Almost from the moment John
D MacDonald created his famous series character Travis McGee, he began getting
asked if McGee was in fact the author's alter-ego. It seems like an unlikely
question to me, comparing a beach bum to a guy who sits in a room typing all
day, but McGee's characteristic asides on the nature of modern civilization are
probably what drove people to assume that McGee and MacDonald were --
figuratively -- one in the same. MacDonald denied it, of course, and he even
went as far as to proclaim that McGee's asides were not necessarily his (JDM's)
own opinions. "His opinions are not
my opinions," he wrote. "In some, they are -- though in varying
degrees of strength and conviction."
As the character of Meyer
was gradually introduced into the novels, another strain of author-character
comparisons were begun, with readers assuming that Meyer was MacDonald. Again,
JDM said no, although he admitted that his own personality was closer to Meyer's
than to McGee's. Once, MacDonald's wife Dorothy, when asked by reporter Ed
Hutshing if Travis McGee was based on her husband, reportedly laughed and said
no, that if John was anyone in the McGee saga he was Meyer. And in a 1990
speech at the Third JDM Conference in in Ft. Lauderdale,
son Maynard MacDonald said:
"Someone said this
evening, 'Did my father know a person -- was there someone in his life -- who
was like Meyer was to Travis?' I said 'No, actually Travis McGee really was
very representative of my father with that tremendous sense of rightness and
justice -- but Meyer is also like him. If you put Meyer and Travis together
then you get someone who is very like John D.'"
In 1986, the last year John
D MacDonald was alive, he was approached by psychologist Raymond J. Fowler, a professor-emeritus at
the University of
Alabama and the president
of the American Psychological Association. Fowler, who must have been a Travis
McGee fan, proposed an interesting experiment. MacDonald would take the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a test that was designed to provide a
reasonably accurate idea of the personality of the taker. He would take it once
as John D MacDonald, then again as Travis McGee, and finally as Meyer. The
results would be compiled through "an elaborate system of computer
analyses and interpretations," allowing Fowler to come to some sort of
conclusion as to which character MacDonald resembled.
In an article published in
the November 1986 issue of Psychology Today titled "The Case of the
Multicolored Personality," Fowler made these conclusions:
Meyer and MacDonald are so
much alike that a clinician looking at the two profiles might assume that they
were the MMPI's of the same person a few years apart. Both are dominant, self-confident
individuals who are able to define their goals and to move resolutely toward
their attainment. They are self-assured and likely to be demanding in their
expectations of themselves and of others. They are intellectually aggressive
and somewhat self-centered. Both prefer thought to action, and their
aggressiveness is more likely to be verbal than physical.
Neither Meyer nor MacDonald
feels much need to change. Neither is troubled by anxiety, depression or
somatic problems. Both are accustomed to being viewed as competent and both
feel that they deserve the respect they receive from others. Both are dominant
in a positive sense. Neither is a shrinking violet; neither is dependent or
bitter. Both are survivors; that is, they feel that they have the intelligence,
competence and resilience to cope with tough situations and to deal with life
effectively.
McGee is an entirely
different person from Meyer or MacDonald. He is tougher, more aggressive and
much more physical than either. He is no intellectual -- Meyer refers to him
affectionately as an illiterate -- but he is much too complicated to be
considered a dumb jock. He has almost as much need for status as Meyer and
MacDonald, a bit more anxiety, and is much less satisfied with himself.
McGee is a creature of
MacDonald's imagination who has almost no similarities to MacDonald in
personality, behavior or life-style. Meyer, on the other hand, could well be
called MacDonald's alter ego. Intelligent and thoughtful, with a great store of
information and an ability to stand back and consider before acting, Meyer
plays a vital role for McGee and perhaps for MacDonald as well. Meyer provides
MacDonald with an opportunity to enter McGee's life, to talk with him, advise
him and react to him. Although McGee is the narrator, it is through the eyes of
Meyer, and therefore MacDonald, that we see Travis McGee's world.
Dorothy MacDonald knew her
man... or men.
Just started listening to the Travis McGee on audio books , after reading them all back in the 1980's. When does Meyer make his first appearance?
ReplyDeleteI believe he is first referred to in A Purple Place for Dying.
DeleteHe's referred to in RED and appears full-time in GOLD.
ReplyDelete