Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Meet Mr. Jones

I'm feeling grumpy at the moment, because when I read Terry's fic where Lois becomes corrupted and evil, I asked for a fic where Clark becomes corrupted and evil. Now such a fic has been posted, but the whole point of it - at least the whole point of part two of it - is to show us that Clark actually can't be corrupted and evil! (Ah, but Lois can!)

Another thing about Lois is that her soul can be incarnated into another person's body. So Clark can live on in his own body and interact with a reincarnated Lois in another body. As a non-religious person, I have enormous problems with the mere concept of reincarnation. More than that, however, I think the idea of reincarnation threatens the idea of indivuality and uniqueness in a way that I find deeply troubling. Suppose Lois's soul is incarnated in another woman's body. Then what happens with that other woman's own soul? Does it just disappear? Should that other woman be regarded as an empty vessel with no soul of her own, or with a soul that can conveniently be removed so that another, more "worthy" soul can take its place? Isn't that some sort of "murder"?

So I don't like reincarnation stories as such. But again I notice that there is a difference in how Lois and Clark are treated when it comes to reincarnation. Lois is reincarnated in such an important LnC multiparter as Nan's Home series, and Dandello has also written a story where a reincarnated Lois interacts with the "real" Clark. Clark, to my knowledge, has never been reincarnated in any LnC story. Is that because Clark is too unique and irreplacable as himself?

I thought we might rectify the problem of the lack of reincarnated Clarks on these boards, which is why I'm launching my "Reincarnate Clark Kent" challenge here! I call it "Meet Mr. Jones". This, by the way, is Mr. Jones:



Mr. Jones, who I choose to call Bill, is an ordinary-looking and rather skinny guy, as you can see. He looks nice enough, if you ask me, but nothing special.

Here's the deal. The real Clark Kent is dead - for real - and his soul has been reincarnated into Mr. Jones's body. (It's anyone's guess what happened to Mr. Jones's own soul.)

Mr Jones, Bill, doesn't know that he is the reincarnated Clark Kent. He doesn't remember being Clark Kent. His name certainly isn't Clark Kent, and he hasn't been raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent. (Maybe, possibly, he has strange dreams sometimes about being able to fly.)

But Mr Jones is a compulsive do-gooder, precisely because he is Clark Kent. So what would he do with his need to do good? No, he can't "regain" his powers. He has to remain an ordinary guy for the rest of his life. So what will he do with himself and his life?

I'm looking forward to seeing you tell us about the life of Mr. Jones!

Ann

Well, real soul transmigration occurs at or before birth - most cultures that believe in transmigration of souls or reincarnation believe is occurs about the time a fetus becomes viable.

The soul in question actually chooses what family and situation it will be born into. There is no soul being displaced. In the case of Lois and Clark being sent back to previous bodies - Souls are outside of time and space as we know it. Their current consciousness simply awakened inside the other bodies - the other consciousness would either not remember the incident or think it was a dream.

As for Bill Jones... well, Clark had been shown to be an invenerate do-gooder all through his most recent incarnations. I doubt that will change.

Reincarnation isn't about stealing another person's body and therefore ousting their soul in the process.

It is about being reborn - given a second chance, a next life - however you want to word it. It is more of a continuity thing.

Taking over another persons body tends to come under the ghost/possession genre in my opinion.

As we are dealing with fiction, I don't see why any one persons religious beliefs should take issue with the idea of reincarnation.
After all, we are a society of unique individuals who all make our own choices in life (after life if you do believe in reincarnation) and respect other religions, faiths and beliefs around us.

So I am not sure I understand if you are asking for a Clark who has been re-incarnated - ie born as a baby and lived another life as a mortal human who may or may not come across his 'soulmate' - a re-incarnated Lois, or if you are asking for a soul-replacement/possession fic where Clarks "soul" is intentionally or otherwise placed into another mans body (which is NOT reincarnation in my opinion) and meets the L&C Lois.

To answer the 'why hasn't Clark has his soul switched' question - I would say that if you look at the TV show it has been written at least once - S4 "I've got you under my skin" (and yes - I cringe at that storyline... but it was IN the show), or even the more popular "Soul Mates". However, you also have to think about the fact that most fics in L&C deal with Superman as part of the equation, and without Clark/Superman, part of the story is lost to this reader base who are here because of the foundations laid by the TV show. Lois is mortal. Clark is not exactly mortal. Unless you re-write the show, you can't change that essential and basic foundation.

Perhaps there is scope for a role reversal, where Ultrawoman remains the constant and has to wait for Clark to be re-incarnated?
Again though, I can't say I am entirely clear on what you are expecting from Mr Jones, given this is a forum where people write about Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Superman...

Good question. I'm asking for a little Billy Jones who was born with the deceased - and non-clonable - Clark Kent's soul inside him. As Bill grows up, what will become of him?

And for the record, please understand that I'm not criticizing other people's belief in reincarnation.

Ann

In Soul Mates, both Lois and Clark were reincarnated (transmigrated?) several times (but oddly , always into bodies which were visual replicates of the same model -- which has interesting sci-fi implications, but I'm wonder-wandering off topic here --- Also, in Soul Mates, Clark was not always "super"- he dies in that medieval duel , for example.

Respectfully disagree here: The show left this issue very much open to conjecture. It' was only Bernie Klein who hypothesizes that Clark is immortal. He was speculating. Besides, Bernie wasn't exactly a 'totally right all the time' type scientist. As well, Clark gave up some of his life force to restore 'old man' Jimmy to his proper age. So, if in fact, Clark's life span was roughly similar to humans, he could have lost some of his 'time' and wound up aging sooner than his years would indicate. (now there's a fanfic challenge for you ) Also, Nor, a Kryptonian, quite clearly died.

As well, consider Clark's close encounters with death as a result of all those close encounter K incidents. He had more of those than I'd had the flu! The statistical probability that one of those encounters would prove lethal would be strong. Or that there would be long term resdual weakening of his body.

And the biggest reason why the concept of immortal Clark is a bummer ..... it sucks the romance right out of the L & C relationship. ya gotta have the orginal model of each for the fireworks to dazzle the sky, and the wonderous, blissful calm afterwards.

You can tell by all this I'm no fan of the reincarnation concept.

Now, for TOC's fanfic challenge - interesting because it suggests that it's Clark's personality that define the character more than his physicality. Now, I agree with that premise - otherwise, Clark would have become BatMan say, or like Nor and his thugs when they found their superpowers. But the tricky thing is to get that soul into an age appropriate body so that there can be a romance (and there's gotta be a romance, otherwise it's Starsky and Hutch)

There's an old movie based on this premise - but what is it - man and women hit it off - he dies unexpectedly and is reincarnated (as a prizefighter I beleieve) Will she recognise her lover in his new body? Great movie, too bad I can't remember the title.

c.

Actually - I didn't say he was immortal, although - since the legend of Superman (and Lois) is revered through time, by my dictionary definition (Collins) Clark/Superman (and Lois) could technically be defined as such.

I was implying Clark has a different set of boundaries on him than Lois. While his mortality can be compromised, it isn't as earthly in distinction as Lois's because of the simple fact he is invulnerable to most situations unless kryptonite is used. I wasn't even thinking of the whole 'live forever' situation which really has too many variables in the show (as you mentioned) to allow us to know conclusively what the effects of exposure to various situations have caused to Clark's original potential/theoretical lifespan. I guess that is a gift to fanfic writers because it does offer so many wide and varying scenarios for them to explore while still staying true to the realms of the Lois and Clark genre.

Lisa, now that I'll buy. The story of Lois Lane and Clark Kent/Superman is absolutely immortal. The stuff of myths.

c.

I have chosen to interpret the visual replication as an effect of how Lois & Clark got there - since they were 'awakened' soul-stuff in other bodies, they were seeing representations of the 'souls' of their group and the easiest way to represent that was by showing familiar faces.

Now, back to our discussion.

And I thought this had practical reasons, like not wanting to confuse the people watching the show or not having to hire additional actors.

Well the movie is "Heaven Can Wait" with Warren Beatty and it was a remake of an even older classic "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) ('is a comedy film in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains and Evelyn Keyes. The movie was adapted by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall. It was directed by Alexander Hall.') Also it was remade again with Chris Rock in 2001 it is called "Down To Earth" I have not seen that version but I heard it does not live up to the prior two.

Thanks, Laurach. I kept meaning to check that yesterday, and never did.

c.

Why not both?

But hmmm, reincarnating Clark...it's an interesting challenge; see if you can keep the essence of Clark's "Clarkness" and all the things that made the show great, while ditching the whole Superman thing (save for perhaps moments of dejavou). It'd be a very advanced level fic, one for greater authors than I to attempt, methinks.

Also, I think I do understand the idea of one's religious beliefs affecting one's taste in fiction. Personally, it drives me nuts whenever DC comics gets into religion. Yes, I know it's fiction. Yes, I am honestly upset that they have Superman wrestling Quetzocoatl in a Catholic church while some kid in a bowler hat tells Supergirl's adopted mom that he's God and the whole "garden of Eden" fiasco was an honest mistake caused by inexperience. *eye-twitch*

That many groups disagree about this point made the basis for a fine tale by H. Beam Piper called
"Last Enemy" There the conflict between Statistical and Volitional reincarnation theories provides the A plot.

Good fun.

I'll have to look that book up. It sounds interesting.

My own theory more Western-astrological: the soul is drawn to a set of traits - not a name or income level but 'soul' or 'personality' or 'karmic' traits (Very very frequently (far more than statistical) there are obvious strong aspects between parents and children in their charts.) The soul is drawn to a situation that will put it into a position to learn what it needs to in each round.

In the case of Bill/Clark - Clark's life was cut short so he couldn't finish whatever lesson he was working on. Bill was born to parents very similar (personality-wise) to Jonathan and Martha and Bill is now working on similar lessons and he's going to do it without Lois.