Insight...

[neotoma]

While I was writing up character analyses today -- it's something I do preparatory to writing a story -- I think I came up with a good insight about the Pied Piper (one of my favorite supporting characters from The Flash). I think part of the reason he dislikes his actual name so much, to the point that almost everyone -- cape, crook and civilian -- calls him 'Piper', is that the doesn't identify with it all.

I mean that he doesn't recognize it as his *name*, because he was profoundly deaf from birth until about the age of seven (at which point he had an operation that replaced his cochleae with cybernetics that gave him his incredible hearing and lead to his obsession with music and sonics -- it's a comic book world, just go with it). If he has any name that he identifies with other than 'Piper', it's in ASL, which would just about have to be his first language.

I think the name issue will be an important theme, if I do actually manage to write a story here...

Comments

[ferricent.livejournal.com]

That's... actually really cool. It's not only an issue of identity/symbols, it's an issue of language (symbol system).

I'm not sure what you're working on (or, who, in fact, this Pied Piper is), but that's some fascinating character meta.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

It's very much an issue of language -- and the fact that Piper is kind of an outsider wherever he goes. I think he must be fluent in ASL, but it's never been brought up in the comics as far as I know.

I would like to play with this idea some more, because I think it brings up facets of the character that are neglected in the comics.

Piper is, as I said, one the supporting character in The Flash. The best short summary of him I've ever read is "He's a gay socialist ex-criminal who used to rob banks with a flute. And he's one of Wally West's best friends. Awesome." (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/2969470.html)

Sound and Fury (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/300013.html) is a wonderful back-up story from the Flash Annual from 1997, if you want to get the flavor of who Piper is and what he's like in the comics.

These following posts are a summary retrospective of the character -- please remember he was created in the 50's, and thus is a Silver Age character. His early stories are often completely wack-a-loon, in the grand campy style of the Adam West Batman, but he does get better.

Origin (http://vigilante-wake.livejournal.com/42260.html), Coming Out and other stories (http://vigilante-wake.livejournal.com/42691.html), Things Fall Apart (http://vigilante-wake.livejournal.com/43835.html), Rogue War (http://vigilante-wake.livejournal.com/44270.html) -- the most recent stories aren't there, but it's fairly complete up until a few years ago.