Friday 22 February 2002

Pic of the day: Prismagrrl, slightly super (or at least hyper) heroine from Dark Age of Camelot.

Slightly super

Was home sick for the second day. Better now. It's not so fun to be home when you're not well, and it does not help that my right hand still hasn't healed from typing too much. I tried to write on a new fiction today but did not come far before my hand gave up again.

On the bright side, yesterday when I was also sick, I sat down and watched Supergirl the movie, which I bought on DVD a while ago for just such an occasion. The movie wasn't all that good, but it's Supergirl so I cut it some slack. I like Supergirl. I wish they would reprint old Supergirl stories, from the age of the real Supergirl, Kara. The ones they made later were simply not the same. Then again, nothing ever is the way it was, right? I hear some kids now claim that this Kyle or whatever is a better Green Lantern than Hal Jordan. Bah. Too bad they did not make any movies with Hal ... that I know of, at least.

***

A problem with superheroes is that they grow so powerful so fast. The best part of the Supergirl movie was, in my eyes, when she found out she could fly and stuff. It's not like she could have been surprised about it, but the way she just went swimming in the air was so ... human. And I also loved in the Byrne reboot of Superman, when young Clark Kent had not yet decided to be Superman: He was just a young man with strange powers that he barely understood. The highlight of the whole reboot was really when he stood in the middle of the crowd, in his civilian clothes (not that he had any other) and looked up at the plane that was spinning out of control. Everybody looked up, but his expression was different. He knew he had to try to get that plane, even if it meant people would see him fly. Quite a turning point. It was after that he got the whole secret identity thingie.

I can really identify with Clark that far, but not much further. After he got the tights, he became kind of too mythic for me. It's the same way when I play Daggerfall, or for that matter Dark Age of Camelot. The most interesting part is playing the newbie. Discovering the potentials and pitfalls of a new class. Perhaps casting small spells that just helps a little, not doing miracles. Growing slowly.

It is this atmosphere I try to catch in my fiction too. The thrill, the joy and scare of discovering that you have gifts above and beyond what others can imagine or dream of. That you can do impossible things. Not everything, just slightly impossible things.

In a way, I guess that is autobiographical. There was a time when I was young, when my life changed. I had been the smallest and the weakest, mostly ignored but often ridiculed, in a world where strength and agility and fighting skills ruled the day. Then I came to a world where brain ruled over body; and suddenly I soared. True, a part of me never quite accepted this and has tried ever since to keep me down. But the experience was quite real.

A transformation. Like Al Schroeder's "Mindmistress" who transforms from a retarded girl to a super-genius ... a "quantum leap" ahead of the human race. It is something we all identify with in some way, I guess. After all, fairy tales have told us for ages that a transformation is possible. The poor boy can get half the kingdom, the fool can turn out to be wise, and the ugly can become beautiful.

And on that uplifting note, I bid you good night.