From the manuscript vault: aphorisms for use in the novel Alnilam, Part X.

You need to remember that the Alnilam protagonist is not so much ahuman as superhuman, or perhaps ahuman and superhuman, without attempting to be so. And it is a natural condition. He does not calculate, he merely is.

Like most talented innovators, he is feared and hated by many, loved by few. No one understands him. But then he does not need or really desire their understanding.

He is alone, even among others, but the last thing he is is lonely.

He creates with no template; he follows no template; he is a template that no one else may mimic, but only to which they may aspire. This is terrifying to some and fascinating to others. To a few, it is both.

The more who are against him, the stronger he seems to become.

There is of course the legend/martyr element with him after he vanishes. But that would not exist had he not acted as he did. Without his enigmatic qualities he would be just another lost airman.

He is like something out of a dream. That is why various sensitive individuals claim to glimpse him after his disappearance.

He empowers others, even through pain and what some might consider evil. Yet that is precisely a source of his own power. It is why he is talked and written about by others.

The others in the book, even those against him, empower him further when they speak against him, ignore him, or call him merely ordinary. His absence is thunderous. He permeates them all.