Hello all,

"Dr. Friskin's Letter" has a very different style and tone than my other LC fanfics. While the latter were just fun bits of fluff, the former is almost more of an essay than a story. It is exposition-heavy and plot-light. I realize I could have made it more of a story by making Dr. Frisking less scrupulous, for example by turning her into a blackmailer or a stalker. But neither one felt right to me. So instead, I decided to write the story as you see it. In many ways, this story was far easier for me to write than my others; it much more closely approximates the scholarly style that I have developed over the years.

I thought it would be amusing to have a woman only be interested in Superman for his mind. Oddly enough, the only other woman who comes to my mind as relating to Superman in a normal, person-to-person manner, neither swooning over him nor plotting against him, (aside from Martha and post-season 2 Lois, of course), is his lawyer in Whine, Whine, Whine. Possibly not coincidentally, that being one of the two episodes with Dr. Friskin.

I am very new to FoLCdom, and I am not completely sure how challenges work in this fandom. In a different fandom I had been active in, it was expected that a challenger would write the first story. My next post will be to the challenge list, using "Dr. Friskin's Letter" as the opening gambit.

Oh, and incidentally, I know that Mindy Church referred to "Metropolians," but, I am not going to assume that was the official term because:
a) She was new to Metropolis and didn't necessarily know the correct term.
b) She was full-tilt into her "ditzy blonde" act when she said it, so it may have been an intentional malapropism.
c) I wouldn't consider Mindy Church to be a reliable source for anything.

My gut instinct is that "Metropolitans" is probably right; but I don't recall if the appropriate term for a resident of Metropolis was ever mentioned on the show. I hope that if it was, one of the good FoLCs reading this will enlighten me. :-)

I welcome any feedback, including suggestions for improvements. But please be gentle with the latter. Thanks. :-)

- Lynn

What a great idea. I often wondered if she was smarter then she seemed. Good job. Laura

I'm brain dead, so no clever comments, but I liked this. It seemed very in character for Dr. Friskin. Also totally agree about Mindy Church!

PJ

You say that Dr. Friskin's Letter is closer to the writing that you have done in the past; when I read the story I was thinking how much smoother and more natural it was than your first fic. The first one was well written, but it still felt like it was coming from a new writer. This one felt like it was coming from someone who had been writing fanfic for years.

I look forward to watching your development as a writer in this fandom. I love well-written stories, so I am very happy that you decided to join us.

Well, since Metropolis was given the name as a remake of New York, and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York is called... well... Metropolitan, I think you've probably got the right term.

Did I say how much I enjoyed your story? Well, I did, very nice job.

Beautifully written. I very much liked the scholarly style, and how well it fitted Dr. Friskin. I loved her use of the term "xenopsychotherapy"!

Since I always hate Clark's lies about himself to Lois, I might have appreciated it if Dr. Friskin had wondered about Superman/Clark's motivations for turning himself into his own rival for Lois's attention and love. She might have asked herself if she could come up with a way to make Superman question his own strategy when it comes to winning Lois's love. Particularly she might have wondered if she could say something to make him wonder if it was a good idea to present himself as two distinct personas to the woman he was courting.

Or else she might just have concluded that Superman's behaviour was perhaps an aspect of how the Kryptonian mind was functioning!

Thanks for a different and very entertaining read!

Ann

I liked this too!

Also liked the scholarly style and it worked well with the type of person Friskin is.

Thank you! I wish I could say that my writing has improved that much since "The Birthday Surprise"; unfortunately, the seeming improvement is just because of my greater familiarity with scholarly writing. I have had several things (mainly articles and book chapters) published in RL, but it has all been in the realm of academia. Laying out facts in an orderly fashion comes second nature to me by now. But the whole area of characters' emotions, thoughts, and nonverbal communications, not to mention plots and pacing, is all very new to me. So if my first story looked like it came from a new writer, it's because, when it comes to fiction, it did. :-} But thanks to all of the kind words from you and others in this and the other fdk threads, I am definitely encouraged to write more, should the muse pay me another visit. (She seems to be on holiday at the moment. I have no additional story ideas in the works.)

Thank you so much!

cheers,
Lynn

That's logical. Of course, in the case of the opera house, "metropolitan" probably is just intended to be an approximate synonym for "urban".

cheers,
Lynn

Hi Ann,

That would have been an interesting twist. And I have to admit to wanting to shake some sense into him over that one, myself...He could be dense in ways other than just his molecular structure.

But to have such a discussion, she would have to tell him that she knew his secret. I'm not sure how that would play out, given that:
a) I had the impression that after W3, Superman would not likely have returned to see her, and I can't imagine her seeking him out to have such a discussion.
b) I honestly don't know whether a professional therapist would broach a subject like that if the patient hadn't mentioned it first. If any mental health specialists are reading this, I would be really interested in their thoughts on the matter...If, hypothetically, you learned something important about your patient from some source other than the patient themselves, and if what you learned was something the patient obviously did NOT want to be general knowledge, but if a discussion of it might prove beneficial to the patient, what would you do? Would you bring it up directly, would you try to steer the conversation in such a way that the patient would have every opportunity to divulge the secret on their own, or would you not do anything with the information?

cheers,
Lynn

Very good story! I'm impressed by the familiar use (but not over-use) of psych buzzwords and terminology in this never-seen-by-anyone-else letter. This is a fairly common technique used by therapists and counselors when patients have difficulty grasping their problems. (But, of course, you already knew that!) And it's not a new development

Did you know, for example, when George McClellan, Union general commanding at Gettysburg, declined to pursue Lee's army on its way South after the battle in July of 1863, Lincoln wrote a furious letter to him - and then deliberately never sent it. He let out his feelings of impotence and frustration at the situation and put them on paper, then filed it. Dr. Friskin has done something similar here, and it's completely in character for her to have deduced what she's deduced from her patients' sessions. It's also completely in character for her to consign that knowledge to the flames, since it would indeed be a violation of her professional ethics to divulge Superman's secret identity to anyone - even to Superman himself.

Thanks for an interesting peek into her mind. It's so rewarding to have multiple points of view when looking at our favorite couple and their trials and tribulations.

That's an all-too-common lament among fiction writers of any genre, Lynn. I hope yours finds her way home soon.

We could also list the ways Lois treated Clark so badly, starting with "Clark is the before and Superman is the way, way after" class of comment. Or we could talk about Lois accepting Lex' proposal when she didn't love him. Or the way she treated Clark like a doormat so often.

Besides, we don't know how she might have reacted to that little bit of information. Maybe she would have said something like, "What? Clark Kent is Superman? You mean Superman is a hack from Nowhereseville? Superman is the one who cuts and runs when I try to talk to you about personal things? Superman's the one who won't commit to a relationship? That's the last headline you get from me, you flying hayseed!"

This, of course, does not justify Clark's deceptions. But I do wish to point out (again!) that both of them are imperfect characters, which, by the way, is what makes it so much fun to write about them. There's so much room for each of them to grow!

That was a great idea to imagine Dr Friskin put the pieces together about Superman/Clark !
I was fascinating by the episode "Individual Responsibility" -one of my favorite- and I always wonder what it would be like if she had carried on with Superman. It will be very interesting to have Superman or Clark talk to Friskin about him and what he feels.

Thank you for this story !

/ offers Lynn's muse a bribe /

/more Lynn-fic needed/

/ offers Lynn's muse a bribe /

Yes, yes! More bribes! More things to BR!

The lady takes public trans. I knew there was a reason I liked her.

"Pubic trans"????

Wow, IolantheAlias and Nina, what nice things to say. Thank you for making my day! I did wind up writing a *very* short piece last night, but it was really more of a riddle for the reader than a true short story.

cheers,
Lynn

I think Dr. Friskin might see that as a Freudian slip, perhaps? I'm pretty sure that SJH is referring to Dr. Friskin riding the bus.

cheers,
Lynn

A funny mistake but not G rated. Sorry.