excerpt from mcsweeney’s today, entitled, “rounder characters in no time flat!”:

Tip No. 2: Give your characters some kind of superpower.

Sure, we remember Holden Caulfield as the classic, coming-of-age antihero of Catcher in the Rye, but would we be as drawn to him if Salinger had neglected to give Holden the ability to kill with his thoughts?

Similarly, without the power of flight, Lolita’s Humbert Humbert would be just a pervert with a crush on a fourteen-year-old.

i think that’s fantastic. literary humor just knocks my socks off.