Well, Terry, here I thought I would be commenting on the closing part of your story. And, okay, I will, so let's do that now, before I comment on what is really fascinating here, namely your own final comment and analysis of your story.
First, though, chapter 10 out of 10. "Sic transit gloria mundi" - "Så förgår denna världens härlighet" - "So ends the glory of this world"! (Well, I couldn't resist the opportunity to teach everybody a little Swedish.) All good things must end, and so Terry's fantastic story is no more. It is an ex-parrot. Fortunately it will be stuffed and preserved and kept safe, a jewel for posterity, in the Archive.
Part ten out of ten is a nice wrapup rather than a final explosion, though. Well, that's certainly fine with me. There were many things I liked, for example, Lois's rather lovely interaction with the young twin girls. I've always wanted Lois to have Clark's child or children eventually, so I like it when I see her interact with kids in a positive way. (But hey, Lois and Terry, it isn't quite true that craters can remain unchanged over time; in fact, craters get "degraded" after a number of million years, and astronomers use the sharpness of the rims, or lack of it, to judge the age of them. Certainly this decay happens more slowly on places like the moon than on the Earth, but it happens inexorably just the same. Let me quote a favorite poem of mine, "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, ***********
And on the pedestal, these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, King of kings: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" A statue will eventually become an ex-statue, so that the last trace of king Ozymandias disappears. But it is similarly true that eventually, inexorably, a mighty crater will also sink into the sand and disappear!
Ah, well. Me, the space buff, loved it when you had Lois and Karen watch the moon slide past the window of the shuttle Pegasus. Lois says:
"That looks so pretty."
Karen looked over her shoulder as the space shuttle slowly rotated along its longitudinal axis. "I think the Earth is prettier, especially from this angle."
Oh yes, you bet the Earth is prettier, Karen and Terry! That's one of the (few) things I envy people who get to fly on space shuttles, that they get to see the Earth from space. Wow, you know. And believe me, the more you learn about space, the more you marvel at the incredible miracle that is the planet Earth.
Ah, well. You had Lois and Karen exchange several jokes, and this time I understood all of them, which was certainly nice! "How have you been sleeping?" - "With my eyes closed." Got to remember that one. And why will the restaurant on the moon have to close down? Because the food is great, but there's just no atmosphere. I actually saw that coming, Terry! But it's no joke that Lois gets to keep the badge that Karen gave her. Go, Lois, Inspector Lane!
And then Lois returns to Clark. Well, I guess that is one of my two complaints about this story, that you killed my favorite couple, Ben and Maria, and that there wasn't enough Lois/Clark interaction. So this passage between Lois and Clark was my favorite part of chapter ten:
He cupped her face with his hand. "I didn't get to see your hair before you left for the station. It looks nice. I like it."
"Good, because I think I'm going to keep it this length. You can't imagine how much easier it is to get ready in the morning."
"I'd like to see that sometime."
Lois checked the impulse to banter back at him and looked into his eyes.
Then she kissed him like there was no one else in the spaceport.
Okay, Terry, I'm going to take that as a promise that Clark won't have to wait too long before he can see Lois getting ready in the morning!
My second favorite part of this chapter must be the way Lois greets Perry and Jimmy:
She moved from Clark and hugged her rugged boss. "You old softy, you! I'm glad to see you, too." Then she embraced Jimmy. "I'm even glad to see you, you young scamp!"
"Young scamp?" Jimmy goggled at her. "Lois, are you okay?"
She pushed his shoulder playfully and chuckled. "Yes. But don't get used to it. Mad Dog Lane will be back tomorrow morning, bright and early."
This is just
lovely! I
love your way of writing Lois here, Terry!
Finally, though, Karen. I thought she went a little overboard this time, Terry. I was actually a little offended that she kissed Clark just to joke with Lois. And this has nothing to do with homosexuality or otherwise, but rather with respect, or the lack of it, for people whom you don't love or want anyway. Kisses are too serious to plaster on people whom you don't actually want to kiss, and who don't want to be kissed by you. Karen had better get her act together, now that she is going to be stationed in Germany, where people may not always appreciate her sense of humour. Here in Europe there is a joke which says that hell is a place where the English cook the food and the Germans tell the jokes.... Sorry, all you German people here, Germany is a lovely country with nice people, and Karen made a great choice when she asked to be stationed with you! So bring her up a little for me, hmm?
(Then again... maybe I'm being too prickly and sensitive here. Maybe Karen knew that Lois and Clark wouldn't be offended, and maybe she was just trying to be - what was it that you had somebody call it? - an equal opportunity lecher?)
Okay! Now on to your own comments on your story. I love it that you told us this:
To those of you who thought that Karen should have known Lois was a reporter, the chain of events leading up to the "revelation" was intended to be a mirror to Lois learning that Clark was also Superman.
Yes, of course!!! Why didn't I see that? Stupid... (insert "bash forehead icon")
I think the most important thing you said about your story, however, was this:
I realize that one of the underlying themes of this narrative was sex
Indeed it was, Terry. And maybe that was one of the things that made your story, and all your fantastic original characters, so fascinating. You managed to tell us hugely interesting things about these people's love lives, and their approach to sex and to other people, without ever actually describing people
having sex. Now that you pointed that out, I'm even more impressed with your story, while at the same time I understand at least one aspect of its fascination even better. Because there are so extremely few things about us people which are so intensely personal as our approach to sex. You managed to shed such enormously fascinating light on the people of the space station by letting us see their sexual mores, habits and preferences, but you did so in a way which showed these people as
humans, not as sex exhibits.
Of course, it was inevitable that you had to say something about your own general feelings about homosexuality. I loved it that you said this:
if a gay man whom Clark respected made a pass at him, I'd hope that Clark would rebuff him gently and not reject him as a friend for one mistake.
Bravo, Terry! I couldn't have put it better myself. (Which does
not mean that I have any particular wish whatsoever to read a story where a gay man makes a pass at Clark. I'm here to read about Lois and Clark, not Lewis and Clark.)
This, however, is something I approve of even more:
Sex, in and of itself, isn't evil. Our human perversions of sex, both straight and otherwise, are the evil.
I couldn't agree more.
I was actually a little uncomfortable that you saw the need to tell everybody here that you are not gay. Frankly, I don't think that kind of thing is any of our business. Because if it
is our business, what does that mean? As far as I can see, that means we demand the right to be not only our brother's keeper, but to be his sex inspector as well, the one who watches what he does in the bedroom so that we can punish him if we don't like what we see. I don't know about you, but I find that thought very, very scary, indeed.
Personally, I hate all kinds of sexual abuse and exploitation. I think we should always, always be very careful of people who are weaker than ourselves. We must always -
always -regard children as off limits, but the same goes for other people who can't really defend themselves against us. A teacher must
never touch his or her own student, not even if the student is an adult. A doctor must
never touch his or her own patient. You know what I mean.
So, exploitation and abuse is always wrong. I don't much like great promiscuity either, Lana O'Meara style. But I will say this much. I will never - and I mean
never - condemn a homosexual couple who live in a faithful, loving relationship. So, Terry, I was a little uncomfortable when you wrote this:
If I want to have an honest dialogue with a gay person about radically changing his or her lifestyle, my words won't be heard if all I speak is condemnation.
It seems to me that you are at least hinting that anyone who is gay should be persuaded to change his or her lifestyle. I certainly agree that those homosexuals who are extremely promiscuous should be persuaded to change their lifestyle, for all our sakes. As we have seen in the case of AIDS, such people spread venereal diseases very efficiently. I also agree that confused youngsters who try out homosexuality just out of curiosity, not out of any sort of natural need, should be dissuaded from that. But if a person is truly gay and lives a responsible life, why should we try to change him or her?
I said before that a person's sexuality is an intensely personal thing. It is also an absolutely huge part of everybody's personality. Let's not be so cruel that we condemn other people's sexuality just because it is not the same as our own. Let's be gentle with one another. Let's try not to hurt one another. And let us respect each other's humanity.
Ann
