Ray Bradbury Is Another Example
Sheesh, me and my pet peeves. Anyway, here's another one:
Okay, so apparently Calvin & Hobbes are occasionally being used as the poster kids for Banality. The idea is that you do something like a stuffed tiger thrown out in the trash, or a comic book where Calvin stops seeing Hobbes as alive, or some such. It's terrible and heartwrenching and oh-so-affecting.
Except for one thing: Calvin & Hobbes were created by a grownup. That's right. A grown man managed to capture all the wonder and awesomeness of being a child, as well as immortalize the downsides of childhood as well. Even the names are grownup humor. It's the kind of artistic skill that comes only with years of discipline, and it's put to use to lovingly render Tyrannosaurs in F-16s. It's deep and poignant and affecting because it marries the wisdom and intelligence of a talented adult with the enthusiasm and imagination that apparently goes away when you grow older only if you let it. I wish I were 1/10th the creator Watterson was (and likely still is, even if his current projects aren't quite for sharing with the public in the same way).
I hate to resort to Internet vernacular, but you know what? You mess around with Calvin & Hobbes to make some point about growing up equalling the loss of imagination and wonder? You are made of fail.
P.S. While I'm here, another argument against Banality in its cut-and-dried interpretation is the office supply store. It's brightly lit and sterile and orderly and feeds the corporate lifestyle, and going to the office supply store is like going to a fucking toy shop. Pads! And pens! And pencils! And journals! And markers! Things to create with! Aileen has to restrain me from buying whatever catches my eye just because "I might write something cool with that!" She's right, of course: because there are so many other trophies from office supply store raids in the house. With cool things written or sketched in/on/with them.
P.P.S. I guess these rants make me seem like I'm some kind of hater for Changeling: The Dreaming. Not at all. I just hate it when the concept of Banality is treated with some kind of absolute idea of What Is Good For Creative and What Is Bad. It strikes me as... uncreative. Go figure.
Okay, so apparently Calvin & Hobbes are occasionally being used as the poster kids for Banality. The idea is that you do something like a stuffed tiger thrown out in the trash, or a comic book where Calvin stops seeing Hobbes as alive, or some such. It's terrible and heartwrenching and oh-so-affecting.
Except for one thing: Calvin & Hobbes were created by a grownup. That's right. A grown man managed to capture all the wonder and awesomeness of being a child, as well as immortalize the downsides of childhood as well. Even the names are grownup humor. It's the kind of artistic skill that comes only with years of discipline, and it's put to use to lovingly render Tyrannosaurs in F-16s. It's deep and poignant and affecting because it marries the wisdom and intelligence of a talented adult with the enthusiasm and imagination that apparently goes away when you grow older only if you let it. I wish I were 1/10th the creator Watterson was (and likely still is, even if his current projects aren't quite for sharing with the public in the same way).
I hate to resort to Internet vernacular, but you know what? You mess around with Calvin & Hobbes to make some point about growing up equalling the loss of imagination and wonder? You are made of fail.
P.S. While I'm here, another argument against Banality in its cut-and-dried interpretation is the office supply store. It's brightly lit and sterile and orderly and feeds the corporate lifestyle, and going to the office supply store is like going to a fucking toy shop. Pads! And pens! And pencils! And journals! And markers! Things to create with! Aileen has to restrain me from buying whatever catches my eye just because "I might write something cool with that!" She's right, of course: because there are so many other trophies from office supply store raids in the house. With cool things written or sketched in/on/with them.
P.P.S. I guess these rants make me seem like I'm some kind of hater for Changeling: The Dreaming. Not at all. I just hate it when the concept of Banality is treated with some kind of absolute idea of What Is Good For Creative and What Is Bad. It strikes me as... uncreative. Go figure.