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Me, Myself & I

Saturday, 29 May 2021 14:58

Admin Story Spolight Theatre #39 Featured

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Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I know that this entry is insanely late, but this week hasn't been kind to me in any way shape or form (except that I was finally able to get an appointment for my first vaccine shot).

Anyway, this week's story is one that I had at least one finger in since I was part of the "beta-readering" team for it. So, I'm 100% biased and there is nothing I can do about it.

Let's talk about

Fifteen Minutes of Fame by AuGoose

If memory helps, this story started as a twenty or so pitch that Goose sent me in early 2016 and he published a first version in his Notebook thread. From there, the story got a lot of polishing and reworking, which is pretty much the hallmark of Goose's work, he's never satisfied, he always takes time of gave any piece he does a lot of extra work.

What makes this story really good is how it pulls a 180° about a quater of the way in, turning its own framing device in the main storyline. Speaking of the framing device, I'm kind of surprised that newscasts aren't much more prominent in our genre, not just because they are extremely useful to set up the scene by providing a measure of in-story exposition, but also because they're a very natural progression of Superman's framing device of being a newspaper reporter. Off the top of my head, the main examples I can quote are Gincognito's The Celbutante, which literally included the Chyron in the main text, and many entries by Newshound (of course).

Anyway, what AuGoose gave us a prime example of "collective wish fullfilment" that is exceptionally well written, but also extremely appealing because we can see it in real time. Often, stories based around the idea of a character getting powers from others use this element as part of the background or by delivering powers in "packets" that coincide with key moments of the story. Here we have a prime example of how to showcase the empowerment process in real time and it's gourgeous to watch. The main characte becomes a mirror of the events of the world and fuel them at the same time in a sort of neverending loop... well there's an actual ending, but I'm not going to spoil it for you.

By the way, some people might spot a passing similarity with HikerAngel's grand experiment Superstarter, but I'll leave any explanation about how or if those are linked to the author themselves.

See you at the next story.

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