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* "Hell Hath No Fury" by Satan Penguin (Utopian comic book
sex) 10, 9, 9
"Hell Hath No Fury" by Satan Penguin (spenguin@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca). Shakespeare based most of his plays on the tales and legends with which his audiences were already familiar. To accomplish this, he must have had a prodigious knowledge of the classics and of folk legends. The present author likewise bases this story on information with which he expects his audience to be familiar. In other words, he displays a prodigious knowledge of the Archie series of comic books and newspaper cartoons. Stan, the protagonist of this story, comes from a planet called Elad- Revir, H'trae. This planet is a close parallel to earth, and the city is closely parallel to Riverdale, the home of Archie, Veronica, Betty, Jughead, and their comic book friends. If you haven't made the association yet, you may want to read Elad-Revir, H'trae backwards and see if you can notice its relationship to Riverdale, Earth. If you can see no connection, you are not smart enough to read this story. This could be described as a Utopian - or anti-Utopian - story. It combines comic book characters with a focus on adolescent sex to deal with concepts that Orwell dealt with in "1984 "and Skinner dealt with in "Walden II": what is the best way to run a perfect society - to get individuals to contribute willingly to the good of the greater society? Stan is the quintessential Renaissance man, modern scientist and engineer, and sexual aficionado all rolled up into one. He's almost too good to be true- which is OK, because, after all, this is a comic book episode. As I neared the completion of Chapter IV (which is all there is right now), I paused and pondered the title. I had assumed it was excerpted from the expression "Health hath no fury like a woman scorned." But no woman had been scorned, and the prospects for scorning were low. Maybe the title was a simple description of the lack of overt hostility in hell. The Church Lady would certainly notice that Stan himself was one vowel short of Satan; could that be relevant? I really don't know where the story is going. There are numerous unresolved subplots - none of which have any apparent relation to hell or its fury. Reggie has been plotting to seize a share of Stan's wealth. One of the sex slaves is developing a genuine (non-slavelike) attraction for Stan. Sabrina is trying to integrate her witch essence with her human existence. Veronica and Betty have discovered the joys of hedonistic sex with each other and with other lovely ladies. All the members of the gang (especially the genius Dilbert) have started getting in a little over their heads with sex with sex; and who knows what to make of the lovely ladies whom Stan has so adeptly trained to service himself and his friends? And there's much more. I am impressed with the overall quality of the writing and with the attempt to merge the consistent Archie story line with more complex sexual idea, but I am also a bit disappointed that I have read this far and don't yet know where the story is going. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens next. Its sort of like reading the funny pages! Ratings for "Hell Hath No Fury" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 9 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9 |