In Defense of Comic Books

Drawing on old material...

A while ago, a friend at Daily Events wrote a post called Gagging on Deep Throat, where he spuriously compared pornography to comic books to make the point that pornography doesn't deserve consideration for artistic merit.

There are a few objections one could make here (or not, if you agree), but I (being me) didn't appreciate that he maligned comics to make a point. It lead to a interesting, involved discussion of medium, value, genre, etc., which I'll completely ignore here. I thought my initial response might be worth posting.

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Let's draw a distinction between genre and medium.

Genre to a large extent dictates content. The western is a genre that consists of cowboys, Indians, and gunfights. Sci-fi is a genre that consists of space exploration and futuristic science. The superhero story is a genre that consists of, well, superheroes. Porn is a genre that consists of sex, lots of sex, often explicit. And so forth.

I'm oversimplifying, of course, but you get the idea.

Medium, on the other hand, is a means of transmitting content. It's a wrapper. It does not dictate content. Television is a medium. The novel is a medium. The CD is a medium. Comic books are a medium. Radio, film, theater, DVD, etc. To a medium, content is largely irrelevant. The medium is only the mechanism by which one transmits information.

Porn is a genre. Comic books are a medium.

Please don't compare apples to apple carts.

A Quick One for Morty

I couldn't let it pass without noting that today (January 12, 2006) would have been Morton Feldman's 80th birthday. For anybody so inclined, observe moments of silence between immaculately chosen sonorities. That is to say, listen to some of his music.

Some web resources:

Chris Villars's still essential Morton Feldman Page
Morton Feldman audio at UbuWeb Sound

Happy Gregorian New Year

If somewhat belated.

Again stemming from our New Years guests, I ended up downtown with a camera, which rarely happens. The following were taken in and around Millennium Park, New Years Dusk or so, 2005.

A Juvenile Running Joke from "The 40 Year Old Virgin" or: The Post Where I Share Too Much and Alienate My Readers

It's a good thing I'm married because The 40 Year Old Virgin DVD was way too obvious a Christmas gift for me. And much appreciated too.

Then, since my brother and his girlfriend came out to visit over New Years and since they're in serious decompression mode for the week and a half they have off from med school, much of the visit consisted of sitting around, watching some television and a few movies. And there it was, The 40 Year Old Virgin on DVD... We watched the movie, the extras, and the wife and I watched the commentary track after our houseguests left. It's quite good if your sense of humor runs that way; clearly mine does.

Of course the "You know how I know you're gay?" joke got stuck in my head. That's pretty much the gag, it's a sort of white guy snaps routine, expressed in exchanges like: "You know how I know you're gay?" "How?" "I saw you make a spinach dip in a loaf of sourdough bread once." And suchlike, usually far less clean.

Monday afternoon I realized I had the following, just by describing the situation I was in at the moment.

"You know how I know you're gay?"
"How?"
"You're reading the Chronicles of Narnia in a spa waiting for a fruit therapy facial treatment."

Just awful, I had to put the book away. Fashion magazines didn't seem like a better option, so I sat quietly and stared at the wall.

In own my defense, though, it was half price and utilized alpha and beta hydroxy fruit acids. Also my skin looks great now, relatively speaking.

Better Living Through Marketing

There are so many ads for alcohol, and I really wonder if they do any good. Well, not that ads do good in a strict sense, but do these ads affect behavior? It seems to me that people make decisions about what to drink, how much to drink, when to drink, etc. with subtle personal and societal calculations dependent on taste, company, timing, plans for the rest of the evening and/or next day, and so forth. Where exactly does that bizarro Tanqeray Tony Sinclair spokesthing figure in? (He weirds me out for reasons I don't yet fully understand.)

Given the sheer amount of money dumped into sports, magazines, billboards, concerts, venues, et al, I can't imagine a proper relative benefit.

So here's my proposition. Makers and purveyors of alcoholic beverages should market toward their most dependable demographic: alcoholics. Sure, we all like bikinis, but why not incorporate useful informational slogans as well?

Goes great with breakfast cereals!

Your boss will barely smell it on your breath when you get back from lunch!

Affects driving 30% less than other leading brands!