Free Colin Fischer by Zack Stentz, Ashley Edward Miller Page B

characters (from crossovers and writer references on subsequent programs) it could be inferred that other shows were constructs of Tommy’s expansive imagination. This list includes such notables as
M*A*S*H
,
Law & Order
, and
The X-Files
, and continues to add to itself.
    10 A false dichotomy occurs when two ideas are presented as mutually exclusive, but are in fact perfectly compatible. For example: “You can have either peanut butter or you can have chocolate” is a false dichotomy. This is most easily demonstrated by the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Peanut Butter Cups were Colin’s favorite example, because proving chocolate and peanut butter go together was always delicious.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
         Our neighbors once witnessed me take a metal mixing bowl and some household chemicals into the garage. After hearing a loud bang, they called the police, assuming I was attempting to manufacture drugs—a not uncommon activity on the fringes of the San Fernando Valley. What the neighbors didn’t know and my father eventually confirmed for the police was the truth: I was trying to work out the principles of explosive pulse propulsion in spaceflight for a science project. The police laughed, although my father made me spend a month’s allowance to replace the bowl.
         The misunderstanding that arose from my experiment with rocketry was in many ways an echo of the consequences of Kuleshov’s experiments with film. His work sparked a revolution in filmmaking because the implication of his results went farbeyond the meaning of facial expressions. Kuleshov demonstrated that when you present images together, the audience connects them whether they’re actually related or not. Sergei Eisenstein proved this when he cut old stock footage of British naval maneuvers into “The Battleship Potemkin,” a film he shot entirely on land.
         Audiences assumed Eisenstein had shot it on the ocean. When Western diplomats saw this, they sent coded telegrams to their governments, relaying their horrifying discovery that the Soviets had secretly built a new navy. As a result, untold national resources were diverted in response to an escalation that existed only in a scene in a movie in which their own ships stood in for their enemy’s.
         Without realizing it, Kuleshov confirmed a long-held belief about the best way to deceive people: Show them things they want to believe. The rest will take care of itself.
    Mrs. Fischer had been taking Colin to the shopping mall in Woodland Hills since he was a small boy. It began as a part of Colin’s therapy, meant to help him slowly overcome his fear of new places. “Like putting the frog in the pot of water and boiling it slowly,” his mother used to joke. 11
    At first, they merely drove into the mall’s parking lot, where they would sit until returning home. After a month, Mrs. Fischer convinced Colin to walk to the front doors and touch them. The automatic glass doors presented a terrifying and impassable barrier for nearly a year, until his mother produced an article from the Internet that satisfied Colin he was in no danger of being chopped in half while crossing the threshold.
    Now, the mall offered familiarity and comfort to Colin, as long as he avoided the row of electronics stores along a particular first-floor promenade or the talking snowmen on display during the Christmas season. Colin’s mother knew the drill. With a “Meet us at the west entrance in forty-five minutes,” she dropped Danny off to check out video games and took Colin to find the gym clothes and shoes he suddenly insisted he needed.
    They ended up in a second-floor sporting goods shop where the clerks wore striped shirts meant to evoke the uniform of a football referee. Colin knew the exact brand, model number, and color of the shoes he wanted based on reviews on the Internet and anarticle in
Consumer Reports
, and so he resisted the clerk’s attempts to sell him a