We exist in a culture of overindulgence and self-loathing. Even people as intelligent as Klosterman are not free from it. He himself makes note that his relationship with technology makes no sense and that he loves the Internet.
You know what speaks volumes to me? We capitalize the word "Internet." AP style is to capitalize that word. Doesn't that scare you? The Internet has developed past all other technology and actually grown it's own identity. And it's fitting. Our relationship with the Internet and technology (or rather, Technology) has developed to a point that is similar to the relationships we share with actual people. That's terrifying.
I thought about deleting my Facebook after seeing The Social Network. I wasn't disgusted by the story behind Facebook or angry at Mark Zuckerberg. I just felt figured out. One man had figured out a way to exert a massive amount of influence upon an incredible amount of people. In some way, I think everyone wants to believe that they are a little different, that they can't be corralled. I didn't delete my Facebook. Like someone in class said today, we keep our social media close and our devices closer because we want to be in the loop. We don't want to miss anything when in reality being so wired in is causing us to miss everything.
We are constantly told that we do things too much. We eat too much. We drink too much. We use the Internet too much. We work to much. We sleep too much. We fuck too much. The list goes on and on. Where does it end? How are we supposed to tell what is actually being a detriment to our lives and what isn't? And once we're told that whatever we're doing is bad for us, we stop for a day or two and then go right back to it. We feel bad about it and then buy whatever someone says will fix it. It is a vicious, blood thirsty cycle.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
An Introduction. All Introductions.
Hello Press in Americans.
Welcome to It's Still Murder. The title may seem a bit morbid but it's related mostly just related to a favorite media critic of mine Frederic Wertham . He was something of a crusader against comic books in the 50s and wrote a book entitled Seduction of the Innocent that demonized comic books. The censorship of comics went to the Supreme Court because of Wertham's insistence that Batman and Robin were gay and Wonder Woman was a lesbian (amongst other outlandish claims) and that coupled with comic book violence, funny books were singlehandedly ruining the youth of America. His ideas and the threat of greater censorship led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority that banned violent images and the printing of words like "terror" or "zombies." Luckily comic book creators found a way around the ban on werewolves and created Sauron, a man who can transform into a humanoid pterodactyl.
Wertham has become something of a point of interest for me. He eventually wrote a book about television called The War on Children that was never published. But his ideas about racial segregation were used as evidence in the case of Brown v. the Board of Ed. Despite his attitudes against comics, Wretham always said that he had nothing against them but rather the effects of them and in one of his works he said that they did promote imagination. Although, as a comic book fan, he should be someone that I consider an enemy of the art form, I am kind of intrigued by his ideas. I don't agree with him but it's interesting. Almost the same way Glenn Beck is interesting because you can't help but say "Holy shit, how does someone think like this?"
At the moment, the comic book industry is in trouble. It isn't because of censorship. iPads and illegal downloading (you can laugh but it's true) are killing it. No matter what you think about comics in general, tons of Hollywood projects are based on comics or graphic novels. Of course almost all of the super hero movies owe themselves to comics but here are some movies and TV shows you may not have realized were based on comics: 30 Days of Night, The Walking Dead, Road to Perdition, History of Violence, Constantine, Ghost World, Red, V for Vendetta. There are more. But it's interesting that so many great stories are coming from a medium that many deem only the domain of geeks and children.
Welcome to It's Still Murder. The title may seem a bit morbid but it's related mostly just related to a favorite media critic of mine Frederic Wertham . He was something of a crusader against comic books in the 50s and wrote a book entitled Seduction of the Innocent that demonized comic books. The censorship of comics went to the Supreme Court because of Wertham's insistence that Batman and Robin were gay and Wonder Woman was a lesbian (amongst other outlandish claims) and that coupled with comic book violence, funny books were singlehandedly ruining the youth of America. His ideas and the threat of greater censorship led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority that banned violent images and the printing of words like "terror" or "zombies." Luckily comic book creators found a way around the ban on werewolves and created Sauron, a man who can transform into a humanoid pterodactyl.
Wertham has become something of a point of interest for me. He eventually wrote a book about television called The War on Children that was never published. But his ideas about racial segregation were used as evidence in the case of Brown v. the Board of Ed. Despite his attitudes against comics, Wretham always said that he had nothing against them but rather the effects of them and in one of his works he said that they did promote imagination. Although, as a comic book fan, he should be someone that I consider an enemy of the art form, I am kind of intrigued by his ideas. I don't agree with him but it's interesting. Almost the same way Glenn Beck is interesting because you can't help but say "Holy shit, how does someone think like this?"
At the moment, the comic book industry is in trouble. It isn't because of censorship. iPads and illegal downloading (you can laugh but it's true) are killing it. No matter what you think about comics in general, tons of Hollywood projects are based on comics or graphic novels. Of course almost all of the super hero movies owe themselves to comics but here are some movies and TV shows you may not have realized were based on comics: 30 Days of Night, The Walking Dead, Road to Perdition, History of Violence, Constantine, Ghost World, Red, V for Vendetta. There are more. But it's interesting that so many great stories are coming from a medium that many deem only the domain of geeks and children.
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