Another true story (<- Not a true story)
Waterloo has some of the more erudite graffiti I've seen in washrooms. Some of it is of course the usual crude nonsense. However, there are exchanges like:
Witty Comment
Less Clever Rejoinder
Disparaging Comeback, not knowing that by doing so I have reduced myself to your level
on the walls. Some of the graffiti is in languages I can't understand, and some of it is different still.
Terry Pratchett once wrote that graffiti is a way of seeing what a city as a whole is thinking in its heart of hearts, and I believe he's more right than people give him credit for. Where better to express your innermost thoughts than on the wall of a bathroom stall? It's untraceable, because no-one will stand for surveillance in a bathroom, and what people really want if they're going to express their thoughts is anonymity. So I keep a close eye on the graffiti in the university, because it gives me a cross-section of the real minds of those that attend. It tells me that racism and intolerance are less prevalent than in the outside world's graffiti (and by extension the outside world) but still prevalent. However, then there's stuff like this...
A large no sign over a Star of David has been drawn on the door of the stall, and above it is a message alluding to Hitler's return and the purging of Jews and blacks and the regular nonsense. That disturbed me, but what shocked me was the message written above it.
The message reflected my own feelings, intensifying since about this winter. This winter, you see, was when I first started watching the TV show Heroes, and I was instantly hooked. The show was well put together, and aside from the 'cool stuff', also took a serious look at what superpowers would do to society (which X-Men did before it) and what being a hero actually means (which comics in general may have done.) What sets it apart from those comics, however, is that no-one runs around in silly costumes or forms Brotherhoods of Evil Mutants- this look at the ramifications of superpowers tries to be more serious than that. Everyone who has a superpower has only that- in every other way they're human, with all the frailties and vulnerabilities therof. There are no grab bags of standard superpowers here (super strength, speed, invulnerability, flight...the standards)- every power is rare and precious and, so far as I can tell, unique.
More importantly, ever since I saw the show, two thoughts have been bouncing around my head. One is a desire that the show awoke in me- to do one pure thing, to redeem fifteen years of bitterness and anger- in short, to be a hero. The other thought is a question- do others feel the same?
My answer is here. Above the offensive graffito, someone has scrawled in Sharpie, "Don't give in to villany. Stop this man!" with an arrow pointing to the symbol. It seems as though my fellows are out there indeed. It was then I realized that I too had a sharpie, from my lab that afternoon, and that I was adding to the message above the symbol.
My addition simply read, "Be a hero."
Witty Comment
Less Clever Rejoinder
Disparaging Comeback, not knowing that by doing so I have reduced myself to your level
on the walls. Some of the graffiti is in languages I can't understand, and some of it is different still.
Terry Pratchett once wrote that graffiti is a way of seeing what a city as a whole is thinking in its heart of hearts, and I believe he's more right than people give him credit for. Where better to express your innermost thoughts than on the wall of a bathroom stall? It's untraceable, because no-one will stand for surveillance in a bathroom, and what people really want if they're going to express their thoughts is anonymity. So I keep a close eye on the graffiti in the university, because it gives me a cross-section of the real minds of those that attend. It tells me that racism and intolerance are less prevalent than in the outside world's graffiti (and by extension the outside world) but still prevalent. However, then there's stuff like this...
A large no sign over a Star of David has been drawn on the door of the stall, and above it is a message alluding to Hitler's return and the purging of Jews and blacks and the regular nonsense. That disturbed me, but what shocked me was the message written above it.
The message reflected my own feelings, intensifying since about this winter. This winter, you see, was when I first started watching the TV show Heroes, and I was instantly hooked. The show was well put together, and aside from the 'cool stuff', also took a serious look at what superpowers would do to society (which X-Men did before it) and what being a hero actually means (which comics in general may have done.) What sets it apart from those comics, however, is that no-one runs around in silly costumes or forms Brotherhoods of Evil Mutants- this look at the ramifications of superpowers tries to be more serious than that. Everyone who has a superpower has only that- in every other way they're human, with all the frailties and vulnerabilities therof. There are no grab bags of standard superpowers here (super strength, speed, invulnerability, flight...the standards)- every power is rare and precious and, so far as I can tell, unique.
More importantly, ever since I saw the show, two thoughts have been bouncing around my head. One is a desire that the show awoke in me- to do one pure thing, to redeem fifteen years of bitterness and anger- in short, to be a hero. The other thought is a question- do others feel the same?
My answer is here. Above the offensive graffito, someone has scrawled in Sharpie, "Don't give in to villany. Stop this man!" with an arrow pointing to the symbol. It seems as though my fellows are out there indeed. It was then I realized that I too had a sharpie, from my lab that afternoon, and that I was adding to the message above the symbol.
My addition simply read, "Be a hero."