An occasional feature of superheroes is some way to summon them when they are needed. Superman hears a signal that others cannot. Bruce Wayne sees the Bat-signal. An Un-man hears a sound, then a voice, in his head:
"The shrilling within his head brought Robert Naysmith to full awareness with a savage force." (IV, p. 48)
A voice in his skull tells him where to report and why. Like Clark Kent, he must make an excuse to leave what he is doing.
He must stop painting Sofie on a beach and fly her home and suddenly the narrative shifts to her point of view:
"He looked older than his twenty-five years. And she, thought Sofie with sudden tiredness, looked younger than her forty." (p. 50)
Rather than being told Sofie's thoughts directly, we should instead be informed that Naysmith can easily guess or deduce what she is thinking.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I thought that even something as slightly obsolete as a pager would be a more reliable means of summoning Batman. If Dick Tracy could communicate via a wrist held radio, then something like a pager shouldn't have been too hard to be thought of for Batman.
Ad astra! Sean
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