James Frey & Superman

Two totally unrelated topics, but they’re on my mind.

I followed the story, saw that he’s now got a three page introductory note that still emphasizes the emotional core of his story and read with interest how his agent has now dropped him, and his book deal with his current publisher is now being renegotiated.

It just kind of got me to wondering, if it’s your dream to get published, just how far are you willing you to go? I mean, a lot of struggling writers will say “I’ll do whatever it takes to get my book in the store,” but Frey really went and did it. He saw an opportunity after 17 rejections and realized if he had to lie through his teeth, by God, he was gonna’ do it, and he did. I wonder how many of us would be able to resist the temptation.

I mean, for myself, it’s a non-issue since I’m firmly on the fiction side anyway. If I say “I made it up,” people will reply, “You damn well have better made it up,” so it’s moot point. But now I kind of wonder what I’d do if presented with a similarly shady opportunity. I tell myself, of course I’d just lower my head and keep on powering on the way I have the last few years, but I wonder if I really would.

And on the other hand, there’s the upcoming summer movie Superman Returns.

I don’t care how superficial or vacuous it makes me, I’m really looking forward to this movie.

Part of this is due to Frank Miller.

I think that since the mid 80′s, up until now, dark and gritty has pretty much epitomized the mood of fantastic narrative of almost every sort. In science fiction, it found a name in cyberpunk. In comics, it resulted in The Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and even stuff like Spawn. In movies, we got The Crow, Dark City, Aliens countless others. And I think it was refreshing. For the most part, it was refreshing because it was a reaction to the Pollyannaism of the early 80′s, the Regan years when people had an almost hyper-acute sense of optimism and refused to see reality for what it was, a dark and complicated mess.

However, over the years, this more merciless, unflinching look at the world has gotten to the point where its marketing, its fashionable. I hadn’t even heard the term “emo” here in Singapore until I read about it some other forum and realize it was a low grade version of Goth where kids more or less dramatize their lives to make them out to be full of angst and misery, just because… well, anger and misunderstandings and outsider-ism is cool. Dark & Gritty has stopped being a spalsh of cold water in deluded eyes and has become a compulsory badge of style. And somewhere along the way, the point of it, which was, “Don’t just look at all comforting nothings society offers, look at how dark it can get” has somehow gotten lost. Now, it’s mostly dark just for its own sake. And it seems like the reverse has now come to pass.

People are so obsessed with seeing the dark side in everything, the intense, dramatic, Goth side, that they’ve forgotten about the other stuff. The good stuff, the courageous stuff, the stuff you can admire and respect.

The HEROIC stuff.

That’s what I’m hoping Superman will be this summer. A return to that. I love Batman Begins, and I wouldn’t change a thing to it, because to be fair, that is who Batman is, and that movie understood it, the same way Frank Miller did back in the 80′s. But Superman… Superman is not someone you’re supposed to be afraid of. He’s not someone you’re supposed to think, “Oh man, he’s gonna’ slaughter them and make them sorry they were ever born.”

Superman is courage, kindness and a simple belief that you do the right thing because it IS the right thing, and not because you need recognition or accolades. I’m hoping that Bryan Singer understands that the reason Superman endures as a symbol is because he represents the positive aspects of human nature, those all too rare moments when we rise above our petty or competitive aspects and show mercy, or great inner strength. Superman should make people want to be like him, not be afraid of him. He should show people that it’s not having great power that counts, but what you do with that power.

Superman should make a person want to be a better person than they are right now.

I hope Bryan Singer gets that. And hopefully, I hope he pulls it off and makes everyone who comes out of the theater want to be a better person too.