#but if youre specifically trying to find garth parallels.. there's more story parallels than personality ones in s5

[floralovebot]

What character in any media do you think is similar to garth?

I thought really hard about this but honestly I couldn't come up with a good answer.

I really wanted to say bbc's Merlin, and tbh I do still think they have a lot of similarities with their personalities and story arcs, but it's not the best answer. The thing about Garth is that he's a Good person - not just good, but "pure of heart". And like,,, that's hard to find unless you're specifically looking at children's media aimed at like,, five year olds. Anyway, while Garth and Merlin share a lot of similarities (extreme selflessness, tragic destinies, people around them being Mean, abandonment and isolation being major elements), Merlin also has a darker side to him that is just so,,, Not Garth. And in the later seasons, he starts to become very somber and cold.

Personally, I feel like the Garth/Merlin parallels are at their highest during the earlier seasons!

[bigskydreaming]

Is there anything dumber than a reverse-age AU? No, seriously, Dick is the paragon because he was the first Robin and antedated Speedy, Aqualad and Aquagirl, and Kid Flash. And you can go down the list. Tim has to follow Jason because Jason would be different without the death trauma: Tim himself had a bit of a complex about not "deserving" the mantle Dick created and Jason sanctified. Then we get to Damian, who is young enough to be Dick's son.

Like, I’m not trying to shit on people who just like reverse age AUs for the fluffy aspects a lot of them tend to have, to be fair. Some people are just looking for fluff, and I get that. Those AUs don’t appeal to me for many reasons I’ve already gotten into in depth, but on a surface level I mean, its not really a big deal to switch things up sometimes for the hell of it. But in any kind of in-depth examination of that premise, I feel there’s a whole lot of missed opportunity left to explore in that....with that being I guess the thing that nags at me most? 

I mean....I would be genuinely interested in reading a reverse age AU that actually acted as kind of a....”It’s A Wonderful Life” examination of what happens if Dick isn’t the first Batkid, but the youngest. I think it can still be plausible for Tim, Jason, Cass and Dick to all end up adopted even if Damian is the oldest.....but the one thing I’ve never seen any reverse age AU examine is the part I’d reeeeeeaally be interested in, like you alluded to with the other original sidekicks....

And that’s the element that’s really missing from reverse age AUs for me, personally.....acknowledgment of Dick’s impact not just on his family’s formation....but the DC universe as a whole. Dick wasn’t just the first Robin. He was the first child hero, period. He was what started the whole movement, not just within his own family, but outside of it as well. Without his example, would Donna and Garth have left their homes to become heroes for the surface world/Man’s world? Would Wally have even tried replicating Barry’s experiment, thinking that it was even possible for a kid like him to be a hero? If Bruce’s first child and protégé was his biological son, would Oliver have thought to take Roy in as his ward instead of just making sure he ended up with a good home?

Look, I love Damian. But Damian is not Dick, and it doesn’t really track that their positions could be switched and wind up with nothing else being all that majorly different......I guess the thing about reverse age AUs that makes them really just not my cup of tea is like....to me, it seems like they should result in HUGE ripple effects and alteration to the Batfamily and the DC Earth as a whole....and those ripple effects imo ARE the story, ARE the things really begging to be explored by that premise to me.....but its not really what I think most readers and writers of those stories are looking for, hence the disconnect for me. 

Like....as I said, I do like Damian, but for who he is. And who he is, is just....not the bright, shining example who captures the imagination and inspires other people the way Dick inspires people. And that’s okay! Because its not a knock against anyone else to not be that, its just who they are.....and who they are isn’t Dick Grayson. Everything about Dick Grayson specifically, is what led to the trend of child heroes both on a meta level and an in universe level. Nothing about that is accidental.....those only appeared in more and more comics because Dick Grayson, the original Robin, captured the imagination of readers and appealed to them and made them want to see MORE child heroes.....just like the sight of a young child in bright colors and cracking puns even as he kept pace with one of the most dark and infamous heroes of the DC Earth captured the imagination of other young people like Dick and with talents and powers of their own and made them sit up and say hey, maybe that could be me too....if someone my age can be BATMAN’S partner, why couldn’t I be Wonder Woman’s/Green Arrow’s/Aquaman’s/The Flash’s? 

And I just don’t really see Damian having that effect on peers, you know? Because Damian is like his father in temperament and preferences, whereas Dick was deliberately a contrast by his own choices. Damian wanted to BE like Bruce growing up hearing his father’s legend....and then he wanted to be more like Dick, when he realized Dick’s own strengths and attributes, IMO.....but as the first child, without Dick’s example? Damian would be more inclined to be a mini-Batman, calling himself something like Batboy and molding himself in his father’s image......which means keeping to the shadows. Being more myth than in-your-face-indisputable-fact like Dick was as Robin. And Bruce would have been more inclined to see this as a good thing, and keep Damian as much beside him in the shadows as possible, unlike Dick who just wasn’t suited to that and wasn’t interested in trying to be that. 

So I think that a huge potential ripple is right there from the start....like maybe there would be other Batkids and protégés for Bruce after Damian, but would there be other teen heroes? Would there at least maybe have been a delayed start to the other teen heroes, not inspired by Damian directly but more just parallel evolutions who took a little more time to find the inspiration and opportunities to impress themselves upon their mentors? Would even Gothamites know for sure that Batman even had a partner, or partners plural, or would they be more rumor than symbol, like Dick was as Robin, and the other Robins were inspired to be when following HIS example, rather than BRUCE’S example?

That’s what I would really love to see from the reverse age AU premise, personally. And why the ones that exist just don’t really draw me in - they all seem to by premise alone just kinda devalue Dick’s effect on his surroundings as well as just his character as a whole.....there’s the impression that it doesn’t really matter if Dick came first, that anyone could have had the same effects and results that he did, when like.....that’s just not true, IMO. And it is kinda an inherent knock against his character because it sort of runs with the idea that Dick’s no big deal, that his precedent is no big deal, that he wasn’t necessary, for the DC Earth to be the one we all are drawn to today, and that’s just....I don’t see it. 

I mean, so much of that is what draws me to his character, personally....the fact that he IS so much bigger than just himself, that his actions and choices have such far-reaching implications. Dick Grayson IS the ripple effects that he’s caused from day one of his creation.....and ignoring that, acting like that’s no big deal and like it could just as easily have been any other character when to my mind it wouldn’t have been any other character because no other character has made the choices he has, specifically, for the reasons he has, specifically.....like, I think that has a lot to do with a lot of the almost implicit or absent-minded....not even contempt, but just....non-interest in his character, that many fans of other Robins have. 

Like, what if Dick wasn’t the first - that’s the basic premise of these particular AUs. But the conclusion almost all of them result in is....nothing else would really be all that different. And that’s just not that far away from saying that Dick’s character is largely irrelevant and inconsequential....when to my mind, obviously, nothing is further than the truth. Yeah, what if Dick wasn’t the first? Honestly, truly asked and examined.....what would be different? Not just about his family but the whole DC Earth?

Because I think the differences would be enormous. 

LOL, this is the 80th anniversary of this character’s creation. A character who has consistently been one of the highest profile, most visible characters in the entire DC universe for pretty much all of those 80 years, in one way or another. Who has only spent part of one issue dead, in all of that time. And in none of that time retired, or absent, or not in some way still at the center of the cape community.

How do you pretend that a character with that much history, that much presence.....has no real distinct impact on everything he’s connected to? That he could be plucked out of that tapestry and easily and seamlessly switched with a character who is noted for being the night to his day, just as Dick originally was the day to Bruce’s night? It just doesn’t make sense, IMO.

[writingdotcoffee]

#80: A Day In The Life Of A Writer

The alarm goes off. I pick up the phone, hover my hand over the cancel button. I’m pretty sure that morning is happening a few hours earlier than usual. I hit snooze instead and drift back to sleep. The alarm goes off again 10 seconds later. What the—oh was it 10 minutes already?

I crawl out of bed, brush my teeth and take a shower. Somewhere on the way out of the bathroom, I do 30 pushups. I get dressed and sit cross-legged for 10 minutes on the floor by the bookcase, listening to the long, wailing tones of a flute (that’s what you get when you search for meditation on Spotify), trying to focus on my breath for 10 minutes.

The coffee machine startles me awake when I turn it on. Every morning, it surprises me just how loud it is. when it's done, I take the coffee and my overnight oats to my writing room which doubles as laundry room and storage. I shut the door behind me.

I spoon the porridge out of a jam jar with a handful of blueberries on top. Breakfast is over in about 49 seconds. I put my earbuds on and open my laptop. I sip the coffee while writing into my journal. Nothing specific, just words in the exact order as they come to me. Nobody ever gets to read my journal. Not even me. That makes writing it much easier.

I stretch my hands when I’m done, then pick up my phone. I have about 35 minutes before I have to leave for work. I take a sip of my coffee without realising that the cup is empty. I slide it further away so that I don’t do it again. I set the timer on my phone to 35 minutes. My chest tightens, resistance slowly creeping in. A tempting stack of unread books rests on the desk beside me. Briefly, I consider reading one of instead. I’m sleepy. Maybe I can leave the writing for the evening?

I wrinkle my nose and start the timer anyway. I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know an excuse when I see it. I may be tired now, but I’ll be exhausted by the time I get back from work. Writing in the evening means not writing at all today. Nice try, resistance.

I do say resistance a lot, I think. Maybe I should give it a name? Like Roger. Perhaps something more stigmatised would fit better—like Adolf or Donald? I can hear the clock ticking all the way from the kitchen. I have 30 minutes left, and I haven’t written a word.

I reread the last few paragraphs from the day before, have a think, then start typing. I stay focused until the timer goes off again. I select what I wrote to count the words. I’m not a fast writer, but on a good day, I can do 500 words in 30 minutes. Today, the tally comes down to a rather modest 194. I sigh, but there’s no time to ruminate. I have to go.

The laptop goes to my backpack along with paperback of A Gentleman in Moscow. It takes me 3 minutes and 17 seconds to get out of the house and a further 10 minutes to walk to the station. I’m lucky. The Central Line train pulls into the station as I pass through the ticket gates. I get on and read until we reach Liverpool Street. I alight and weave my way out of the station, listening to Factory of Faith by Red Hot Chili Peppers. I never liked the song that much, but it’s grown on me.

At work, things go at the usual pace. I go to meetings, then get things done. I finish one of my tasks at 12.30—the perfect time for a lunch break. I head out to the cafe downstairs with my laptop and order a latte. My usual spot is occupied, so I take it to the narrow table by the window. A part of me wants to relax, enjoy the coffee and watch people pass by, but I have things to do.

There’s a new short story on Tor.com by Annalee Newitz that I want to read. It takes me a while to find the right tab in my browser, but I get it eventually. The story explores the relationship of two characters from the Autonomous universe—a human and a bot. I hit the favourite button below but don’t leave a comment. With 15 minutes to go, I switch to the text editor, set the timer on my phone and start writing. When it buzzes, I have no new words. I started rereading what I wrote in the morning and got stuck rewriting a few sentences. Oh, well.

The afternoon in the office goes pretty well. It’s dark outside by the time I am to leave, and I’m exhausted. I trudge back to Liverpool Street. At a quarter past six, the station is as busy as it gets, the concourse a maze of people mesmerised by the giant overhead LCDs showing departure times. Eventually, I get on a train.

I make a stop at a supermarket to buy milk and bread and a few other things. It’s almost seven when I get home. The flat is nice and warm. I appreciate the timed switch on the boiler that turns the heating on an hour before my arrival.

The first thing I do is change to my running kit. I really, really don’t feel like going for a run, but I down a glass of water and begin stretching anyway. It’s the only way to survive a sedentary job, I console myself. The first 10 minutes are a pain, but then I find my stride and the remainder of the run goes well. By the end of it, I’m glad that I went.

I take a shower and eat whatever I can find for dinner. Then I sit behind the same table in the storage room. I read ten pages of A Gentleman In Moscow, then another twenty. My eyes are closing, by now but I keep going until I’ve realised that I’ve been trying to read the same page for 30 minutes and finally give up. It’s time to go to bed.

What I Am Reading

I finished listening to Autonomous by Annalee Newitz. It was so good that I ordered the hardback for future reference. Apart from all the cool ideas around tech and open collaboration and AI, the book has really well-balanced characterisation. At times, you don’t know who the bad guy is.

I’m still reading A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles. So far so good. It's engaging and exceptionally well written.

In parallel, I picked up Atomic Habits by James Clear which I wanted to read for some time now. It’s not the first book that I read on habits, but I really like James’ perspective. Well worth giving this one a read.

Short Stories

I also read the following short stories this week:

Home Economics by Andrew Lloyd-Jones

A Stay-at-home Dad Documents His Sex Life on a Fitbit by Ryan Shoemaker

Something About Her by J. L. Higgs

Old Media by Annalee Newitz

Articulated Restraint by Mary Robinette Kowal

Ill Seen In Tyre by Steven Saylor

A Cargo of Ivories by Garth Nix

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Past Editions

#79: Not Feeling Like It, February 2019

#78: Becoming Polynovelous, February 2019

#77: In Praise of Bad Fiction, February 2019

#76: The Negative Review Paradox, February 2019

#75: Winter, January 2019