Originally posted by TOC:
But the question is what kind of guilt you want to concentrate on. Is it the guilt that comes from knowing that you have done something horribly wrong, which has led to awful consequences? Or is it the perceived guilt of having caused something horrible which probably wasn't your fault?
I have no preferences in either direction. As far as I am concerned, the *actual* cause of the cancer isn't as relevant as there being a realistic possibility that Clark *may* have caused it.
Is his X-Ray vision really safe for humans? Obviously, one zap doesn't burn people to cinders, but neither does a zap from an X-ray machine. Repeated exposure from such a machine, however, can result in carcinogenous mutations. AFAIK, there is nothing within LnC (I am not considering the greater Superman universe, since this fanfic would take place within the LnC one) that indicates that Dr. Klein or anyone else has performed any sort of experiments to prove that repeated exposure to Clark's special vision is safe for humans. It is just assumed to be the case, and yet I can see no basis for such an assumption. In fact, the first time I saw We Have a Lot to Talk About, the first thing I thought about when Clark dried Lois off was that that couldn't have been good for her long term health.
But even if it does turn out that Clark's X-ray vision was dangerous, it would have been very hard for Clark to know or suspect this.
Not really...Whether or not his vision is truly in the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to be labelled "X-Ray" or not, surely *somebody* somewhere in that universe would have opined that exposure to it could be hazardous. If so, Clark could easily have asked Dr. Klein to check it out. And even if none of this had occurred to anyone in the universe before, and if everything you wrote above were 100% accurate, "woulda, coulda, shouldas" appear to be at least as much a part of Clark's makeup as they do of humans. Rationality has little to do with such emotions.
If Clark obsesses over his failure to realize the danger of his X-ray vision and take precautions, it is because he is holding himself up to an impossibly high standard.
Which would be completely in character for him...
So is that what you want to write about, Lynn? Clark blaming himself for something that he is wholly or mostly innocent of?
Again, I personally don't want to write the story. I try to keep my stories light-hearted; I have enough stress and angst in RL, and I don't want to spend my precious leisure time feeling the characters' angst. If you, or anyone else, wanted to take my germ of the story idea and run with it, it would be that author's prerogative to choose the direction the story would take.
And while the idea of Lois's cancer is non-canon,
As is the vast majority of fanfic -- after all, if we only stuck to canon, why bother reading the fanfic when we could go right to the source and watch the show instead?
Namely, that Clark came within a hair's breadth of killing Lois with his freezing breath when he wanted her to appear dead in order to save his parents.
That is true, but I imagine that that has probably been explored to death (so to speak) within fanfic already. Plus, he froze her at her own insistence and for a worthy cause. I think if he were to have caused her cancer for something as relatively trivial as not wanting to expend the energy to walk across the room to see what she was doing in the room next door, or to heat her up when she has cold feet or hands (in other words, her cancer served no greater goal such as saving other people's lives), then that would be more tragic and would induce a lot more guilt in Clark.
And since no story has been written so far which examines Clark's guilt for really, truly killing Lois, the field is wide open for you to do so!
Really? Such a story hasn't been written (at least that you know of, and I get the distinct impression that you have read quite a lot of the fanfic out there)? Wow! Even so, I have no desire to be the one to write it -- I'd much rather make myself and others smile with my writings than bring everybody down. For me personally, the cathartic value of tragedies is grossly overrated. But anyone who does appreciate such catharsis is more than welcome to write such a story.
cheers,
Lynn
