Sam and his Stupid Car

[hmpf]

I just stumbled upon this description of SUV users from a market report by the automobile industry:

"They tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors or communities."

Now, I'm not 100% sure if Sam's car really counts as an SUV, but it certainly rather looks like one - and the description fits him rather well...

I need to print this out and tack it to the wall above my screen when I'm writing Sam, because I tend to write him far too nice (misled in my mental image of him by the not all that infrequent moments in his 1973 life in which he's *not* acting like an asshole, damn those inconsistent LOM writers *g*). I'm certainly writing him rather too nice in the 'private' fic I'm writing at the moment - although that's partly justified by its being a sort of epilogue to mindfic, i.e. the 'end result' of a much longer story in which he has plenty of time and opportunity to change.

Comments

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I've memed this into my 'Sam is an arsehole' folder. It reminds me to write him more in character, as I tend to have your same problem, describing him as a far too nice person, which he's most definitely not.

Sorry I haven't been around in a while, but RL has been really hectic recently and I haven't had much time for mindfic. :(

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

All the same I'd hesitate to classify Sam merely as an "arsehole", any more than I'd classify Gene as simply a "thug". Sam's a complex character who can behave like an arsehole, just as Gene's a complex character who occasionally acts like a thug. And both are amply explained by the characters' back stories.

As for your description of SUV drivers.... hmmmm. Well Sam is definitely insecure, not only in his relationships but in his abilities. I think it's at the root of his whole "gut instinct" problem - he keeps second-guessing himself. It's why, imo, he has become such a rigid thinker, and clings to procedure. Also why he is so insistent he is "right" so often.

But lacking interest in his neighbours or his community? I'd say Sam's problem is he cares too much. You see it in his reactions to the victims of crime time and time again. I don't think it's really in his nature to be indifferent or uncaring, though he can wear an indifferent or uncaring facade.

(2.08 is where Sam is at his most "arshole-ish", though to be fair he has to psych himself up when he turns on his colleagues. ("You're not real.") Which leaves the suicide. *rolls eyes* I think that Matthew was trying to convey that Sam felt trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare where he wasn't allowed to feel passionate, but what I got from it was that Sam was badly brain-damaged!)