Poem: "The Hercules Complex"
Apr. 20th, 2014 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the March 18, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. It also fills the "wishing" square on my 11-26-13 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by LiveJournal user Lb_lee. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
WARNING: This poem mentions some weird forms of self-harm and gruesome situations, inspired by superhero origin stories.
"Hercules Complex"
There are those who are not
satisfied with being ordinary,
who seek to gain superpowers
by any means conceivable.
They push themselves to the limits,
attempting to replicate freak accidents
that have transformed others into superhumans.
They jump into vats of toxic chemicals,
expose themselves to radiation,
and leap into dangerous situations
hoping that the intensity of the stimulation
will somehow trigger a change.
For the most part, it does not;
a majority of the seekers simply die.
Most of the survivors suffer horrible injuries,
some permanent, even crippling.
The latent potential is spread far and wide
throughout the throng of humanity,
and nobody knows exactly what it is
or how it might manifest,
only that certain things sometimes
seem to bring it to the surface.
The few people who have it
often gain their gifts under extreme duress,
and there is a sort of pattern to it.
This is what the seekers pursue
with such desperate ardor,
and the few who succeed
only spur on those who follow.
It is a peculiar kind of self-harm
in which the intent is not injury but increase,
and yet it lessens more often than it improves,
the mental flaw creating a weak point
regardless of outer strength.
It's called the Hercules Complex,
after the demigod who yearned
to prove himself a true hero
through the quest of twelve labors.
It can even happen by proxy,
as the old gladatorial arenas exposed,
for throwing people into extraordinary situations
sometimes makes them extraordinary,
and so the legends begin.
Yet it cannot truly be controlled;
it is a matter of chance or fate
or something more ephemeral still.
For all their wishing,
they remain terribly ignorant.
What they do not understand --
what nobody with the Hercules Complex
could ever begin to grasp --
what is nevertheless known
to every supernary hero in the world --
is that it isn't power
which makes a hero,
but heart.
* * *
Notes:
Hercules is a classic figure known for his twelve labors, variously described as being expiation for wrongs done or a means of proving himself a true hero.
A "complex" is a mess of feelings about something that can cause psychological trouble.
The psychology behind superhero origin stories is complicated. Here are some sample origins.
People like to tell stories about characters with amazing abilities. We talk about demigods, heroes, superheroes, legends, and so forth. Superheroes are often describes as modern gods, and they can tell us a lot about ourselves.
Gladiators were historic fighters who underwent stupendous danger and sometimes manifested amazing survival ability.
Self-harm involves damaging one's body for emotional release or other reasons. While cutting is the most common example, there are many others -- and some people hurt themselves with extreme fitness routines or other things that can resemble self-improvement. There are ways to stop injuring yourself, or to support someone who self-harms.
Supernaries are ordinary people who use intense training to compete on a level with those who have superpowers. Some readers prefer heroes without superpowers. There are also supernary villains. The whole point is that you don't need special powers to become a superhero. You can be a hero in real life. The catch is, it's more work than most people want to do.
janetmiles. It also fills the "wishing" square on my 11-26-13 card for the origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by LiveJournal user Lb_lee. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.WARNING: This poem mentions some weird forms of self-harm and gruesome situations, inspired by superhero origin stories.
"Hercules Complex"
There are those who are not
satisfied with being ordinary,
who seek to gain superpowers
by any means conceivable.
They push themselves to the limits,
attempting to replicate freak accidents
that have transformed others into superhumans.
They jump into vats of toxic chemicals,
expose themselves to radiation,
and leap into dangerous situations
hoping that the intensity of the stimulation
will somehow trigger a change.
For the most part, it does not;
a majority of the seekers simply die.
Most of the survivors suffer horrible injuries,
some permanent, even crippling.
The latent potential is spread far and wide
throughout the throng of humanity,
and nobody knows exactly what it is
or how it might manifest,
only that certain things sometimes
seem to bring it to the surface.
The few people who have it
often gain their gifts under extreme duress,
and there is a sort of pattern to it.
This is what the seekers pursue
with such desperate ardor,
and the few who succeed
only spur on those who follow.
It is a peculiar kind of self-harm
in which the intent is not injury but increase,
and yet it lessens more often than it improves,
the mental flaw creating a weak point
regardless of outer strength.
It's called the Hercules Complex,
after the demigod who yearned
to prove himself a true hero
through the quest of twelve labors.
It can even happen by proxy,
as the old gladatorial arenas exposed,
for throwing people into extraordinary situations
sometimes makes them extraordinary,
and so the legends begin.
Yet it cannot truly be controlled;
it is a matter of chance or fate
or something more ephemeral still.
For all their wishing,
they remain terribly ignorant.
What they do not understand --
what nobody with the Hercules Complex
could ever begin to grasp --
what is nevertheless known
to every supernary hero in the world --
is that it isn't power
which makes a hero,
but heart.
* * *
Notes:
Hercules is a classic figure known for his twelve labors, variously described as being expiation for wrongs done or a means of proving himself a true hero.
A "complex" is a mess of feelings about something that can cause psychological trouble.
The psychology behind superhero origin stories is complicated. Here are some sample origins.
People like to tell stories about characters with amazing abilities. We talk about demigods, heroes, superheroes, legends, and so forth. Superheroes are often describes as modern gods, and they can tell us a lot about ourselves.
Gladiators were historic fighters who underwent stupendous danger and sometimes manifested amazing survival ability.
Self-harm involves damaging one's body for emotional release or other reasons. While cutting is the most common example, there are many others -- and some people hurt themselves with extreme fitness routines or other things that can resemble self-improvement. There are ways to stop injuring yourself, or to support someone who self-harms.
Supernaries are ordinary people who use intense training to compete on a level with those who have superpowers. Some readers prefer heroes without superpowers. There are also supernary villains. The whole point is that you don't need special powers to become a superhero. You can be a hero in real life. The catch is, it's more work than most people want to do.
Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 07:00 am (UTC)Which was, of course, part of the intention. EX-TREME-LY effective.
If someone flipped a switch and I lost the least important and possibly most annoying disability in my particular "universe", it wouldn't make me "normal". Neither would suddenly being able to bend steel make me a "hero", let alone a "super" one. Both situations might be a lot of fun, or they might be a horrible disaster all the way around; my attitude will probably tip the scales one way or the other.
The bad thing about baggage, especially the metaphysical kind, is that it tends to be right behind you, when you've worn yourself out trying to run away from it.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 07:37 am (UTC)Which was, of course, part of the intention. EX-TREME-LY effective. <<
I'm glad it worked for you. I don't write horror often, but when I do, it tends to be high-impact stuff. And yeek, I forgot to put warnings on this! Must go fix that.
>> If someone flipped a switch and I lost the least important and possibly most annoying disability in my particular "universe", it wouldn't make me "normal". <<
Sooth. For one thing, there are other non-handicap features that can be atypical. Almost ALL of my settings are nonstandard ones, and while I'd gladly ditch the physical flaws, I would not change most of the rest. And for another thing, our experiences make us who we are. You'd still have all the memories of being physically impaired.
>> Neither would suddenly being able to bend steel make me a "hero", let alone a "super" one. <<
True. It's not what you could do but what you choose to do that matters. You could bend steel and use it to secure criminals to lamp posts. But you could also use it to fix wrecked cars or make metal sculptures. One thing I really enjoy exploring is the different things people can do with superpowers. It's not all about fighting crime. It's about all the stuff that makes the world a better place.
What would I do with super-strength? You'll probably laugh, but ... yardwork. I actually have my local ecosystem at epic level on a few markers; the detritus food chain is three days to apex. I could do a lot more if I had the physique to go with my knowhow.
>> Both situations might be a lot of fun, or they might be a horrible disaster all the way around; my attitude will probably tip the scales one way or the other. <<
Exactly. That makes all the difference in the world.
>> The bad thing about baggage, especially the metaphysical kind, is that it tends to be right behind you, when you've worn yourself out trying to run away from it. <<
Painfully true. No matter where you go, there you are -- with yourself.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 08:41 am (UTC)Oh, I'm not laughing. I'd completely understand the urge to actually get past a current limitation to do what you're burning from the inside out to accomplish, and whatever's standing in the way is just. Not. Changeable.
If I ever gained a "superpower" (not to be confused with Mother Russia) I think I'd have an even worse time with my own ethics than I do now. I mean, it's hard enough hearing the social script that reads the same way as, "wasn't a witch or wizard who went dark tha' weren't in Slytherin." The social expectation from the world around me is, "You're not in jail? A prostitute or an addict?" all in tones ranging from surprise to complete shock-- while I haven't let that become internalized, mostly through sheer pigheadedness, my REACTION to this crap is far more dangerous.
Striking back at the direct causes of harm like that is so tempting. If they're not around, indirect targets would probably do in a pinch. Gee, that seems to happen a lot in world history...
If I *knew* i could keep a lid on the darker aspects of my personality, I'd really love to have a small superpower. "Small", not because I think making plants grow is "less" useful than an adamantium skeleton, but because I prefer to get in and maximize what I can do with small bits, craps other people have overlooked, whether that's making quilts from damaged clothing, or picking apart a paragraph of fiction to see how many USES a particular phrase has in context.
I'd love to have Cyclops' (the Scott Summers, Marvel comics version) ability to see trajectories and three-dimensional spaces in an eye blink. Clint Barton has a similar ability, though not obviously born of a mutation. What would I do with it? Finally be able to draft out a set of slopers that work for custom clothing patterns. I'd take up woodworking and cabinetry which is more like true carving than following a recipe (until the smoke alarm goes off). Teach preschoolers to fold origami cups. Learn to make 3D models in computer programs. Make a living at any of the above, and volunteer my time and skills in the locla community.
Even a successful use of Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum isn't worth risking everything I've learned, just to be able to calculate satellite orbits or the vectors of two colliding cars in time to nudge one of them to a less dangerous path.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 09:35 am (UTC)Sooth.
>> If I ever gained a "superpower" (not to be confused with Mother Russia) I think I'd have an even worse time with my own ethics than I do now. <<
I can sympathize.
>> I mean, it's hard enough hearing the social script that reads the same way as, "wasn't a witch or wizard who went dark tha' weren't in Slytherin." <<
And then they wonder why.
>> The social expectation from the world around me is, "You're not in jail? A prostitute or an addict?" all in tones ranging from surprise to complete shock-- <<
That really sucks. It can turn nasty. Mr. Pernicious is my salient example of internalized racism, for instance, making himself into what people said he was.
>> while I haven't let that become internalized, mostly through sheer pigheadedness, my REACTION to this crap is far more dangerous. <<
True. Our experiences shape our actions to a significant degree. The greatest temptation is to hit back. Not many people can resist it. Not a lot even try.
>> Striking back at the direct causes of harm like that is so tempting. If they're not around, indirect targets would probably do in a pinch. Gee, that seems to happen a lot in world history... <<
It does. And look what results it gets. Stopping at the right place is very difficult.
But I'll tell you two things. One is that I've wrecked more than a few people just with the powers I already have, and mostly learned not to do that. My words alone can be devastating if I'm not careful. But I don't go about looking for people to pick on, which is more than can be said of most 'normal' people.
The other is that I already know you well enough to feel fair confident of your ethics. Add more power, and you might make some beginner mistakes, but I don't think you'd attack people out of malice or personal gratification. Use excessive force on the culpable, yes; that's a typical power curve error. But it's something one can learn to control. I don't see you as the kind of person to wreak havoc without a damn good reaason. In today's political climate, that basic level of human decency is not to be taken for granted.
>> If I *knew* i could keep a lid on the darker aspects of my personality, I'd really love to have a small superpower. "Small", not because I think making plants grow is "less" useful than an adamantium skeleton, but because I prefer to get in and maximize what I can do with small bits, craps other people have overlooked, whether that's making quilts from damaged clothing, or picking apart a paragraph of fiction to see how many USES a particular phrase has in context. <<
Discreet, perhaps; or even pixellated. A microcosmic talent rather than a macrocosmic one. I think that would suit you.
I've always admired stories about characters who do much with little. With a Single Spell is a favorite novel, and the Myth Adventures series had a similar motif. That's another reason why I like writing some superheroes who just have one modest talent, rather than having them all be multipowered BAMFs.
>> I'd love to have Cyclops' (the Scott Summers, Marvel comics version) ability to see trajectories and three-dimensional spaces in an eye blink. <<
Interesting.
>> Clint Barton has a similar ability, though not obviously born of a mutation. <<
*chuckle* Well, that depends on your definition. X-gene? Canonically, no. But is he wearing standard human eyeballs? Just as obviously not. Even though he's male, I'd bet on him being tetrachromat. His visual acuity is also so far beyond the norm that he's able to compete on a super scale. Just because it isn't flashy like Cyclops doesn't mean it isn't a mutation. Mutation is just a change from a base gene -- as Charles rightly pointed out in the movie, that includes things like red hair. Some things are established in a gene pool, like that one; others are unique. Tony's intelligence is easily high enough to count, he just didn't get it from the X-gene.
>> What would I do with it? Finally be able to draft out a set of slopers that work for custom clothing patterns. <<
That would be handy.
>> I'd take up woodworking and cabinetry which is more like true carving than following a recipe (until the smoke alarm goes off). Teach preschoolers to fold origami cups. Learn to make 3D models in computer programs. Make a living at any of the above, and volunteer my time and skills in the locla community. <<
Very cool.
>> Even a successful use of Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum isn't worth risking everything I've learned, just to be able to calculate satellite orbits or the vectors of two colliding cars in time to nudge one of them to a less dangerous path. <<
True. That's dicey stuff, even buffered. Because everyone is a mix of light and dark, and most people can't hold focus under that kind of stress. But never let it be said that Steve didn't get anything out of all those beatings. He has fucking unshakeable focus. *snicker* Those poor bastards in the elevator. No wonder he felt compelled to give them one last chance at an exit. There is no way they had fully informed consent for the amount of asskicking they were about to get.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 11:09 am (UTC)Yeah, he's got several mutations going, just from looking at the actor. You're right about the definition; to clarify maybe I should use a capital-M for the Marvel-verse meaning? Having a stack of three or more minor mutations wouldn't necessarily mean a better chance of developing powers in the Polychrome verse, would it?
You know who I'd hate to be? The actuarians and statisticians who sift through all of these incident reports LOOKING for the traces of pattern which might help explain things... if they can ever get enough positive results.
Oh, and thank you-- I had to go look up tetrachromat/tetrachromancy, and new words are big, fun presents for me.
>>True. That's dicey stuff, even buffered. Because everyone is a mix of light and dark, and most people can't hold focus under that kind of stress. But never let it be said that Steve didn't get anything out of all those beatings. He has fucking unshakeable focus. *snicker* Those poor bastards in the elevator. No wonder he felt compelled to give them one last chance at an exit. There is no way they had fully informed consent for the amount of asskicking they were about to get.
I loved the tiny little tells that put Steve on alert (and then the director ruined by having to LINGER over them until a blind Barbary ape could've read the clues). That scene is basically the epic-superhero-awesome version of "I can kick your butt with one hand tied behind my back!"
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 05:06 pm (UTC)That might work, or even X-mutant.
Honestly, I have to wonder if it is literally a quirk on the X sex chromosome. *ponder* Which would explain why there are so many more male mutants than females: women get two copies of X, so if one reads as 'damaged' the other usually activates instead. It's why more men are color-blind than women.
>> Having a stack of three or more minor mutations wouldn't necessarily mean a better chance of developing powers in the Polychrome verse, would it? <<
Actually that does nudge the statistics in my setting, because the base parameters are different. It's not one gene or one cause underlying the superpowers. It's a widespread, though not common, latent potential to manifest powers. As a geneticist, I would suspect a cluster of small variations that work together to create that potential. Anybody can have one quirk. If you see a cluster of unusual traits, though, that tends to put the *person* outside the middle of the bell curve and hint that more may be going on beneath the surface. Notice that a solid sprinkling of my soups have unusual features -- a physical handicap, rare hair/eye color, mental issues, etc. Environmental factors can impact those, which then become clues to watch for other types of manifestation.
Some superpowers run in families, so that's genetic, but those don't all have the same code; that's different from the latent version, which requires an environmental trigger of some kind. I do know that mutagenic anything boosts the tendency for superpowers. I know that some, though not all, superpowers entail germline changes to the genome, because super parents have a much higher chance of having super kids; but it's not a straight D/d division because the dominance pattern doesn't match exactly nor are the powers always identical, though they are often related. It's kind of like trying to breed appaloosas, you can raise the chance but there are no guarantees.
>> You know who I'd hate to be? The actuarians and statisticians who sift through all of these incident reports LOOKING for the traces of pattern which might help explain things... if they can ever get enough positive results. <<
Yeah, I don't pity them. In my setting, they'd be looking for separate factors that have to combine in order to generate effects. Neither the input, the genes themselves, nor the output is consistent. It's a "syndrome" thing where there are subsets and trends. That's not insoluble but it's close. You'd have to narrow the field to solve for one specific type of superpower, then do it again for several others, then compare the results looking for any commonalities. People are just starting to get correlations like this on things such as susceptibility to cancer or addiction.
In the Marvelverse, those guys are swimming upstream against the likes of Magneto, Professor X, and JARVIS -- all of whom have different motives for destroying or sequestering the information.
>> Oh, and thank you-- I had to go look up tetrachromat/tetrachromancy, and new words are big, fun presents for me. <<
Yay! I have a couple authors I read because they average one new word per book for me.
>> I loved the tiny little tells that put Steve on alert (and then the director ruined by having to LINGER over them until a blind Barbary ape could've read the clues). <<
True.
>> That scene is basically the epic-superhero-awesome version of "I can kick your butt with one hand tied behind my back!" <<
You know, until just now, I had filed that as sheer stupidity. You do not take out a close-combat specialist at point-blank range, you use a scope. Conversely you tackle a sniper. But then it hit me: that is exactly the point. There was a civil war inside SHIELD. Somebody sane was given orders they had to seem to obey but knew were wrong. So they went, "Yes sir, we'll pin Captain America in an elevator with overwhelming force so he can't escape the building." While thinking, Okay, this is a great opportunity to take down a bunch of guards I suspect are double-agents. Sorry Cap, you're gonna have to take one for the team here.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 06:18 pm (UTC)Hmm... Midlevel SHIELD security, possibly not an active external agent. Security rating 5, dead in the middle of the scale? Darnit, all the people in the elevator were MALE; I'd love to create a female coworker for Phil. (Not for the romance element or the undercurrents of gender warfare, but because it creates a completely different physical training style.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-04-21 06:31 pm (UTC)Agreed, and well played.
>> Cap is unlikely to kill even an enemy actively trying to shoot him; if someone were trying to clean his sector of the security teams, I'd certainly think a broken scapula and the resulting months of physical therapy would be a better alternative than possibly hitting/hurting/killing a coworker who may be on his way out to lunch. <<
Exactly. Cap doesn't kill unless there is no alternative. Even on the enemy ship he struck to disable whenever possible.
>> Hmm... Midlevel SHIELD security, possibly not an active external agent. Security rating 5, dead in the middle of the scale? <<
That would make sense.
>> Darnit, all the people in the elevator were MALE; I'd love to create a female coworker for Phil. <<
Whoever sent them almost has to be female, or else some other disadvantaged group like a gay or black man. That specific flavor of subterfuge is particular to oppressed people, and very useful for espionage work. But it's damn hard to learn if you haven't grown up with it; most male spies want to be badasses.
It kind of raises the question how Phil learned to be so subtle and diffident.
>> (Not for the romance element or the undercurrents of gender warfare, but because it creates a completely different physical training style.) <<
I like the way the Avengers have different fighting styles, and in this series how they train and fight together to capitalize on that. Phil seems familiar with much of that, both in canon and here.
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-07-29 12:28 pm (UTC)It kind of raises the question how Phil learned to be so subtle and diffident.<<
This is a part of why I've always coded him as queer (the other part being that WE NEED MORE QUEER CHARACTERS DAMMIT). You don't learn to be that unassuming unless at some point or other you HAD to be that unassuming.
My own head cannon for it was that being a queer man in the marines before/during DADT isn't a bad time to learn to only show what people expect of you. He probably started out with the top layer more macho to blend in with army culture, unassuming in the army looks different than unassuming in the spy world or for civilians. Then he transformed his skill at blending in (either on his own or through classes, depending on how he got into the business) into an asset when he joined SHIELD
--Anna Libertas
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2014-07-29 05:55 pm (UTC)That's a plausible interpretation. I like reading queer!Phil.
>> (the other part being that WE NEED MORE QUEER CHARACTERS DAMMIT). <<
I agree, hence why I write so many. If you haven't already found it, I recommend crowdfunding, where you can ask for what you want and get it. Drop by
>> You don't learn to be that unassuming unless at some point or other you HAD to be that unassuming. <<
Agreed. For my take on how Phil got this way in Love Is For Children, see the currently posting story "Little and Broken, but Still Good."
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2016-10-12 07:13 am (UTC)Seems like this has the same fundamental message as "Face in the Mirror". It's good to have two very different instances of it; the probability of more people "hearing" it increases, and hopefully that increases the number who heed it as well.
>> Discreet, perhaps; or even pixellated. A microcosmic talent rather than a macrocosmic one. <<
This reminded me of a short story from Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus series. I believe the name of the story was "A Womanly Talent".
Re: Shudder.
Date: 2016-10-12 07:21 am (UTC)Sooth.
>>This reminded me of a short story from Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus series. I believe the name of the story was "A Womanly Talent".<<
I am honored by the comparison. She's a favorite author of mine.