Batman seemed to have a hard time accepting this, but then he suddenly remembered that dark figure. He asked, "Did he do that? I mean, the me from another universe."
"He was nearly perfect," Schiller said. "You might think he was an emotionless machine, so dark it was unbearable to look at, but he wasn't actually without feelings. He simply understood that showing his feelings to certain people was like handing them a knife. It was unnecessary and would only hurt both them and himself."
"He even restrained himself from showing too much emotion to those closest to him, because the harm his coldness caused them was far less than the harm that would come from them wavering because he showed emotion and causing a catastrophe."
"Would a book teach something like that?"
"Obviously not. It was a lesson paid for in blood and tears."
"All right." Batman looked somewhat helpless. "I don't want to become that kind of monster, but I'll do my best to become more normally balanced. Do you have any other advice for me?"
"Of course. Let me continue." Schiller took another sip of grape juice to wet his throat, then said, "Once you accomplish the points above, you can basically socialize like a normal person. Overall, you become less annoying."
"But if you want people to like you—more precisely, if you want to use other people's genuine fondness for you to soothe the loneliness you always feel inside—you need some more specialized techniques."
"Can I be likable?"
"Of course, and not merely on the surface." Schiller said, "Generally speaking, different approaches are needed for people of different identities, but I can give you a few universal ones. They correspond to the strategies above and could be called advanced versions of them."
"All right, I'll try