Refraction 000: What is a Refraction in Bronze?

Refraction: the fact or phenomenon of light, radio waves, etc. being deflected in passing obliquely through the interface between one medium and another or through a medium of varying density.

– Google online dictionary, informed by Oxford

A few years ago, quite by happenstance while browsing through Facebook postings, as those of us of a certain vintage are wont to do, I stumbled upon the Flearun, a Facebook page that was devoted to one of the literary heroes of my youth, the pulp-era adventure hero Doc Savage.

The postings in the Flearun took me back over four decades to the 1970s, when I had been a huge fan of the Man of Bronze, and had made it a goal to collect all of the Bantam editions. And, when Omnibus #13 was finally produced in the 90s, I had the whole set. How satisfying it was to have finally read all 181 original pulp magazine stories plus The Red Spider!

But over the course of time and the vicissitudes of life, my Bantam collection was lost, and, Doc, like Puff the Magic Dragon, was put away for other things.

So it was with a genuine sense of fond nostalgia when I discovered on Facebook that there were others who had been Doc Savage fans – and that they were actively keeping his memory and spirit alive! I picked up a couple of Bantam edition Doc stories, and fell in love all over again with the Big Bronze Boy Scout, resolving to read through the entire series once more.

However, I found that reading Doc Savage stories this time through was a very different experience. Doc hadn’t changed over the decades, but I had, and themes and quirks and humorous bits in the stories that caught my attention now were different.

I started jotting down those bits that stuck out and caught my attention, or ‘the glints that caught my mind’s eye,’ and that’s what became the first Refraction, which I posted on the Flearun FB page. Other Fleurunners seemed to like the write-ups, and I kept going. The format has changed over the course of the three years or so that it’s taken me to get through all 182 stories, but a somewhat standardized set of topics eventually developed. These included notes on the damsel or damsels in distress in each story; the villains and their henchpeople; their world-threatening evil devices and Doc’s countering gadgets; details on the 86th floor, the Hidalgo Trading Company, the Crime College, and Fortress of Solitude; character development of Doc, Pat, and the aides; and much more.

For the most part, I tried to keep my personal interpretations, assumptions, and opinions out of the way, and focus on letting the actual words in the original pulp texts speak for themselves, with a minimum of personal input from me.

But in the end, even those topics that stuck out as important to me are also subjective – they are the bits that caught MY attention.

So, while these scribblings are the things that caught my attention, your reading of Doc Savage will necessarily be a different experience – and each Doc fan could write his or her own ‘Refractions in Bronze’ with just as much legitimacy as the observations printed here.

Be that as it may, I hope you have enjoyed – and will continue to enjoy – these reflections on the Doc Savage stories, and that you, like me, will find new satisfactions in reading about our literary friend, the Supreme Adventurer, his chums, and their world.