That's pretty much what we ended up talking about to one degree or another (although with less verve than I'd have hoped! :-)
I mean, there are a ton of characters who are cool--as in have a restrained, calm exterior--who are awesome characters. What was interesting was that mostly we kept coming up with visual representations from movies, graphic novels, and Anime, etc., and I think that frustrated the moderator/panel proposer somewhat, because he'd been getting rejections that his characters weren't active enough. His response was, "But this his how people behave at NASA!"
Which makes me think that maybe there was more going on with his writing, but, you know, it's still an interesting writing question. How do you show the tension when your main character is cold and calculating. I mean, Ian Fleming managed to do it, but not all of his novels read all that well to a modern audience. For instance, I tried FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE not that long ago and it was not rip-roaring to me... and honestly some of the Tarzan books I've been reading are the same. They both have a certain old-fashion style that's kind of distant to a modern reader, you know?
I don't know. Clearly it's an interesting question... it was just a weird panel.
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I mean, there are a ton of characters who are cool--as in have a restrained, calm exterior--who are awesome characters. What was interesting was that mostly we kept coming up with visual representations from movies, graphic novels, and Anime, etc., and I think that frustrated the moderator/panel proposer somewhat, because he'd been getting rejections that his characters weren't active enough. His response was, "But this his how people behave at NASA!"
Which makes me think that maybe there was more going on with his writing, but, you know, it's still an interesting writing question. How do you show the tension when your main character is cold and calculating. I mean, Ian Fleming managed to do it, but not all of his novels read all that well to a modern audience. For instance, I tried FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE not that long ago and it was not rip-roaring to me... and honestly some of the Tarzan books I've been reading are the same. They both have a certain old-fashion style that's kind of distant to a modern reader, you know?
I don't know. Clearly it's an interesting question... it was just a weird panel.