I’m reading the Arthur C. Clarke award nominees. This year they are:
Any time I read the words "award nominee", "award" and "prize", a wave of uncertainty and inferiority feelings go through me. I guess I'm the direct opposite of an superhero, then.
Or … do superherozes with an inferiority complex actually exist ?
I'm currently reading "Wearing the cape : a superhero story", and it's imho excellntly written. The way only a nerd could do it. Everything looks so much planned and outlined. The level of implicite detail is amazing. There must be complete backstories in the author's drawer or box, to which mere hints are in the text. The introduction has barely closed, then one complex plot kicks in. He gives the reader just
*barely* enough time to accommodate himself/herself with the female superhero (before the "drugs age" I'd write "heroine") of the story.
It is a bit astonishing that I can actually have fun with this book without my infamous inferiority complex crushing in, and that's a good thing. It speaks a lot in positive tones that the author is able to write that fluently without giving me any negative feelings. Perhaps it is because superheroes aren't "my genre"
*at all* . Which means I can read the book from a good safe distance and not feel affected at all, because I'd never write about superheroes. (Or only about ones with inferiority complexes.
Maybe.
)
I haven't reached Part III of the book yet, though.
Edit : The author is male, but the author's first name "Marion" is female here in Germany.
I have theorized (nice geeky word !) that this has come from the male version of the name "Marian", which might be pronounced in English like the author's name : "Marion". The name "Marian" is considered mostly female here in Germany as well, though. Only few people actually know that it can be a male name as well, similar to the name "Nikita".
Most names ending with an "a" are considered female here. And most names ending with an "o" are considered male here. Probably Latin language heritage.
Shakespeare has in "Much ado about nothing" a female protagonist named "Hero".