Monday, August 25-Literary Character

       In this world, in New York City, it would be incredibly boring to a creature like the Joker. First off, in this post 9/11 era, with a camera on every street corner, and someone always watching, it would be very difficult to get away with even the smallest of murders, or thefts. The hated Patriot Act would also inhibit his rights as a citizen, since he would be considered a terrorist, and wouldn't even get his phone call. Yet, despite all these horrific things inhibiting his fun, there is one factor to bore him most of all. There is no Batman, not even a vague facsimile of him. No vigilantes soaring across the skies to occupy his time and efforts. No private citizen taking on the burden of New York City crime. No one to challenge and to be challenged by. The most boring, most meaningless, most common of existences awaits a man like that in a world like this, where the closest thing to adventure is stubbing your toe on the curb, or cursing out the wild taxi driver who was (not really) close to running you down. The horrid timeless marching on of the mass rat pack that is humanity, driving a madman deeper into the arms of insanity, and pushing him to pure desperate acts of meaningless violence in an effort merely to alleviate the massive weight of boredom. Unable now to bomb hospitals, he has to settle for firing a few rounds from a shotgun into a crowd exiting a theater, after just watching The Dark Knight Rises, or entering an elementary school and gunning down children and teachers, watching the frightened looks on their faces and thinking, This isn't enough. This would be what the Joker is reduced to in our miserable, boring world without a hero to challenge the villains.