Superheroes
A little while ago, I got a very sweet email from Melanie Lynne Hauser saying nice things about this blog and asking if I minded if she linked to me. Of course, I don’t mind. Her book, Confessions of Super Mom is coming out next month, and it sounds like fun. Super Mom’s powers (the result of "a horrible swiffer accident") appear to be to clean up any mess with a zap of her fingers, to read children’s minds, and to understand the beeps of the scanner at the supermarket. Not exactly the superpowers that I’d pick if I had the choice, I’m afraid.
Part of what made The Incredibles really work is that they did such a terrific job with Elastigirl. They figured out a set of powers that really would be helpful for a stay-at-home parent — trust me, a solo road trip would be a LOT easier if I could reach what the boys drop without taking my eyes off the road — but that also make her a kick-ass superhero.
My all-time favorite superhero story, however, is Scott McCloud’s Zot! comics. Unfortunately, my favorites are the "Earth Stories," which are the only ones that were never published as books. In them, Zot is accidentally trapped on our Earth, and hangs out with his girlfriend Jenny and her geeky friends as they try to cope with such real-life problems as divorce, homophobia, and surviving high school. And he tries to cope with the fact that he can’t single-handedly solve all of the world’s problems. They’re just wonderful. If you ever get a chance to read them, do it. (We have a full set of them, but we don’t lend them out; you can read them here if you wash your hands first.)
My husband has written a role-playing game in which you get to play a superhero (or supervillian, if you insist). It’s called Capes and it’s just been nominated under Best Rules and Best Game in the ENnies. I’m very proud of him.
If you did get to pick a superpower, what would it be? I think I’d pick flying. Other things might be more useful, but I can’t imagine anything being more fun.
July 21st, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Your last question reminds me of the This American Life segment about Flight vs. Invisibility from the Superpowers episode (#178) If you haven’t heard it, it is a worthwhile listen. This should be the URL: http://207.70.82.73/pages/descriptions/01/178.html Otherwise you can go to their website and look for the episode – it was done on 2/28/03.
Personally, I think I would pick flight (although I would be sure not to get a costume with a cape!) If I were picking from any superpower imaginable, I think the ability to do things at double or triple speed would be pretty cool. Sure would make cleaning and doing the dishes a bit easier to bear, and it would make it just that much easier to get around without a car. I suppose that is awfully pragmatic of me, isn’t it!
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:37 am
Superpower, or super quality? I would probably opt for an extra set of extendable arms and hands.
Flight would, indeed, be very cool, but I’m all about the practical. At least for tonight.
Invisibility would also be excellent, if admittedly perverse.
July 22nd, 2005 at 3:46 am
Elastigirl is my all-time favorite TV/movie mom. I love the way she saves her kids from an exploding airplane by stretching herself into a ball around them, just as if they were still in utero, and then gently unfolding herself into a parachute.
For myself, I would want to be able to make one graceful lunge that would take me, say, clear across the house. Or across town. Not quite like Elastigirl — I don’t want my own body to stretch; I want the ground to ripple under me, to pass under me, so that I just step and, viola, I am somewhere new. It would make it easy to catch my boy, who’s not unlike Dash — or, you know, to get away myself : )
July 22nd, 2005 at 9:28 am
This is actually a question I use as a way for students in a college course I teach to get to know each other a bit better. Usually the students go for the obvious and say they would like to fly or have the ability to make money without working. Occasionally, I get some creative students who come up with things like – the ability to look like whoever was the sexiest man alive at the moment(Brad Pitt at the time), the ability to manipulate people’s feelings by merely speaking (he called himself The Bard), and one student wanted the ability to clean her apartment without getting up from the couch.
As for myself, I’ve often wanted to have the ability to manipulate time – slow it down, speed it up, rewind it, fast forward it – kind of like a human Tivo.
July 22nd, 2005 at 11:04 am
My four year old asked me the same question the other day, and I said I thought I’d like to be able to fly. She responded by saying her superpower woud be the ability to turn things into candy and that as I flew by overhead she’d just jump up, turn me into candy, and then eat me up until I was all gone.
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:32 pm
I like Russell’s time concept. Boy would that lessen my work-life balance guilt!
I have often wished I needed no sleep. I’ve also often wished for the ability to see thru lies. Can you imagine if you could *always* tell when someone was fibbing? Or giving incomplete information? Then again maybe that would drive me bananas …
July 22nd, 2005 at 12:40 pm
Being able to control time would definitely be useful. Nancy Kress’ *Beggers in Spain* is about the implications of a group of people who don’t need to sleep. Ever.
T and I have commented on the fact that no one in Vernor Vinge’s *The Peace War* seems to have hit on the idea of using bobbles (impermeable bubbles that freeze time within them) as a child care arrangement.
Last night we were also laughing about the temptations that mind control powers would offer, e.g. “these are not the toys that you are looking for.”
July 22nd, 2005 at 2:16 pm
Lois Bujold’s first published story was a trifle about an overworked housewife gifted with a stasis device (suitable for use on children and pets) by an alien drunk. Very amusing.
So far, I don’t dream of childcare-related superpowers, although the ability to get by with no sleep would be helpful there and in other areas. I kinda dig the Spider-Man suite of powers, what you might call super-acrobatics. Still subject to laws of physics, but able to do ever so much more within them. Wheee!
July 23rd, 2005 at 6:51 pm
It’s funny, I was just thinking of my superpower the other day—because I do believe that everyone has one. It may seem mundane, but mine is the ability to pick paint colors. I can look at a paint swatch in the store and know that I will love it on the walls. Only once (and of course it had to be my husband’s home office!) did I fail, but I figure every superhero has their Kryptonite—mine just happens to be light blue. 😉
July 25th, 2005 at 9:37 am
LPF, can you come and pick a paint color for the entire upper half of my house? The back bedroom alone has been repainted three times now, in a fruitless search for the right yellow. And the bathroom that I thought would be a subtle blue just looks like I painted it white in 1987 and haven’t cleaned it since.
July 25th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
Thanks for mentioning the book! I wanted to clarify one thing – the electronic beeping thing is just part of her ability to “hear” electronic chatter – such as what her children are IM’ing on the Internet, for example, and two-sides of cellphone conversations. As a mother of teens (who tend to spend a lot of time holed up in their rooms on the computer), I think I’d like this ability myself! (Um, not that I’d eavesdrop or anything…)
I’ve never seen The Incredibles; it came out a year after I wrote the book, and I was just so afraid to see it because I also have a sequel to write, and I absolutely didn’t want to see things in it I wished I’d thought of! (But my kids say it’s very good.)
July 26th, 2005 at 11:08 am
I think my superpower would be to extend or create a bubble in time….so I could get some time to myself!!