When I was first asked to do the project on crime in America, I was excited. Why? Well I usually have one or two novels going at any given time. But recently, I was able to narrow it down to one story. This one had literally been in the planning stages for years.
Why? Well, many of the characters had names that I knew I wanted to use... but wasn't quite sure who they would be on paper. So a lot of scrap papers and bits of writing I have scattered all over my house and through my notebooks all contain extremely distinct characters... with the same names.
Other than that, I first got the idea for this story after seeing The Dark Knight. You can probably tell by now that I'm a huge fan of the movie. In fact, as soon as I can find out how to put video on this thing, I'm going to post a few Joker impressions (of which I'm told they are quite "banging").
Every time I see a superhero movie, it always gives me an edge to write something about a superhero... but I was never that good of an artist. However, my natural abilities include being very knowledgeable about history. So why not a novel with a historical perspective on superheroes?
Spiderman and Superman stories tend to concentrate on nothing more than the lives and the superheroes and their secret identities. They hardly go in-depth into the effects that masked vigilantes have on society as a whole. The Dark Knight was the first superhero film I saw that had that (Fantastic Four did too, but it was... just done wrong).
Another graphic novel that really showed the superhero world and the real world colliding was Watchmen. Reading Watchmen was as much of an experience as reading The Historian or The Bourne Identity (two of the best books you'll ever read).
Still, this superhero story hung in my mind for a long time... finally I picked up a pencil with a head full of 100 pages of notes, and just started writing. Soon after the first "chapter" (the story itself isn't divided into chapters, but the fictionpress account is), I wrote a seven page outline from the very beginning of the story to the end.
Eventually, I got a lot of my friends to read it. Only, I kept having to send it in an email as an attachment. And then I would get the email address wrong, yada-yada...
Finally, I decided to revive my old Fictionpress account and just post it there. So when my readers/reviewers want to check out the latest installment, I just hand them the link. If anyone's really interested, here's my take on the concept of masked vigilantism in the modern world.
The basic premise (the historical aspect) is that when the crime rate rises, so does masked vigilantism. The trend begins in the 1880s, during the period of mass immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The increase in immigration led to an increase in poverty which inevitably leads to more violent crime. More crime, more vigilantes wearing masks.
Why the masks? To avoid legal repercussions. To avoid any sort of fame or infamy attached to their names. Some would resort to killing criminals, others would beat them senseless and leave them for the police. Eventually, as crime went down and public opinion turned against the vigilantes, the mask rate would decline as well.
As it does, history would cycle. Crime rises in the 1920s and '30s, so do vigilantes. Another spike in the '60s, and a lull in the '70s and early '80s. And then of course, we have the crack epidemic. In our history, the decline of the crack epidemic could be attributed to Roe v. Wade (see below post, better yet, read Freakonomics). So say Roe never reached the Supreme Court. Abortion was left up to the states and the crime rate never fell?
Would the crack epidemic lead into the 21st Century? We may never know, but that's where my novel A History of Superheroes begins: September 28, 2000.
Note: Just to distance myself from making either Republicans or Democrats out to be the bad guys (which I would love to... but that would mean one of them would have to be the "good guys," which I don't want to do) I've replaced them with the Freedom Party and the Equality Party. Both have traits of the GOP and Dem, but you can decide for yourself which is which.
P.S. I would really prefer not to do this, but as a writer, I am very picky about authorship. If you're too crooked, too uncreative, or are just going to take what I write and claim it as your own, don't bother to click the link. I will prosecute you. Just respect the work and enjoy it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment