8FOLD/HCC: Nonfiction # 2 (part 2), "Other Lives"

[Tom Russell]

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 == NUMBER 2 PT 2 = OTHER LIVES = BY TOM RUSSELL =====[102]==

Leave it to Andrew Perron to really put the "challenge" into High
Concept Challenge.
   His challenge, "Outside the Walls of Genre", was to "take your
characters and put them in an alternate universe that doesn't have
superheroes!" I read the challenge and was immediately inspired to
begin work on the story "Other Life", which forms the first part of
NONFICTION # 2. During the editing process, however, I revisited
Andrew's original post and began to think that I had
misread/misunderstood the parameters of the challenge. I think whether
or not I did depends on the meaning of the word "put".
   If by "put them in an alternate universe" he meant to displace the
characters, SLIDERS-like, then "Other Life" is good to go. If by "put
them in an alternate universe" he meant to reimagine existing
characters in the context of a different genre, then "Other Life"
doesn't really address the challenge at all. I began thinking that
maybe I should work on another story that would more properly fit
Andrew's challenge.
   Which brings me back to my starting point: Andrew really put the
"challenge" into High Concept Challenge with this one. Because for the
life of me, I can't or won't reimagine any of my significant
characters in any other context.
   Let me explain what I mean by significant. I've created lots of
characters over the years, both for Eightfold and LNH and a couple of
other RACC imprints along the way. There are a lot of throw-away
characters, characters that haven't been fully developed and frankly
weren't intended to be. To tell an interesting story that fits the
challenge, it would have to be a character with some depth. I can't
really write a story about the LNH's Nudist Man, for example, in a
non-superhero universe, because then he's just some naked guy.
   When it comes to characters with some meat to them, the ones I've
spent the most time with and expended the most words for, are, of
course, the people of JOLT CITY. If I was to do a story that would do
this great concept justice, it would have to be about one of them. The
problem is that I can't do such a story, because their
characterization is in many ways inherently a result of the genre they
inhabit. It's an essential part of their history, their lives, and
their personality, in much the same way my wife is an essential part
of mine. I can't begin to imagine what I would be like if Mary was
never part of my life, and it's more than a little frightening.
   It's the same for Martin. I can imagine Martin before he became a
superhero, and I have spent many long hours wondering at what will
become of him after he retires (if he lives long enough to retire),
but I can't begin to fathom what he would be like if he never was a
superhero, and it's a little frightening. Would his childhood trauma
have consumed him completely? Would he give up on his gymnastic
training without Ray to turn it to rooftop-jumping? Would he live and
die in the slums?
   An essential part of Martin is his ambivalence towards the
trappings of superhero culture, and his ping-ponging between embracing
and rejecting it. Outside that genre, what would he have to be
ambivalent about? What would he do with his life? The genre gives him
purpose and personality both. If I take that away, in essence he is a
completely different person, a completely different character. Perhaps
still a fascinating one, but not one I'd feel comfortable saying, this
is an alternate universe version of Martin Rock.
   The same would go for Derek. He might stick to his whiz-kid
gadgetry roots, or he might have become/remained a drug dealer. But a
superhero universe, with all the technological goodness that comes
with it, not only gives him the chance to redeem his past, but also to
own his future.
   People are a products of their time and their place. I can't
imagine what Napoleon Bonaparte would be like if he was born in
America in 1970; he wouldn't have had the same opportunities to
flourish, the same social pressures, the same upbringing. He would be
a completely different and likely unremarkable person. And that would
also be the case for Martin and Derek.
   More than that, their other lives would probably be completely
depressing. Because for all the danger that comes with a superhero
universe (as the protagonist of "Other Life" can attest), it
conversely makes life bearable and exciting for people like Martin and
Derek. It ennobles their struggles; it makes them who they are.
   I think this is an essential and important truth about these
characters, and perhaps in some ways about my own approach to the
genre. It's one that I've glad I've learned, and one I never would
have understood if not for Andrew's challenge.
   And so, humbly, I thank Andrew for his challenge, and I hope that
between "Other Life" and this essay "Other Lives" I've managed, in
some way, to answer it.