I read the Lathem Omega the Unknown revamp and liked it. Not much to say on the subject until the day comes that I’ve read the original. For now I’d like to underscore a valuable insight presented by the new Omega. At one point the poor schmuck high-school kid who gets pushed around by the bullies confesses that he’s not really the class brain because he’s not actually smart, he’s just a dumpy fellow who wears glasses and is no good at gym and therefore must consider himself smart because otherwise he’s got nothing else. There are a lot of guys and girls like that, and they’re not represented much by popular lore; or, if they are, it’s with the omission of their defining factor, which is that they lack brains. I know that if you work in reference publishing or for a trade newspaper you’ll run into them, lots of them. Maybe they’re in other walks of life too. It sure is fun listening to them talk about movies!
The Hooded Utilitarian
a pundit in every panopticon
I’ve read the original, and I found it oppressively bleak to the point of unreadability. Oh, it’s got real moments of quality, but it seems to say, over and over again, “life sucks, get a helmet.”
Which, unsurprisngly, is an issue I had with Hard Time, the other big Gerber/Skrenes collaboration.
That is a great observation. I’d have much more sympathy for a teenage character who realizes that than the actually smart types.
– And I know tons of guys like that too. He’s the guy you imagine is headed for MIT but you see him years after high school working at CompUSA.