tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post2349049798969549674..comments2024-02-10T01:05:19.568-08:00Comments on Every Day Is Like Wednesday: My last post on Superior. I promise.Calebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01391759187396994380noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-21310464550567776612013-07-24T00:38:33.940-07:002013-07-24T00:38:33.940-07:00Thanks, Matthew. I just visited your blog and left...Thanks, Matthew. I just visited your blog and left you a comment there as well.Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10558378521891430225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-49627288741881534092013-07-22T19:53:26.304-07:002013-07-22T19:53:26.304-07:00Marc, I just wanted to applaud you for your eloque...Marc, I just wanted to applaud you for your eloquence and your ideas. You pretty much summarized most of my academic work (ideology influences culture which influences ideology) in a couple paragraphs. Kudos and keep on keepin' onmatthew.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17785443003038077519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-85352480687296328102013-07-22T08:10:15.493-07:002013-07-22T08:10:15.493-07:00Authorial intent isn't entirely insignificant ...Authorial intent isn't entirely insignificant -- it can help give us frameworks, or shortcuts, to understanding a new entry in an author's body of work. Understanding the earlier works of David Finch as inherently misogynistic, for example, gives us an explanation when his latest Batman comics feature a villain who is basically, <a href="http://damiensomens.blogspot.com/2013/07/batman-dark-knight-knight-terrors-comic.html" rel="nofollow">as one blogger has put it</a>, a "walking ass shot."<br /><br />But while intent may sometimes (but certainly not always) explain the <i>why</i> of a work's construction, it doesn't explain the <i>how</i> -- that is, how the work functions in the real world, of which it is now inextricably a part. At this point, it doesn't matter if the author feels his/her work should be destroyed or that it be compared favorably to <i>Hamlet</i>. What the work actually <i>does</i> in the world, it is the job of critics and scholars, not the author, to figure out.<br /><br />An example: say the Transformers movies were exactly as they are, but had been directed by someone other than Michael Bay. That would not change what they contribute (I use the word loosely) to society, which, as far as I can tell, is a favorable view of brazen technological militarism. The Transformers movies don't shape social reality alone, but in conjunction with other works that espouse similar themes, they shape reality to the extent that the idea of waging technological warfare against "the bad guys" (another social concept constructed and reinforced by fictional narratives) becomes a more widely accepted idea.<br /><br />I think you make a good point in the final sentence of your last comment, insofar as the majority of people are unable to distinguish craftsmanship from "quality." It strikes me as improbable, for example, that the average person could describe what makes <i>The Godfather</i> "better" than <i>Gangster Squad</i>; if anything, they might respond with the answer "Coppola is a great director." But that is a statement about the author and it tells us little about the work itself. Society bombards them with the idea that one film is better, though, and so that idea is internalized without much critical thought.<br /><br />It's no great leap to suggest that the majority of people similarly do not discern the implicit messages to which they are exposed by the narratives they consume, whether that is because they are unable or simply unwilling to do so ("don't think about it too hard, it's just entertainment"). The latter mentality strikes me as particularly dangerous in a world where the most popularly consumed narratives contain messages -- explicitly, implicitly, and often unconsciously, on the part of their authors -- which reach, and thus have the potential to influence, so many people.Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10558378521891430225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-5495444450087320462013-07-22T02:03:35.005-07:002013-07-22T02:03:35.005-07:00That's an interesting comment and I will give ...That's an interesting comment and I will give it further thought, honestly. At the moment, though, I still can't see how a thing like Millar's writing system of taking nostalgic property archetypes, adding curse words, extra violence, "bigger budget" action pieces and a puddle deep inference to current events says anything even subliminally other than lack of respect for the intelligence of readers but I will absolutely consider what you said. I guess the major disconnect I have with the idea is that I see the intent of the artist to be almost more important than the final creation and maybe that is the wrong way to analyze art. And I do realize that, yes, all art is subjective and for some people a Millar comic may be like seeing Kirby dynamics for the first time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-57241149204077425622013-07-22T00:20:40.494-07:002013-07-22T00:20:40.494-07:00I could not disagree more with the above comment t...I could not disagree more with the above comment that "trying to find deeper meaning in [Millar's] works is a pointless exercise." Comics (like films, novels, etc.) transcode the discourses of social life into narratives, and those narratives in turn play a major role in constructing social reality. Neither the author's intentions nor the perceived "quality" of the work play a direct role in this process.<br /><br />To use a very basic example, public anxieties over the "War on Terror" might lead a writer to craft a representation of the war in a comic book; that representation, in combination with those constructed in other narratives across various media, in turn shapes the reality of how the war is understood and therefore addressed. <i>Zero Dark Thirty</i>, for example, is a film that not only reflects America's fascination with the death of Osama bin Laden, but also reconstructs history in such a way as to condone the continued use of torture and Guantanomo-style imprisonment without trial.<br /><br />It is important for us to try to understand the arguments at the heart of mass entertainment narratives, perhaps especially so when those arguments seem to be unclear even to their authors. In other words, unless we aspire to fall victim to the same ignorance and prejudices as the Mark Millars and Michael Bays of this world, we would do well to look closely at the arguments their works make not just explicitly, but implicitly and subliminally as well. To overlook works like these because they appear to lack "philosophical content" or literary "complexity" is missing the point of what makes narrative art important.Marchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10558378521891430225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-82545548487020714032013-07-21T18:14:09.573-07:002013-07-21T18:14:09.573-07:00I think you are spending more time thinking about ...I think you are spending more time thinking about Millar comics than Millar himself does. The man ain't Alan Moore. He's not layering in deep philosophical content or making complex statements about the human condition. He's making punchy "edgey" pop comics with no actual meaning or depth. He's comic's Michael Bay, not that there isn't room for that in the industry but trying to find deeper meaning in his works is a pointless exercise.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-37449743815073393622013-07-21T17:59:02.096-07:002013-07-21T17:59:02.096-07:00I kind of want to see a Science Dickheads title fr...I kind of want to see a <i>Science Dickheads</i> title from Marvel now.Deanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07593238314160981897noreply@blogger.com