I haven't even read these parts, but I will, but not for many hours - I'm off to bed soon....
But I will say this. Carol, you threw me for a loop when you introduced Clark's brother. I'll be honest and say I hate his guts. Not because Bernie Van-El Klein is bad in any way, but because he has no business being Clark's brother, since Clark, in my opinion, is and
should be the ultimate cosmic orphan.
But that's my opinion. It is not 'the truth' about your story. All those other faithful readers of OTOH who were unbothered by Van-El didn't show any sort of bad judgement. They showed a different judgement than me. That's all there is to it.
So I wish that your story had turned out differently. The fact that it turned out the way it did doesn't make it 'bad', much less 'wrong'. It was the wrong plot development for
me, that's all. Tough luck.
I hope I can finish reading OTOH. I want to see what happens to Lois and Clark. Unfortunately, when I was reading chapters 130 and 131, I was so weirded out by Van-El that I couldn't concentrate on Lois and Clark. I was so busy being offended by the mere existence of the brother that I couldn't pay attention to my favorite couple.
I'll try to do better. A bit better. I'm not interested in trying to like Van-El, but I'll try to concentrate on what happens to Lois and Clark. Except I'm not going to like any plot development where Van-El acts like Clark's mentor or helps steer Clark down the right part. (That's the sort of thing Clark should do on his own, or with the help of his parents, or with the help of Lois!)
But the point is, I don't have the right to condemn the story, much less the author, for entertaining me and fascinating me mightily until the infuriating brother turned up. The point is that I
have been mightily entertained and enormously fascinated. This is a brilliant story, Carol, and it is not your fault that Van-el and I turned out to be incompatible.
Ann
