The 2nd Annual Heroism - the Oggbashan Memorial Event
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This event is now closed to new entries!
Read all the participating stories here
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Here's more on the event from this year's organizer
ChloeTzang
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Last year, Literotica ran the 2023 "Heroism - the Oggbashan Memorial Event" for the first time, an event held in memory of
Oggbashan
, one of our long-time members, a prolific writer, a mainstay of the Authors Hangout for many many years, and a mentor and friend to many of us. Ogg died quietly in his bed on 30 May 2023 after a lengthy battle with cancer - a battle he fought for far longer and with far more tenacity than even he anticipated. Shortly after Ogg's death, Literotica ran the first of what's intended to be an annual 'Heroism - the Oggbashan Memorial Event', a tribute to a man too damned stubborn to bow to life's bitter sentences, too proud to stay silent and too full of life to simply fade away.
Ogg was aware that this annual event would be held, but had requested that the first be postponed until after his death.
TarnishedPenny
organized the first event last year (thank you, TP), and I've volunteered to organize this year's event - the second - built around the theme of heroism - stories about heroes and heroines, how to define and recognize heroism, what heroism means to us as authors and, perhaps, what heroism means to the characters in their own tales.
Heroism wears a thousand faces. Some types of heroism are easy to recognize - the soldier going into battle is perhaps the most instantly recognizable - the RAF pilots in the battle of Britain who flew their Spitfires and Hurricanes against the Luftwaffe, the Marines and soldiers who stormed Iwo Jima and the beaches of Normandy, and rather more currently, the Ukrainian soldiers defending their country against the Russian invaders. But there are many other faces to heroism. The white-hot bravery that sends a stranger running into a burning house to save another's children. The selfless devotion demonstrated by medical staff and first responders in the face of highly contagious diseases such as Ebola. The elderly Japanese retirees whom, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, volunteered to help with the cleanup so younger workers could avoid the radiation. The engineers and workers who fought the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, many of whom subsequently died. The first astronauts, blasting off into space.
The early explorers, sailing into the unknown time and time again - men such as Pytheas, sailing into the Arctic, Hanno the Carthaginian, circumnavigating Africa, the seamen of Sumer, who sailed India and back at the dawn of recorded history, the Portuguese and Spanish seamen braving the world's oceans in their carvels, Zheng He leading Chinese fleets to India and Africa. The aborigines who, 80,000 years ago, sailed across 400 miles of sea to Australia. There are many many such examples, and most of those who participated didn't think of themselves as heroes. They were simply men and women caught up in circumstances and events which turned them into heroes, as has happened since the dawn of time, is happening now, and will continue to happen as long as we exist.
The hero or the heroine has existed across all time and all cultures - heroic tales from antiquity - the story of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Jason and the Argonauts and the other Heroes of the Greek Myths. Horatius holding the bridge. The Arthurian tales and the last stand of Roman Britain against the Saxon invaders. Beowulf. Mulan leading a Chinese army against the invaders from the steppe. The Norse sagas, tales of courage and defiance in the face of adversity and fearful odds. The Japanese samurai. The Crusaders. The Vietnamese who fought China for a thousand years to eventually regain independence for Vietnam. The soldiers who held Vienna against the Ottoman Empire. The men who fought at Lepanto. The Conquistadors, and the soldiers of the Inca Empire who fought against them.
