8FOLD/META: About the Author # 1: Tom Russell

Tom Russell twopointthreefivefilmwerks at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 16 10:57:49 PDT 2005


Saxon Brenton wrote:

> I got the impression that Gregory
> simply felt too weighed down by the expectations of doing Good with
> his abilities (and this despite the example of the super-plumber that

> you don't have to dress in a costume with your underwear on the
> outside if you're a superhuman) and is simply lashing out doing
> whatever he damn well feels like.  And if, as Tom later said, he

I think that's more or less what I was going for.  That, and maybe a
little bit of a power thing.  Not a "I have power, now i shall rule the
world" thing, but more like the "nobody's watching, maybe I'll take
that candy bar" or "I'll pee on this tree", but perhaps less innocent.
The power of having an opportunity to do something: we've all had an
urge, I think, to do something we know is wrong.  Sometimes we give in,
sometimes we don't.  Sometimes we give in and then we change our mind.
That sort of small-scale, everyday morality is interesting to me, and
so I'm trying to find a slightly-larger scale way to explore it.

At the same time, it is about him as a character, and I'd hate to
define a character by his moral delimmia.  And with the introduction of
another character, I think the story is going to have a more rambling,
character-based sort of quality-- while still trying, on some level, to
address the moral stuff.  Character first, story second, theme a
distant third: that's my standard modus operandi, at least in theory.

> progresses to doing even worse things, it might be interesting to see

> if the same attitude prevails with regards to doing Bad.

Oh, yes.  Much, much worse things. :-)

>
> ---
> Saxon Brenton                           saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
> The GIRL GENIUS comic of Phil and Kaja Foglio is now online at:
>           www.girlgeniusonline.com


--Tom Russell




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