Susan
The Amazing Adventures
of Sara Corel
A novel by Toomey
Comments
on Chapter Seven: Growing Up
- Sharon Best
Toomey:
OK… some
feedback.
Growing up…
Your vivid descriptions of the challenges
of taking care of a toddler with the strength of a thousand or so grown men was great fun to
read. Turning the playground into a jungle of twisted metal indeed. So many
things… The lying on the bottom of the pool until mothers became hysterical…
All wonderful images.
The final rules: "Stay on the ground.
Don't pick up anything bigger than you are. Try not to bend, break or vaporize
anything. Don't eat anything that wasn't served on a plate. Don't eat
the plate." had me in stitches. You have a wonderful sense of humor to your
writing. Irreverent and fun and so vividly descriptive that I can smell and touch and
see everything. I can't believe that this is your first attempt at fictional writing!
The flight descriptions were likewise
inspired. Playful too. And somehow more 'real' than any I've read (or written)
before.
The descriptions of her schooling and
tutors and Dinah interest in that was well written as well. Dinah is starting to take
shape as a person now… Guess I shouldn't have been worried about her character. You
had a good plan in mind.
[Toomey replies]
Dinah is, of course,
the Amazon Maiden
in this universe. The playing with names is just my way of having fun, but if
I ever make a FAQ, I guess I would have to say that there are not
actual superheroes in Susan's universe, just as in ours (Sara's an alien
artifact and meant to be rational rather than fantastic).
However, human analogs of all our
Universe's
comic book superheroes exist there, with the names and details slightly changed. We don't know anything about their comic book characters
other than that the multi-Universal 'S' symbol (never precisely displayed)
means the same thing (except that it doesn't, but that's near the end of the
story). So the Susan universe's Dinah Prinze from Perry, Dyess, Eyelandt
= our Universe's Diana Prince from Paradise Island, aka Wonder Woman (Mrs. J
told Alex, "You sveet Dinah iss vonderful voman.") except that she's a
completely different character in terms of personality, circumstances and
motivations. No magic rope for
making people tell the truth, but Dinah has developed that skill without
resorting to magic. (The rope has other uses…)
Dinah has no actual superhuman attributes, but
she is a superhero nevertheless, fighting a never-ending battle for Truth &
Justice, the American Way. As an archetype, she represents the Rule of
Law. She becomes the model for Sara's superhero qualities, just
as Alex shapes her human qualities, the Russians her
intellectual qualities and Mrs. J her heart. (There'll be others along the way).
The Black Night, Bruce Wayans = Bruce Wayne, the
Dark Knight. They're both essentially rich vigilantes who believe the ends justify
the means, but Wayans is into politics rather than business. (He has a young assistant
named Robbins). Later, we'll run into Ken Clark, a journalist more in the mold of
Geraldo Rivera (who thinks he's some kind of superstud), and his long-suffering
producer Louise Layne, who bears the burden of unrequited love for an egotistical,
womanizing creep.
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© Patrick Hill, 2000 |