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3.20.04 More "Dangling Woman"?
Awhile back I wrote and produced a piece called "Dangling
Woman," about a little incident in the Costa Rican jungle. My
favorite response came from a woman who wrote on the
Transom.org forum:
from Nanette: Dangling Woman - The Superhero
Dangling Woman is brilliant! and needed. the
writing is rich. ...
Dangling Women - The Series
or
Dangling Woman : The Comic Book Superhero
Sure to be at least a cult classic! please!
The idea of a continuing series thrilled me -- and a superhero, no
less. But what would that really mean? What did this commenter mean?
What was it about my piece she responded to? I slapped a Post-It in my
notebook: "Dangling Woman, the series... HOW?" Who is the Dangling
Woman? My initial thoughts:
Restless rearranger. Things are never ok just the way they
are. A busybody? No. A home improver? No. Rearranging herself.
Rearranging the systems and processes of a chaotic world. Or wishing
she could. Thinks too much. Overthinks, overanalyses. Other
people get bored with her. Longing, waiting, never "in the
moment." Life is what happens while you are waiting for the
adventure to begin. Self-doubt. "This can't be right...
Where is my team? Where are the people who promised to do this with
me? Was I the only one who bought this line of baloney?" ...
and timidity. "Hmm, ok... I'm not really a true believer
either... If no one else is behind me, maybe I'll just quietly slip
away... I wouldn't want to look like an ass." Bad timing.
Discovers trends just as they end. Or maybe too early -- by the time
everyone else get it, DW is burned out. Worries that the post-modern
era is over and she still can use the word in a sentence.
But a superhero? Superheroes must have superpowers. What would be
hers?
Invisibility? She certainly has a kind of see-through
quality, with the plainest possible face that no one ever remembers.
Able to go unnoticed. "Who was that see-through woman?"
Becomes visible only when wearing red lipstick. Flashes of
brilliance? Capable of being a nine-day wonder in just about
anything. "She's got it!... Oh. Nevermind."
But how would she do good? What evil would she combat?
Greed. DW's favorite deadly sin. The powerful people who
must have all the money, all the land, all the little companies, all
the contracts, all the gold, all the toys. Pride isn't bad
either. How cool would it be to knock the pins out from under the
world's arrogant know-it-alls, the evil queen bees, the
self-absorbed alpha males. You know the one -- the person who has to
be right, not because she has all the facts or did all the analysis,
but because "I'm me." And you know the especially annoying: "I have
this title, so whatever I think must be right."
Stupidity and incompetence. Not a deadly sin, but should
have been. Maybe it's Sloth. No one really minds if you were born
stupid. But if you can't be bothered to learn what you need... DW
will get you.
What are her tools? How can such a restless self-doubter be
successful against, say, an evil queen bee?
Writing? Has to be more than irritated letters to the
editor. But DW does sometimes see herself as the kind of
revolutionary who runs the mimeo machine in the backroom and tacks
her broadsides on the church door. Just killing the bastards seems
so retro, so unimaginative. You hate them and, poof, they're gone.
Where's the fun in that? Humiliation is probably more satisfying.
Other features?
Sidekick? The effervescent Stella. This is sounding more
like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, rather than Batman and Robin. A
post-modern Doņa Quixote?
Any ideas out
there? |