SW10, HCC10: The Waitress From Beyond
Andrew Perron
pwerdna at gmail.com
Mon Aug 9 14:53:39 PDT 2010
On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 20:13:55 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:
> On Aug 8, 5:06 pm, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Actually, this is a recurring annoyance with me. Governments are set up so
>> that they're answerable to the people. Yes, they can become immensely
>> corrupt, but even a corrupt government can't just oppress whoever it wants
>> and put random laws into effect, not without at least *some* popular
>> support - and both the government and the people are heterogeneous groups
>> of individuals.
>
> I think this is mostly the other side of the pendulum. For all too
> many years in comic books, people could use deadly force in public
> without government sanction, just because they wore costumes.
Well, except that it *wasn't* usually deadly force - not until the '80s,
anyway. Which coincides with the rise in this plot device. Honestly, I
think it has more to do with general cynicism in Western culture than
anything (and, of course, the popularity of the X-Men).
>> The point of this? Far too many stories use "governmental oppression/angry
>> mobs" as a cheap and easy plot device. If you're going to use it, set it
>> up.
>
> I'll do that if I ever write more about Jimmy Flamer or his own
> world. But as we noted, Jimmy comes from something much like the
> Marvel Universe, which *did* have angry mobs. That's an important
> reason why Nell the waitress likes Superhuman World 2010 by
> comparison. I don't know a good way to go into that in a short story,
> but I can at least add a paragraph or two.
Fair enough. I got that you only had so much space for it, but a
witch-hunt specifically agains fire powers is odd enough that it needs a
bit of exposition. Honestly, I would've just gone with one for powers that
qualify as "deadly force" in general.
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, foo.
More information about the racc
mailing list