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Rose-o-flage
Rose was napping on Mama’s blanket and she blended right in. It’s funny how a shaggy little muppet can make herself nearly invisible.
Disappearing Into The Background
A lot of people are complaining about their ability to be out and about during all the COVID19 hoopla. I’m one of them, on general principle. The US Constitution is the premier law of the land. Edicts on staying home or wearing masks are fine as recommendations but utterly illegal as mandates.
I’m not wild about how Tom Wolf and many of his DNC cronies are grossly mishandling the situation. The idea that once they have control, they need never loose their grip on our throats seems to be their idea of governance. Well, screw that! They didn’t have the right to proclaim most of the restrictions that they did in the first place. Their continued unconstitutional behavior just irritates those of us who have to witness and endure the charade.
All that being said, I don’t feel all that well and I’m not terribly inclined to go anywhere anyway.
But that’s MY choice!
I don’t have to go out unless I’m going to an appointment or acting as the family chauffeur. Obviously, I feel better than I did in 2019 but I’m not feeling great. Bending, breathing and, in some cases, even lifting are not what they should be.
The good news is that we’re not the only ones exercising our God-given right to go where-the-hell-ever we want in spite of gubernatorial bull-💩.
My In-Laws will be paying a post-quarantine visit to catch up on a variety of celebrations. My Mother-In-Law’s birthday, their 50th Anniversary, Mother’s Day, my son’s birthday, our 28th Anniversary, my son and both daughters’ graduations and even Easter need to be caught up on in the wake of the big pointless lockdown.
In the long run, I’m totally an introvert. I could happily self-isolate indefinitely.
I’d like to have the money to add a tower to my house so I could list WIZARD as my profession on the tax returns, but that’s for later…
In any case, I don’t go out because I basically don’t want to. It’s my choice, not Governor Wolf’s.
It’s your God-given choice, folks. Get back to life as usual and let the politicians go back to wasting each other’s time instead of ours.
The Antiheroes
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One of the first things you typically think of when I say “superhero” is someone like Superman or Captain America. A paragon of virtue who never kills villains on purpose (except when Captain America was fighting in WWII or when Superman punched right through the Joker’s chest), is totally kid-friendly and very marketable.
It’s almost a given that superheroes do their best to stick to the non-lethal options whenever possible.
This is where antiheroes come in. They are generally fighting crime the way that some of our favorite action heroes do. Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, even good old John Wayne have all taken the badness back to the bad guys in full measure but they are generally still “heroes”.
Antiheroes take the shoot ’em up action heroes of the police, mercenary or nice guy pushed too far movies one step beyond. There is usually some code of conduct that the action heroes hold themselves to. Antiheroes are typically only interested in seeking their objective regardless of the body count involved in achieving it.
Some of the classic antiheroes are Deadpool (the Merc with a Mouth), Punisher, and Red Hood. These guys kill with absolutely no qualms or much in the way of limits. They live in video game mode. Just kill everyone between them and the other side of the screen. They’re usually a lot of fun to watch for cathartic purposes.
Despite what the virtuous, code against killing superhero types might think of their antihero counterparts, it makes for interesting interaction.
This exchange between the very Catholic-guilt-laden Daredevil and the nothing-left-to-lose Punisher addresses these two diametrically opposed viewpoints. The Punisher gives Daredevil one bullet and a choice. Kill Grotto (as Punisher believes should happen as punishment for his crimes) or kill the Punisher to stop him from killing Grotto. Naturally, as a hero, Daredevil makes his own choice and the fists fly!
Daredevil vs The Punisher
Rooftop Fight | Daredevil Season 2 (2016)
Antiheroes are usually people who have fallen through the cracks, have been royally screwed over or simply see no use for sticking to the rules. The Sentinels will be having an extended debate about where to draw the line.
Foxfire is a Bronze Age hero with Silver Age ethics. He doesn’t have the devout Catholic guilt that keeps Daredevil from crossing the line, but he has been in the superhero biz since 1976 without killing anyone. He believes that if he can do it, so can the rest of the Sentinels.
Captain Freedom is not an antihero. He is a soldier. He may have fought in some grueling battles over the years, but he was never a “Kill ’em all and let God sort them out” type. He understands the “rules of engagement” as defined in the Sentinels founding charter and partnership with the ECPD. He can get as dark as the situation calls for, but he’s only too glad to remain in line with Foxfire’s Super Friends school of superhero conduct. He’s actually very fond of kids (since most of the people he meets are at least a hundred years younger than him) and takes a great deal of personal joy in the Sentinels’ school and promotional appearances.
Mary Christmas is a reformed (or at least, contractually constrained) antihero. When she and her friend, Angelica, were operating as Private Investigators in The Broncks back in the early 90s, lines were definitely crossed. As their paths diverged, Mary’s conduct went farther and farther into the darkness. Eventually, Ange, Lucky and Detective Stiles had to confront her and rein her in. She was offered a chance to redeem herself by joining the Sentinels and following their rules.
The crux of the debate is that Tim (Foxfire) and Lucky would prefer them to remain in Super Friends mode while Meirhe (Mary Christmas) and Tanda (Blue Banshee) are asking why they need to remain non-lethal while their Tactical Division partners are authorized to execute their mandate with extreme prejudice.
Tanda and Matt (Captain Freedom) recognize that killing, even in the line of duty, takes its toll on you. Meirhe still could not care less. As much as she enjoys the company of her friends and the adulation of their fans, she’s still got an antiheroic disregard for the lives of her opponents.
That’s a formula for conflict and conflict is the main ingredient of drama!
An argument that will come up in future books will center around the intrinsic harm of operating in Super Friends mode. It may seem to be more kid-friendly, but the Super Friends were blatantly prone to gratuitous acts of property damage. Golden Age and Bronze Age heroes would simply deck a bad guy and hand them off to the police. Super Friends would tear out a section of chainlink fence and wrap it sort of non-violently around the perps.
The problem is that while kids eating sugary breakfast cereal on any given Saturday morning wouldn’t notice the fact that ripping out a section of fence to apprehend some mooks is not only wasteful and exhibits a flagrant disregard for private property, it also leaves a huge hole in a fence that can be used by other mooks until the property owner can pay money that they ought not to have to. Even worse, the property owner’s insurance company might have to pay for it and the property owner’s rates could go up, essentially causing the property owner to have to pay for the damage in perpetuity.
The Law of Unintended Consequences was completely sidestepped to accomplish super-mayhem without all the unfashionable violence.
Fortunately, the Modern Age gives us a lot more leeway. Deadpool can verbally spar with Spiderman and Punisher can literally throw down with Daredevil because the tent is that big these days.
Even so, within the first few pages of The Sentinels: New Blood, Tanda’s “hero landing” in search of the gangster’s discarded pistol as well as her rather awkward landing as she rescued the falling gangster cause damage to Empire City macadam. It’s a little matter in the grand scheme of super-mayhem but if you don’t allow gratuitous killing, you probably shouldn’t allow wanton property damage either.
In the comic book world as well as the real world, attempting to save lives is not necessarily justification for causing fuckloads of economic damage.
Jus’ Sayin’…
If you don’t know what a “hero landing” or three-point landing is, I’ve included some videos below to illustrate.
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Retooling
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization. ~Lincoln Steffens
The editing process is considerably more detail-oriented than the creative writing process. I’m a natural “pantser” which gives me the capacity to write volumes of compelling scenes. I’m not so naturally inclined toward plotting. The process of editing is where I need to apply the deliberate and ruthless exercise of plot enforcement.
I’m hoping that doing it for my first book will help me formulate a process to streamline the application of plot for future books.
My background in programming is a benefit to me in this effort. The first one is always a complicated experiment. I find out what works and create a template for future projects. The stuff that works, stays. The stuff that doesn’t work is set aside for future exception cases.
It looks messy and circuitous but it’s a necessary exercise in template creation.
Creativity is great but creativity with an applied process is greater. This process is what makes marketable art that lasts possible. Obviously, there are fads and there are not-quite-fads that are driven by the fame or pre-existing wealth of the artist.
In the grand scope of civilization, people remember the Da Vincis, the Mozarts and the Hugos.
They don’t remember the privileged Swedish nobility who use their Lear jet engines to make splatter art or the pretentious morons who put a red stripe on the corner of a white canvas and sell it for millions.
I don’t expect to make it into the ranks of Hugo, Hawthorn or Hemmingway but I’m hoping to make something that people enjoy well beyond my copyright expiration date. Just as my software at work was designed to serve a business function, it was also designed to lighten the load of the users in their daily work. I’d like to put in just as much work, consideration and craft on these books.
Deadlines didn’t matter nearly as much as the quality of what got delivered. They still don’t.
Quality matters.
As the process improves, the deadlines become more attainable. As deadlines become more attainable, profitability becomes more meaningful. As profitability becomes more meaningful, the effort becomes able to be appreciated by those on the outside waiting for results.
Patience is a virtue.
INTPs are patient and we usually have a hard time understanding why everyone else is not, particularly when the bills are paid and the food, clothing and shelter are covered. I know that certain deadlines are very real, but so are certain limitations. I can only do what I can do right now.
At this moment in my life, I can write books.
That’s pretty much the only value I can bring to the world at large, so that’s what I’m doing.
That’s another weekend in endless quarantine. So, stay home, go out, wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, work from home, work from work, be essential, be socialistically unemployed, whatever. It’s all good. No matter what you do, there’s some “expert” who says it’s the right thing to do and a dozen more who say it’s not. So, just whatever…
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