Thursday, February 9, 2006

Of Death and Dying
There have been at least two Law & Order episodes, one each of Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, about suicide advice/discussion websites and murders associated with the sites in question. Additionally, I am a fan of Robert Louis Stevenson's multi-chaptered short story "The Suicide Club" (so-called short story, since it is as long as the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Inspired by these sources, I'm developing a villain, a murderer who prowls the suicide subculture looking for suicidal individuals on the verge of committing the act and killing them before they can go through with it. His justification is probably rooted in Catholicism, proceeding from the assumption that he is saving the souls of his victims by murdering them before they can commit the mortal sin of suicide. I'm thinking of him as an enemy of The Question, whom I desperately want to return to his Objectivist beginnings, but really my suicide murderer could be tailored to suit any mystery man.

Anyway, I've made up a whole list of names and I was wondering which of them best strikes the fancy of you, the loyal audience. I've narrowed it down to two, though I would have happy to entertain any suggestions left in the comment box:

Hemlock the Confessor
The Suicider

1 comment:

AlNaga The Dreaded! said...

Since he thought he was doing the Lord's work, he would probably pick a name like the Soul Saver or Soul Collector.