[LMB] What men want <snark>

[Stewart Dean]

Gun porn has very little class.  I mean, really, blowing away people is 
/so/ low-brow, is such a failure of imagination.  The essence of magic 
when the world is failing on your head is finding that small, 
inconspicuous pivot point and using it ala The Dratsab's Prayer....and 
better yet leave the competition wondering WTF happened.   Gun porn: 
bang they're dead...what's the triumph in that?.
I have read Weber for fun and been riveted, but few of his books I 
reread...and they are invariably the early ones in a series that had 
some wit.  After all, sweaty-muscle Terminator-porn is /so/ tedious in 
its sequels.  It's the underdog, the person with wits, that we cheer for. 
Even in the real world: Rosa Parks *destroyed* the likes of Sheriff Bull 
Connor...him and his like never knew what them.  That's Miles' shtick.  
Even Weber uses it in the Path of the Fury (where, among other good 
scenes, one of the Eumenides and a computer conspire to rape a drug 
dealer of his last penny...and leave not a clue) and with Honor 
Harrington (now hideously overburdened in the later books).
Perhaps writing this sort of underdog akido situation is something like 
crafting a mystery: instead of Everything Revealed At The End, the 
writer builds the house of cards (with the hidden secret trip, which is 
equivalent to the secret of a mystery), the underdog sees it and 
exploits it, and then we get the satisfaction of Justice Served YES!.as 
the the world of the powerful unravels.  It's a mystery with an extra act!

-- 
// Stewart Dean == Kingston, NY
// home: 845-336-4815  sdean at sdean.net
// work: 845-758-7475, sdean at bard.edu