face of despair, refusing to do evil even when it seems like the only way to win, holding onto home and beauty and the simple joys of life, counting on help from outside the world when it seems like there's no way in the world you can succeed
Elizabeth Gaskell: For her emphasis on caring about individuals, coming together as community, considering the big-picture forces that shape society as well as the tiny moments of everyday life in ways that show both are important
The Hunger Games books: For their pro life message, emphasis on how objectification leads to evil and how we must always see humanity in others, how love and family are the way to overcome evil, the importance of striving for hope and holding onto morals in a dark world,
Frank Capra movies: For their love of the common man and the simple joys of everyday life, the tension between idealism and practicality, the rock-solid understanding that doing the right thing is worthwhile even though it can destroy you
All four of these things are variations on the same thing, but with enough differences between them that the shades of nuance cover most of the ideas that I'm engaging with most in fiction lately.
