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Originally posted by TOC:
To me, this would be a legitimate story if it seriously discussed the death penalty, since the death penalty is the absolutely necessary prerequisite for Catherine's story to evolve the way it does. The fact that no one before me commented on the death penalty means, to me, that whatever Catherine was trying to accomplish with her story, it wasn't to make us ask ourselves the most crucial questions about the injustice of the judicial system in the world today. Catherine's purpose was only, as far as I can see, to make us feel extremely, extremely sorry for Clark.
I repectfully and emphatically disagree. Just because the death penalty wan't the focus doesn't make the story an exercise in angst for the sake of angst. It means that the focus was on the consequence of this "what if" question. In this story, there were certain facts, certain circumstances, that were established. THIS was the hand Clark and Lois were dealt. Here are the cards. Now... given that hand of cards, what are they going to do with them?

The question was not IF poker is a good game. Heck, maybe they shouldn't even play solitaire! Cards might be evil. But that wasn't the question in this story; it's a question for a different story. THIS story asked "What do you do if you find yourself in position X even if you never asked to be here. But life doesn't always ask us before things happen.

What mother ASKED for her son to be on death row? The child she rocked at night with a 101 degree fever. The child she read stories to.... she never INTENDED to see him executed. But sometimes it happens that her precious little boy grows up into a very BAD man. Now what does she do? In my opinion, that about as real as it gets. And if we are forced to think about that mother, that father, that brother, that sister... that spouse... the story did indeed have a purpose beyond making Clark suffer.
Jackie

Jackie N.
jacalynsue@zoominternet.net