“Rorschach”, End notes

[aadler]

[ Endnotes posted 25 February 2017 ]

Where did the idea for the story come from?

This one is actually easy for a change. There was a meme going around in December 2005, taking a ‘70 Questions’ meme from elsewhere and applying it to fictional characters. (This may or may not have been started by naol — known then as nemo_gravis — but at the very least I got it from people who cited him). Unusually for me, I actually took part in it before everyone else had done their bit and got tired of it and left it far behind. Not joking: my Xander-in-Africa effort (“Check and Mate”), and my Hallowe’en story (“the Human Touch”), took place years after their respective trends had passed. What can I say? I’m just not a bandwagon kinda guy. This time, though, I participated in it while it was still ongoing, which was definitely a change for me.

Is there any particular significance to the title?

Okay, the title is a bit of a sore point for me. I may or may not have heard of Watchmen by then, but I absolutely had never read it or possessed any knowledge of it. The title was just a reference to the standard inkblot tests that were used in psychological assessment; not at all the same as the 70-questions approach, but indicative of the general idea. I didn’t have a clue that I was using the name of an extremely popular fictional character, because it was outside of my range of knowledge then. At the same time, once I knew about Watchmen and the character Rorschach, I couldn’t think of any title that would serve as a workable substitute. So I just left it: it was original to me, even if someone else used it first for a different purpose.

What is the thing I like most about this story? the thing I like least, or about which I feel most doubtful?

They’re the same thing: presenting the personality of Warren Mears. It was fun finding ways to communicate aspects of his personality — including limitations about the existence of which he was totally clueless — but simultaneously there was an underlying unpleasantness. (I believe C.S. Lewis described something similar in writing the Screwtape Letters.) The 70-questions structure let me do something I’ve enjoyed in the past, gradually providing clues as to a character’s identity without ever stating it explicitly, but the ugliness inside this particular character kept creeping in.

Is there anything I think I could have done better, or might do differently if I had it to do over?

Within this particular venue, no. This was less a story than an exercise that wound up operating like a story, and I’d have had to turn it into something else entirely in order to do much more with it.

Was there a different direction I might have wanted to take the story, and what would have been some of the advantages of the not-taken path?

No, and for the same reasons cited in answer to the preceding question.

Any observations to add at the end?

A few, yes.

First, this was originally one of my Backstage stories (mainly because, back then, practically everything was). I later transferred it over to the Independent Stories section, and even if I no longer remember exactly why, I’m satisfied to leave it there. Let’s face it, this was more a personality sketch than a story, even if it moved smoothly enough.

Second … when I look at Warren as a character, it brings up again something I’ve commented on before: the cost of taking characters in a certain direction. (Actually, I was talking about killing characters for dramatic effect, and how much you lose by that even if you achieve exactly what you wanted, but the basic principle still holds.) When you consider his initial appearance (“I Was Made to Love You”, S5-15), he was not-really-but-almost endearing. A technically proficient but socially inept guy who built himself a sex doll because he was no good with women (gee, nobody in history ever did anything like that!), and then lost interest in the incompletely satisfying fantasy when he got involved with an actual woman. Taken as it was, that was character growth. His return in Season 6 showed the same goofy mix of proficiency in dealing with machines and cluelessness in dealing with people, but with increasing dark notes as he was moved in the direction the writers wanted him to go. So, yes, this was used to shatteringly good effect in the show itself … but I’m aware of different directions the character could have been taken, and never forget that in the end he was what he was because that was what the writers wanted him to be.

My own version, presented here, is of the person who could readily become what he did become in canon. That’s not the only thing he could have become, though, and I don’t lose sight of that.