The First Love Of Alipang Havens

Just in case anyone still is interested enough to be piqued by a spoiler, here is a crucial "story fact" I have in mind for Alipang's later life. Typed in white, so you have to highlight it to read it.



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About fifteen years after the end of what I've written so far, Kim Havens and Evan Rand both die at the same time in an accident. With a suddenness which startles them both, after burying their spouses, Alipang and Summer simultaneously realize that they have both had feelings for each other deeply buried for all these years. Neither had been in doubt of their first marriages; Alipang really did love Kim supremely, and Summer really did love Evan supremely; but now they realize that their obligations to Kim and Evan have been honorably fulfilled, AND THEY ARE NOW FREE. For the first time ever, the warmth Alipang and Summer have never stopped feeling for each other is morally permitted to express itself AS A SEXUAL ATTRACTION. Consequently, Alipang and Summer get married to each other at the soonest possible moment consistent with a sense of propriety. And they will be happy together, with the blessings of both of their sets of children, for the rest of their lives.
 
By Aslan's mane, I am NOT letting this vanish. I'm in the middle of doing the same thing for "Possible Future" as I did for "First Love": transcribing it into a printable form, and revising some of the content for an audience OLDER than ten years.
 
Copperfox, you didn't save all of this as you wrote it on a personal machine? It's generally not a good idea to trust some random computer online to exclusively store all this stuff for you.
 
Captain Holly, only now am I even able to see your words here. You are quite right. Much of my material is in fact saved elsewhere, but some is not. I was actually in the process of "extracting" some for safe storage when the roof caved in on Dancing Lawn. I will hope now to be able to retrieve the rest of it.
 
Computer problems remind me of the line from Spaceballs: "Even in the future, nothing works!"

Computer problems have made it very hard for me to get "Possible Future" worked up for adult publication.
 
Long ago, while I was a submarine sailor, I began writing a near-future sci-novel; in fact, its action took place close to the time period of "Possible Future." Titled "Upon the Narrow Pacific," it was to depict how naval warfare would be more "cramped" as all forms of travel and reconnaissance were made quicker by advancing technology.

Some hint of the military aspect got recycled into "Possible Future," as Bert Randall was called to naval service for the Pacific Federation. And if I manage to continue the Alipang saga, several _characters_ from the older project will be revived and placed in the Alipang universe. Among these will be another adventurous brother-sister team: Armenian fighters Vartan and Vartui Yenovkian.
 
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And before he passes away, Alipang will get to meet the founder of the farther-future tyranny that Grey Eagle will have to contend with.
 
The following thoughts will help any reader to understand why it is important to me that the Alipang Havens saga should not be lost and forgotten.


I’m so tired of simplistic stories about pure goodness fighting against incurable wickedness! I’m so tired of reading about heroes and heroines who have no faults! I’ve got an absolutely _brilliant_ idea:

As a daring innovation, something that’s _never_ been done before, I’ll make up a story about a hero who _isn’t_ perfect! My hero-- no, wait a minute, I think I’ll call him an ANTI-hero! My anti-hero will be a trickster: not a weakling, but a man who prefers outwitting his enemies instead of slugging it out with them toe-to-toe. He’ll even be capable of pretending to make peace with his enemies, in order to pull off a treacherous nighttime sneak attack.

Oh, I’m loving this, it’s so different and refreshing! I’m surprised that no one thought of anti-heroes before. My pattern-setting anti-hero will also be capable of disastrous failure; in fact, I’ll say that _everyone_ who goes with him on his journey will be killed! People are going to admire me so much for my stroke of genius in creating the anti-hero, because _they’re_ also tired of perfect heroes and heroines! I can start a franchise, and…

Wait a minute, my cellphone’s buzzing.

What? Say what? (PAUSE)

Er, um, well, folks, that call was from the Greek bard Homer, who lived centuries before the birth of Christ. I’ll have to cancel my claims of a fabulous, unprecedented franchise about the daring concept of an anti-hero. Homer tells me that everything I just was describing has _already_ been used, in _his_ epic about some guy called Odysseus.

Anti-heroes predate Deadpool. Anti-heroes predate James Bond. Anti-heroes predate Billy the Kid. Anti-heroes predate the English language, predate Christian civilization, and probably predate written language. All the whooping fanfare claiming originality for “characters who _aren’t_ perfect” is a fraud. But cynics who prefer and promote anti-heroes _need_ to continue hyping that fraud-- because, under the cover of the deceitful understatement “not perfect,” they offer characters who are far _less_ good than the most average, un-spectacular man or woman chosen at random from a shopping-mall crowd.

That’s what was happening back in 1970, when Webber and Rice boasted that their “daring” rock opera was treating Jesus Christ “as a MAAAAAAAAN.” They knew all along that they _weren’t_ merely recognizing Jesus’ humanity; they were intentionally making Him out to be an _inferior_ man, with all the whining they had Him doing. In any city or any farming region on Earth, you could easily find plain mortal men who are _better_ in every way than the wimp that Webber and Rice presented as Jesus.

Anti-heroes will be admired by effete souls who aren’t in any danger from evil predators at present. Anti-heroes will also be admired by many who are _themselves_ the evil predators. But in “The Screwtape Letters,” Mister Lewis observed that in times of great peril, it becomes a lot harder for people to go on refusing to see how precious and vital the unselfish valor of _actual_ heroes is.

It was no accident that novelist Leslie Charteris decided that his action hero Simon Templar would carry the nickname of The Saint. In his introduction to a re-release of the first “Saint” novel, Charteris spoke his mind about cynical fiction; and this was in 1980, proving again that “not perfect” protagonists are SO NOT refreshing or new or bold. Charteris wrote:

“The fiction world today needs a Saint more than it ever did. For too many years now, that scene has been dominated by the anti-heroes: those grim gray operators in a sunless sub-culture…It made morbidly fascinating narrative, but it never gave anyone a lift until it climaxed in the hyper-gadgeted parodies of 007 extravaganzas.

“I was always sure that there was a solid place in escape literature for a rambunctious adventurer such as I dreamed up in my own youth, who really believed in the old-fashioned romantic ideals and was prepared to lay everything on the line to bring them to life. A joyous exuberance that could not find its fulfillment in pinball machines and pot…

“I still cling to that belief. That there will always be a public for the old-style hero, who had a clear idea of justice, and a more than technical approach to love…”

Let no cynic attempt a “Gotcha” on Charteris’ reference to “the OLD-style hero.” I never said that the anti-hero concept was literally _older_ than heroic idealism; but anti-heroism ceased to be any sort of novelty before there were printing presses. Anti-heroes (well, apart from Odysseus) are junk food, their lack of nutrition disguised by heavy application of spices like pornographic sex scenes.

If I were in deadly peril, I would greatly prefer to have The Saint, or Captain America, within range of my cry for help, rather than a whole army of self-serving, amoral anti-heroes who would as soon throw me under the bus as pull me out of its way.

Therefore, I _will_ write stories with heroes who, although of _course_ they have human shortcomings, are never SO degraded that I have to start using the words “not perfect” as an evasive euphemism for “worthless.”
 
Still hanging on. As I have time, I have been reading through what will become the first of TWO volumes of the existing "Possible Future." As I go along, I'm inserting new material which I believe will make the whole saga flow better. In particular, I'm telling the readers more, earlier on, about the "Aztec-Maoist Republic" which takes over the Southwest of the United States.
 
Yesterday, I attended a meeting of Project Purpose, an urban-youth outreach ministry in the Denver area. On a previous occasion, I had spoken to group founder Donald Murphy about the Alipang Havens novels. At yesterday's meeting, then, the value of homeschooling was affirmed, and Mister Murphy cited "The First Love of Alipang Havens" as an illustration.
 
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