Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Tapsalteerie (1/1)

In case you were wondering, the title of this vignette is a Scottish word meaning "topsy-turvy."

As always, all feedback appreciated.

Joy,
Lynn

Ah, thanks for clarifying the title. I figured it had to be something close to that, but it's nice to have the confirmation.

Loved the idea. Poor Clark! At first, I thought maybe this was after the Nightfall asteroid, when Clark loses his memories. But the punchline was so much better! Thanks for the chuckle!

Very enjoyable as always, Lynn. Thank you for the clarification of the title. I figured it was a reference to another sci-fi genre (Dr. Who or Babylon 5) with which I'm not familiar.

How frustrating it must be to not be able to do things everyone else can! This would be an interesting theme to extrapolate on more. How could Clark make his mark on a world being human (so to speak) on a planet of Kryptonian (again, so to speak)? How could he stand out? I could see him being an advocate for others, i.e. the disabled, as they would be considered. Or would he hide away in Kansas, so that nobody would know that he was unable to do what everyone else could?

I hope that Clark wasn't hurt too much when he tried to fly while stopping bullets.

Grammatically, I have a question. Since you're referring to Earth as the proper name of the planet, as opposed to earth = dirt, shouldn't it be capitalized? This is something I come across often in my writing and would like your take as a linguist on this. Thanks.

Hi DC and Virginia,

Thanks for leaving feedback.

DC, I had actually hoped that most people wouldn't understand the title, but that the word might intrigue them to read the story. (If you happen to be from Scotland, or just know Burns' song "Green Grow the Rashes," the title might be too strong a hint of what is to follow.) And your reaction was exactly what I was hoping would happen. I figured that a little misdirection might make the punchline that much more of a surprise.

Virginia, I agree wholeheartedly about him being seen as disabled in this alternate universe, and about the frustrations it would entail -- as much in other people's perceptions (or, at least, his perception of what other people might think) as in his actual challenges trying to fit in.

You ask an interesting question. First, a disclaimer: Linguists generally strive to be descriptivists, not prescriptivists, meaning that the vast majority of linguists have as their goal to describe how people actually use language, not how they ought to do so. So in my next paragraph, I am writing with my linguist hat off and my writer's hat on.

Having said that, I must admit to having erred on that one. You are absolutely correct. Since I was referring to the planet rather than the soil, and since I wasn't using an idiom (e.g., "What on earth?"), I should have capitalized the first letter. I've just made the correction. Thanks for being a sort of BR-after-the-fact.

Joy,
Lynn

Possibly taking logic too far...

I probably shouldn't ask this, but if everyone has superpowers, why on earth is anyone using guns?

For the same reason that the bad guys continue to shoot at Superman even when he has become famous, and for the same reason that the crooks in the George Reeves' show would throw their guns at Superman after they had emptied it shooting him with no effect. Superman's street villains tend to be a few slugs short of a fully loaded barrel, so to speak.

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., Good question.

Awesome--I loved how you switched this universe around .

Clark, the only one without powers...everyone else flying around, able to do everything 'super'. How interesting would that be?! And knowing how special Clark is--how he can't help but want to help, how he tends to think through everything beforehand--this type of a situation, I think, would be so completely frustrating to him (as Virginia pointed out).

I was quite intrigued by the title and appreciated having it defined in the FDK. Fits perfectly .

Great job, Lynn
Laura

Hi Laura,

Thanks so much for leaving feedback. I agree, Clark would be extremely frustrated not to be able to help out. I purposely left a lot to the reader's imagination in this story. One thing that was not mentioned was whether everyone was born this way or whether something happened to remove Clark's powers while granting them to everyone else (among other possibilities). If this world had been like canon at one point, and if he went from being Superman to being the only un-super person, how much harder still would that have been for him. That could make for a fascinating story itself, but I don't want to immerse myself mentally in such a world long enough to write that story. (If someone else wrote it, though, I might well read it.)

I'm glad you liked the title. Naming a piece with a word which I would guess to be new to most readers was a bit of a risk, but one I thought was worth taking in this instance.

Joy,
Lynn

I did this once with a multi-chapter Buffy/Star Trek crossover that had a single-word title, Omphalos, which (if you looked it up and realise which context I was using) gave away major plot points - and didn't explain it for several chapters. I don't think anyone looked it up...

If you don't want to read the story,

I liked the story, though it's a bit sad that Clark doesn't have powers. Still, it got me thinkng....

Assuming there is a Lex Luthor in this world, he might be after Clark because if he could find the key to "powerlessness" then he might be able to inflict it on the crimefighting agents of his choice.

Intergang might be after Clark for the same reason, but they would target whole cities that refuse to fall under their dominion.

Also, every time a manned spaceship is launched the occupants receive massive doses of solar energy and become dangerously overpowered. The government and S.T.A.R. labs want to study Clark to develop a way to moderate powers to enable space travel.

Hi Shallowford,

I like your analysis. It appears that even in this universe, Clark has to keep his secret lest he be dissected like a frog... Only here, anybody could succeed at doing that, even without kryptonite. (Hmmm... I wonder whether kryptonite in this universe would temporarily grant Clark powers?)

Joy,
Lynn

Hi Lynn!

Oh boy. Amnesia?



Revearth?

They’re on Revearth! Only, why do crooks use bullets on Revearth? And is he on the ICU or in an asylum?

Michael

Good question. I gave Marcus a facetious answer to it up above. The serious answer is that this is what is known, in technical parlance, as an "oopsie."

I've tweaked the story for the archive so that no guns are involved. (The relevant lines became, "How could this happen? He seemed so sane. What could make him think all of a sudden that he can fly or start fires with his eyes?")

I purposely left the location ambiguous, since I wanted to let the reader, early on, have the possibility of thinking that this was an ASU spinoff. I was envisioning it as a medical wing in a mental hospital.

Joy,
Lynn

Liking the new one!

Michael