Unicycle #3 - Illusion of Right and Wrong
As a reminder, I’m Alex Grintsvayg and you’re reading Unicycle. This newsletter goes out every Friday at noon. If I’m late, I’ll pay you $200.
Hello dear friends :-)
Worm
Internal consistency and tradeoffs are my biggest pet peeves in fiction. I’ll accept a crazy premise if the story takes that premise seriously. If giant dragons exist in your world but they live in the desolate mountains, how do they feed themselves? They can be invincible and breathe deadly fire as long as they pay a proportional cost to their powers.
This week I finished reading Worm, the most compelling superhero story I’ve ever read. From the official summary:
An introverted teenage girl with an unconventional superpower, Taylor goes out in costume to find escape from a deeply unhappy and frustrated civilian life. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. As she risks life and limb, Taylor faces the dilemma of having to do the wrong things for the right reasons
Readers should be cautioned that Worm is fairly dark as fiction goes, and it gets far darker as the story progresses. Morality isn’t black and white, Taylor and her acquaintances aren’t invincible, the heroes aren’t winning the war between right and wrong, and superpowers haven’t necessarily affected society for the better. Just the opposite on every count, really. Even on a more fundamental level, Taylor’s day to day life is unhappy, with her clinging to the end of her rope from the story’s outset.
Worm turns trade-offs up to 11. Each power has drawbacks (some so significant, their owners are scared to use them). Every character is flawed. Even the ones with the most absurd powers (the book even acknowledges that some powers are unfair, and that’s just how life is) are still mortal and ever so vunlnerable. As for consistency, some reviewers described Worm as scifi disguised as fantasy.
My favorite aspect of Worm is that how much the characters lean into their specific powers. As one example, Taylor’s power is to control bugs. That seems insignificant compared to traditional superheros, but she gets so much mileage out of it. She uses spider silk to make bulletproof armor. She has flies dip themselves in pepper spray and attack her opponents eyes. Swarms of insects cloak her movements, making her harder to shoot. Instead of having well-defined things she can do (super strengh, eye lasers, etc), she adapts a single ability to dozens of situations in novel ways. It’s creative and doesn’t get stale.
Reading Worm was satisfying in another way. Even as a child, I was frustrated that the good guys always win. In Worm, a core theme is that it’s often unclear who the good or bad guys even are. Everyone has their unique story. Characters are often pushed to do noble or horrible things by the circumstances they find themselves in. This ambiguity makes the plot far more real to me.
My biggest issue with Worm was that it’s so long. If you don’t want to commit to ~7000 pages of reading (about the length of all of the Game of Thrones books put together) but want a similar style, I highly recommend the movie Joker. It’s a superhero story without clear good/bad guys and even without powers. That makes it feels like it could take place tomorrow in real life (especially given the recent protests).
Now I’m looking for my next book. Any recommendations?
TIL
The McGurk effect is an illusion where what you see affects what you hear. It can be used to make fascinating tricks like this one. Besides being fun, illusions are also a tool that psychologists use to learn about the brain. You’ve probably seen the simple ones where two straight lines look bent, or colors look different when they’re really the same. However, illusion can get pretty complex. My favorite is below. It’s not dressed up as nicely as the last one, but it packs several surprises into one simple shape.
Happy Friday
My sister sent me this unicycle-themed joke:
What’s the difference between a well-dressed man on a bicycle and a poorly-dressed man on a unicycle? Attire.
Thanks for reading. Any reactions? What did you like or not like? What do you want to read more of? Hit “reply” and tell me what you think, or send an anonymous note if you prefer (though I can’t reply to those).