Re: Invisibility

1

The sensation of being transparent would wig me the fuck out. I like the idea of being invisible sometimes but I still think it would weird me out to have people look right through me.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 7:33 AM
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I wonder how the results would change in practice if you had to contend with also avoiding collisions with people - we take cooperation so much for granted in that endeavor.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 8:02 AM
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Once I walked down the street wearing a big metal tube that's extended from the ground to above my head. It was very freeing -- everybody was staring at me, but nobody knew who I was, so it didn't matter.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 8:55 AM
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2:
This book, about the travails of a man accidentally rendered invisible, is a lot of fun and deals extensively with the practical difficulties of navigating a world in which you aren't seen.

(It was made into a not-good movie starring Chevy Chase - though Chase as the protagonist and Sam Neill as the villain were both well-cast.)


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 8:57 AM
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I wonder how the results would change in practice if you had to contend with also avoiding collisions with people - we take cooperation so much for granted in that endeavor.

You'd have to do the Spiderman maneuver where you brace yourself against the ceiling, limbs akimbo against all four walls.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 8:59 AM
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Once I walked down the street wearing a big metal tube that's extended from the ground to above my head. It was very freeing -- Now I commute to work every day like that.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 10:24 AM
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Once I walked down the street wearing a big metal tube that's extended from the ground to above my head.

I wouldn't have figured you for a Mummenschanz fan.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 10:29 AM
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(It was made into a not-good movie starring Chevy Chase - though Chase as the protagonist and Sam Neill as the villain were both well-cast.)

William Goldman has written (amusingly) about his experience with the movie. Here's the beginning of the story (which ends with him and Ivan Reitman both quitting, several months into the project, and Goldman not getting paid).

In my experience, you work with the director. Stars come later, and though they can be helpful, usually they are concerned not with the story, but rather their part in it, and how can they be made even more adorable. Often, my main choreon a first draft is to nail a director.

Here, Reitman was involved from the initial go-round, so I met him. Reitman has talked with Chase; together they had decided what the movie should be. (Pssst . . . remember that last sentence.)

I liked Ivan Reitman from the very beginning. A couple of interesting things about him: for a comedy figure, he was never remotely funny. For a superstar director, there was a total absence of bullshit. (Later, when be brought me in to doctor Twins, there was no secrecy. He had the other writers there when I was there. In the same room.)

When we started, we were both well aware that Memoirs of an Invisible Man was not The Battleship Potemkin. But Reitman was on the project for one very good reason: he felt absolutely confident that he was on the track of another Ghostbusters: a special-effects-filled comedy-action flick. (The plot of the novel -- all you ever need to know -- is that it's about a guy who accidentally gets caught in a lab explosion and is rendered invisible. And has ensuing adventures.)

We talked for a couple of days, then I went off and did the first draft, sent it to Reitman and Chase.

It was an okay first draft, meaning that lots of work needed to be done but at least a version of the story was there. Reitman felt it was a good start, called me out from New York to talk about draft two. Before that happened, I spent a few minutes with Chevy Chase.

I liked him, too. He wasn't just tall, he was nice and bright and funny.

He, too, was supportive enough about the first draft, knowing it was just that, the beginning of something. He clearly saw the potential in the project. And as I was leaving he casually mentioned that he hoped this time through we would be a little more forthcoming on what most interested him in the material, and which he had talked to Ivan about -- namely, an investigation of the loneliness of invisibility.

Nice phrase, that. Interesting rhythm, unpretentious, but all kinds of swell echoes. What to know how those words sounded to my ears? Like this:

AAARRRGHHHH

Why? Because my director wanted to do a funny farce with special effects and my star wanted to do a serious sad drama.

...


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 04-24-15 11:36 AM
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9

Hollow Man.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 7:21 AM
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10

We did the "invisible" vs. "flying" superpower thing here, right? (Ah yes, here it is.) Invisibility is for creeps. (And I find that it certainly appeals to the creepy side of me.)


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 7:58 AM
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11

11 It's the wrong question. Flying is worse than useless without invisibility because you're going to get shot down. Invisibility without some sort of movement superpower (either teleportation or flying) is useless because you're not going to be able to go anywhere.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 11:02 AM
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That's wrong, there are plenty of non pervy things you can do with invisibility, depending on the rules (do things you pick up become invisible?)
My kids saw the batman superman trailer and are very excited about it, but it seems stupid- unless batman found a stash of kryptonite superman can do whatever the hell he wants.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 11:19 AM
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do things you pick up become invisible?

You have to swallow them or put them up your butt.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 11:34 AM
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14

Ok I guess everything about invisibility is pervy.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 12:08 PM
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15

You could do the burn-victim thing and get water balloons implanted in you to make big sacks of skin, and then use that like a pocket.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 12:53 PM
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16

15 to 16.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 1:16 PM
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17

My kids saw the batman superman trailer and are very excited about it, but it seems stupid- unless batman found a stash of kryptonite superman can do whatever the hell he wants.

Not sure how the movie plans to do it but in the graphic novel kryptonite is indeed involved.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:17 PM
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18

Nerd.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:24 PM
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19

People underestimate Batman. Also they forget that Superman has more than one weakness than kryptonite.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:31 PM
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20

Can't see through lead? A too obvious alter ego?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:36 PM
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21

Having an invisible car is the worst superpower.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:54 PM
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22

Wonder Woman gives you shit for not being able to fly.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 2:59 PM
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23

Hey, Superman's most famous villain is a billionaire and a brilliant scientist. And Batman is a billionaire and a brilliant tactician, which gives him the advantage there.

Superman's biggest weakness is his moral restraint. He's not willing to come close to risking much in the way of collateral damage, to the point where it can be predicted and exploited. And a lot of the stories, especially the good ones, involving him really are based around that feature not his power. Being able to punch something so hard that the impact creates a shock wave that breaks every window within a three block radius is cool, but if you do that in a city then a lot of people end up getting stuck with shards of falling glass; being able to fly at Mach 5 through Manhattan without hitting anything is cool but those sonic booms are going to destroy a lot of important things and hurt people; etc. That's the main bit that Batman exploits in the graphic novel they're trying to base the (horrible, horrible looking) movie on.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:10 PM
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24

But yes also he can't see through lead, red sunlight saps his powers, he's vulnerable to magic, sensory overload can disorient him, and so on.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:11 PM
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25

My kids saw the batman superman trailer and are very excited about it

Anybody who says the kids are alright is, by this evidence, clearly lying.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:12 PM
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26

24 has clearly not seen Man of Steel. Or heard anything about it.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:13 PM
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27

Right, because then she knows you're one of those creepball invisibilists.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:15 PM
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28

24 - Remember how everyone was happy about how accurately they portrayed the character, and really told a great Superman story in that move?


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:16 PM
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29

Or, possibly, the comment in 27 which was responding to 24. I mean, possibly. I wouldn't rule that out.


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 3:17 PM
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30

You know who else was a man of steel.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 4:13 PM
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31

Andrew Carnegie?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 4:18 PM
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32

Hank Williams Jr.?


Posted by: beamish | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 4:21 PM
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33

Slightly more evil.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 4:31 PM
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34

Quit stallin' and tell us.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 4:37 PM
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35

Djugashvili?


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 5:05 PM
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36

Bender?


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 5:07 PM
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37

Robot Hitler?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:00 PM
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38

Donald Fagen?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:23 PM
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39

John Henry?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:24 PM
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40

He was obviously less evil than Carnegie or Hank Williams, Jr.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:26 PM
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41

Depends on which John Henry you mean.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:32 PM
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42

John Holmes?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:35 PM
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43

43 was going to be my guess!


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:46 PM
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44

timber joey?


Posted by: turgid jacobian | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 6:47 PM
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45

Aaron Latham


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 7:15 PM
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46

Terry Bradshaw?


Posted by: Unimaginative | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 7:38 PM
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47

Stephen McManus? Craig Reid? Fraser Kerr? Zaine Francis-Argol?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:02 PM
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48

Dave Roberts? Oh, wait, that was the man of The Steal. #2004ALCS4ever


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:12 PM
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49

If Superman is the Man of Steel, and Wolverine is a man with an adamantium-bone skeleton, then shouldn't Wolverine pretty much always win?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:13 PM
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50

Is anyone else really bothered by the big bulges and distortions in the international time zone longitude boundaries? It's like, one side of a small divide and you're older or younger. That's just so arbitrary and tedious. That's what I think, anyway.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:16 PM
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51

Meh. Time zones are pretty arbitrary to start with.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:22 PM
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52

Superman is all (metaphorical) steel. With Wolverine it's (literally) only the bones.

But also how would they ever be in conflict? They're different continuities! Different!


Posted by: MHPH | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 8:24 PM
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53

What if someone put them together in a jar?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 9:30 PM
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54

Emulsion.


Posted by: Bave | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 9:43 PM
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55

I guess in Rochester, your tortilla chips come with a side of ranch dressing at the Mexican restaurant. Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 04-25-15 10:08 PM
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