Bittercon: "I'm So Special"

[intertext]

For those on my flist not able to join oursin and brisingamen at Wiscon, or who did not go and have fun at Kalamazoo (or even those who did!) but who would like to participate in a Con panel, there is lively discussion at papersky, sartorias and katenepveu and others coordinated in the community bittercon. Here's my panel topic:

"I'm So Special" - Wish Fulfillment Fantasy and Science Fiction

From Harry Potter to Heroes, there's a whole sub-genre of SF in which the "outsider" suddenly discovers that he or she is not an outsider but a member of some elite class of beings (wizard, superhero, Herald). There is a sub-genre of this trope in which the person becomes special by being CHOSEN by some kind of sentient animal - think particularly of the works of Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey.

My question is not so much about the popularity of such a class of novels - I think the attraction is fairly obvious - but whether any of these authors, or others, have dealt with the notion of being the one NOT chosen. J K Rowling never really allows her characters to interact with "normal" Muggles, only the dreadful members of Harry's family - I'd love to read something from the perspective of such a character. There are several Pern novels in which some of the suspense is derived from the viewpoint character not being chosen by a dragon when expected to be so, but I believe that all of them end up with that character being chosen in the end.

I've often thought of writing something called "The Unchosen" from the perspective of someone in that position who feels, perhaps, bitter (hey - Bittercon!) and excluded. Do any works exist in which the main character is "normal" within a society such as I've described and comes to terms with it?

A related question is that these, with the possible exception of Harry Potter, seem to fall into the category of "guilty pleasure" reading - basically not terribly good books that are nevertheless fun escapism. Are there any "good" works, by which I mean books that you don't have to apologize for reading, that fall under this category? And if not, why not?

Comments

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any Roberson, but Lackey has only one Unchosen: Tylendel, and even he gets a second chance, though not as a Herald. In His Dark Materials, sundered children become like ghosts...

It's an interesting point.

Ooh, here: The Hallowed Hunt isn't shameful escapist brain-candy.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

But Tylendel was chosen in the first place, wasn't he? Then gets a special job when his Companion dies iirc.

I suppose you could call whatsisname the engineer in that last series of Valdemar books an "Unchosen" but he has special skills that make him part of the elite group. I think I remember one short story either by Lackey or by a fanfic writer, in one of the Valdemar story collections, about a woman who does not get chosen, and it was actually one of the more powerful in the collection.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

He was Chosen and then repudiated by his Companion, who then did "suicide by wyrsa". He went insane and hung himself. Then he's reincarnated as Steffan the bard.

Keren's twin brother Teren wasn't Chosen till he was an adult; she was Chosen at the normal age.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

oops, yes - I'd gotten him muddled. As you guessed, I was confusing him with Teren, and then got him wrong, too. Middle age :( it does fearful things to your brain...