Obligatory Watchmen post
Oh, my god.
No, I haven't seen the movie. I have now gooten a bit more than half way through the comic.
Seriously -- why do so many people think this is "good"?
What is it about seriously mentally disturbed characters, a completely bleak and hopeless and frightening world, and random grossouts that makes a story "good"? And seriously, folks, WHY were we subjected to the pirate comic within a comic? I really just wanted to vomit, and wanted the protagonist to just drown before he became just as vile and violent as the pirates he was fleeing.
I majored in lit and history in college. I read a *lot* of "classics". And honestly, the books held up to the most praise and reverence are the ones that end badly, with incredible amounts of suffering, death and mental instability.
If I wrote a story with a character who beat the odds, made a difference, even a small one, had an eventual happy ending, and left you with hope for the future, you might buy it. You'd read it, make nice noises about strength and work and hope, and put it in the pile of "nice books" and forget about it.
But if I write a story about psychotics and megalomaniacs and secret sins and dirty little conspiracies, where no one gets off with anything but major suffering, madness, torture, death or some other horrible thing, eventually spinning down into inevitable dystopian hyper-controlled or anarchic lack of free will, you'd buy it in droves, lend it to your friends, write awestruck reviews, make me a star, buy the movie rights, and basically make me immortal.
Ick.
This is why, upon leaving university, I swore never to read another "important" book. I want to be entertained, uplifted, shown hope, given pleasure in my reading/tv/movies. Life is harsh enough as it is. That's why we have friends, family, people we hold to and help, and who help us.
Take your "good" literature, your hopeless futures, your squashing of free will and self-determination. As Rush sang, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." In agreement with Neil Peart, "I will choose the path that's clear. I will choose free will." I will choose to read things that show me what I *can* do, not that I am predetermined to disaster, suffering and control. I will choose to discover my ability to choose and change things, and reject the darkness, the madness and the cruelty.
No, I haven't seen the movie. I have now gooten a bit more than half way through the comic.
Seriously -- why do so many people think this is "good"?
What is it about seriously mentally disturbed characters, a completely bleak and hopeless and frightening world, and random grossouts that makes a story "good"? And seriously, folks, WHY were we subjected to the pirate comic within a comic? I really just wanted to vomit, and wanted the protagonist to just drown before he became just as vile and violent as the pirates he was fleeing.
I majored in lit and history in college. I read a *lot* of "classics". And honestly, the books held up to the most praise and reverence are the ones that end badly, with incredible amounts of suffering, death and mental instability.
If I wrote a story with a character who beat the odds, made a difference, even a small one, had an eventual happy ending, and left you with hope for the future, you might buy it. You'd read it, make nice noises about strength and work and hope, and put it in the pile of "nice books" and forget about it.
But if I write a story about psychotics and megalomaniacs and secret sins and dirty little conspiracies, where no one gets off with anything but major suffering, madness, torture, death or some other horrible thing, eventually spinning down into inevitable dystopian hyper-controlled or anarchic lack of free will, you'd buy it in droves, lend it to your friends, write awestruck reviews, make me a star, buy the movie rights, and basically make me immortal.
Ick.
This is why, upon leaving university, I swore never to read another "important" book. I want to be entertained, uplifted, shown hope, given pleasure in my reading/tv/movies. Life is harsh enough as it is. That's why we have friends, family, people we hold to and help, and who help us.
Take your "good" literature, your hopeless futures, your squashing of free will and self-determination. As Rush sang, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." In agreement with Neil Peart, "I will choose the path that's clear. I will choose free will." I will choose to read things that show me what I *can* do, not that I am predetermined to disaster, suffering and control. I will choose to discover my ability to choose and change things, and reject the darkness, the madness and the cruelty.