#554 The Token Superhero- David F. Walker

#554 The Token Superhero- David F. Walker

Parents often have contradictory hopes for their children. On one hand they want them to be safe, normal, comfortable, but they also want them to be extraordinary, better than they were and someone that helps make the world better. Kelvin Ramey is in such a quandary. His son Alonzo is a superhero, and as much as Kelvin wants to be proud of him, he is worried that he will be in danger.

“Daddy K, are you really going to be angry that our son was blessed with wings and has decided to use them to fly?”

A genetic anomaly called K-24 has given superpower mutation to a select few in society. Most of the power are called “Standards” like extreme strength, speed, and bullet proof skin. But some have developed even more anomalous mutations that are uncontrollable. Kelvin is happy that Alonzo is a “Standard” because he believes that the world would look unkindly to a black man with super-human abilities. As it is, he is unhappy that his son will be part of a force called the Teen Justice Force, worried that Alonzo will become a tool for “The Man.”

Exploitation of Alonzo manifested itself first in his name, The Black Fist. He was also the only member of the force not to get his own comic series or an action figure.

“At the age of twenty, Alonzo was already bitter, cynical, and tired of being a token. He tried to reinvent himself, with a new costume and a new name, but none of it took. Twice he’d been attacked by other superheroes who’d mistaken him for a supervillain, and then there was the time he’d been shot by cops. Fortunately the bullets had bounced off.”

There is some pretty good satire here. And like most super hero stories there is a few good lessons to learn about symbolism, identity, and materialism…and that’s one to grow on.

Rating: 7-7-8-8 Total= 32

#496 Ashes- Lucia Perillo

#496 Ashes- Lucia Perillo

Tim’s father has died and it’s his job to take care of the ashes. His father was intently unsentimental, but Tim finds himself taking stock of his own life and his strained relationship with his dad. He remembers his father coming to visit and taking him to the trails he helped build as a Forest Ranger—and he remembers his father being supremely unimpressed.

“A water bar was an insignificant thing, Tim realized, but its worth was easily measured: you kicked it and right away whether or not it would hold…they were responsible for nothing less than the shape of the landscape, for the sides of the mountain staying up…he wanted his father to understand this, but Sam hadn’t, or Tim hadn’t tried hard enough to explain.”

So the thing Tim is most proud of, the most tangible thing he has done, hadn’t met to his father’s approval. The thing his father was impressed with, briefly, was an old growth tree six feet wide, so that’s where they spread his ashes. I liked the symbolism of the bottle of whiskey saved until Tim got married—wasn’t so hot on the symbolism of the kneeling at the end.

Rating: 7-7-7-7 Total= 28

#422 Why Coyote Never had Money For Parking- Chuck Palahniuk

#422 Why Coyote Never had Money For Parking- Chuck Palahniuk

Coyote is in a struggling marriage with Hyena, and has a weekly tryst with Flamingo, the local prostitute. He loathes living in this (literal) urban jungle where he thinks nobody contributes to society and they’re all out only for themselves. He wanted to be a rock star, but ended up in this disappointing marriage instead:

“He knew that marriage was like one of those movies where the only exciting parts are all squeezed into the three minute preview.”

Nobody in this story is exactly what they seem, and not only because they’re written as animals.

Reading these anthropomorphic stories where all the characters are animals is like seeing those Gary Larson Far Side comics. Its funny on the surface because, “hey look a cow is talking like a human.” But then you see the satire right below the surface. If done well, you forget the delivery method, and are left with the message. It’s brilliant because too often, people see an archetypal character and assign a stereotype from their own mind into it, and the commentary is tainted or lost.

So in that way, it’s also kind of a Rorschach Test for the reader. When Coyote calls Ox and Llama lazy no good ____ you see them as ____. When really they are just an Ox and a Llama, there is no subtext for them written in. Which is fascinating to me. Sometimes a Jackass is just a Jackass.

Notable Passage: “Everything was free if you’d pay enough.”

Rating: 8-9-9-8 Total= 34

#191 Dabchick- Haruki Murakami

#191 Dabchick- Haruki Murakami

Life is a maze, or a long undefined corridor without decoration that we can only see ahead or behind but cannot see past the walls. The whys and hows of this corridor are well beyond the ken of normal people, all we can do is walk down the hall and look for a doorway. But when we get to the doorway we need a password, a secret handshake, a shibboleth. Maybe we can talk our way in, finagle a deal with the gate keepers, hope that someone will give us a chance. Maybe that can happen, but if it does, we are still late for work.

“I kept walking…not thinking, just walking, no time, no distance, no sense that I was moving forward in any way.”

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total=32