8FOLD: Daylighters # 1, "Pursued By A Bear"

[Tom Russell]

On Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 3:57:51 AM UTC-4, Drew Perron wrote:
> On 5/28/2019 12:47 AM, Tom Russell wrote:
> > On Monday, May 27, 2019 at 11:40:53 PM UTC-4, Drew Perron wrote:
> >> Hokay, time to read Daylighters! I'm only six months late on this one, whee! X3
> > 
> > ...
> 
> Look, the only way I'm managing to catch up without freaking out is to be 
> absolutely chill about how behind I am. >#>

Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, Drew -- I honestly didn't mean it like that but I can totally see how it could be read that way. I intended it to be a "<snip>"/ellipses. Blame it on the late hour and lack of sleep. Again, sorry about that.

Regarding your comments about Bethany and her thoughts on Jonah -- I hear what you're saying. I don't think she's thought it through to that degree, because she hasn't (and won't) extend him sufficient empathy *to* think it through, simply because she sees him as someone who has hurt people (even inadvertently) and (this is the important part for her) *continues* to hurt people. Like, she doesn't buy it as unintentional because Jonah *knows* what can happen and will happen every time, every day. But she also doesn't see him trying to minimize it, doesn't think about where or how he'd get food, water, shelter, etc., because at that point her empathy drops to zero.

We all of us have limits to who we will extend our empathy to -- like, I don't want to read another damn sob story or manufactured redemption arc for the rapists and abusers who lost their jobs after decades of entrenched sexual harassment and misconduct.

I'm not saying that Bethany is right; I don't think she is, at least in this story, which is largely action-adventure and light in tone (even if Jonah is Going Through Some Stuff). If the story had been Jonah's bad luck causing buildings to collapse with hundreds of people inside, or nuclear reactors to malfunction -- all things that would certainly be in the realm of the possible given the power set -- I think while one might be able to have some pathos for him, it would be overshadowed (and rightly?) by sorrow for his victims. In this story, his misadventures are mostly victimless, and that's to make him more sympathetic, and to make his "joy turn" at the climax enjoyable; if he had any kind of death toll, I wouldn't really care that he felt good about himself for once -- like Bethany, my empathy would have dropped very close to nil.

One of the things I like about you Drew is that you have a lot of empathy; you're always willing to look at things through someone else's point of view.