Before leaving for the evening last night I started a conversation that almost always ends with me angry and frustrated, and saying things I regret. My current state doesn't help because as most of you know I've had a rough week losing someone that was about a close to me as can be. But I digress, the issue is what qualifies as good in modern media.
I live with a couple guys who most of their friends are avid gamers. And while they praise all things gaming it is mostly completely lost on me. Occasionally a game will come along that will rock my world but for the most part it is all kinda behind me now. I hate to say it is that I've matured because it implies I'm at a level higher than my friends and that is not my purpose. But with last nights conversation it is clear that I hold my opinion much higher than any other person in the world. This is especially true when it comes to three things: comics, movies, and music.
I'll start with the last one first: music. I've played music, studied music theory, played in bands of all types, recorded musicians, and wrote. All these things I think give me a grasp on what it takes to make really good music (I say this as I'm listening to Def Leppard...I know). Currently my tastes tend to favor hip hop (REAL hip hop), indie rock like Death Cab for Cutie and Animal Collective, and on the rarest of occasions some hard rock/metal. In between that I listen to a lot. Miles Davis, The Marz Volta, Imogen Heap, Brad Paisley, Pink Floyd, and a ton of other stuff rattle around in my playlist as I like to think I'm a pretty well rounded person in my musical experience. It is in this that I find the problem. When people who have never experienced playing an instrument let alone set through years of classes and discussions on the subject, and poured over tomes of information like a spastic addict I can't help but hold myself at the level of, "I absolutely know more about what makes good music than you do."
This is especially true when their reasoning for why only one limited genre makes the grade: it is good because it sounds good. So much talent is lost in that pool. Music that simply is esthetically pleasing is often flat and devoid of the exact thing they chose to argue with me on; art. The thought that only music that is esthetically pleasing to the ear can be art leaves out so many bands that have more talent in one pinky than the greater collection of Top 20 radio and most current pop collectives. I will never and can never admit that anyone who has ever appeared on a WWE soundtrack, did the soundtrack to a Rob Cohen film, or is on the playlist of a Vin Diesel or other neanderthal can ever be more than just ear candy for the masses. There are so many criteria and I know the above is generalizing, but to outright just say something is crap because you can't understand it for its complex beauty is ignorant in my book. I don't find complex beauty in Metallica or Lady Gaga. Instead I find music that sounds the same or similar from song to song and is made strictly to sell mass quantities. That music to me has little more value than boxed macaroni and cheese.
Then there are movies. I will hands down admit that I like some odd movies. But you can't look at my top 1o list of greatest all time films or have a serious indepth conversation about the minutia of filmmaking and not know that I know my way around what makes outstanding filmmaking. When I have people that include (sorry for picking on the Rob Cohen) Fast and the Furious in their list of top movies to watch I have to say hands down that I have more clout. When you can't also understand how an industry I loves often butchers art and storytelling in a means to again increase their profit margin then I just can't get behind you shaky at best expertise on the issue. Movies like Wolverine Origins, V for Vendetta, and most things M Night Shamalamadingdong have done since Signs just can't make the cut as you have potential for good storytelling and interesting premises that in the end fall flat because of a fearful heavy handed film industry that has lost track of what it is all about: art.
Films even come by today that make this cut of what could be great but end up losing their flair in filling seats rather than sticking to their guns and telling the story they are meant to tell. And really film is where the ultimate argument lies as there is honestly very little art in the geekcred cult traipsings or cineplex blockbusters. There are exceptions to this but they are so few they are barely worth mentioning. I can pick two or three films a year that make that "must see" list that every time leave me shaking my head and wondering if often times it is more about this status of agreement than actually making a informed decision about what you are viewing on the screen. In all, I guess it just goes back to another saying that was thrown around a lot last night: art is in the eye of the beholder.
And lastly...comics. These gentlemen I live with I have mentioned before are a bunch of tough nuts to crack. There seems to be a block that infuriates me and that block is "comics are for kids". This seems to be the very thing that keeps these guys from recognizing that comics have evolved from simply a pre-teen/teen male ego fantasy with aspirations at modern mythology (thanks Alex Ross) into something that has examples of storytelling from all genres that touch on all personality and preference types. To lump a complete medium into the trash bin based on a few limited experiences is both short sited and just plain dumb. I will be the first to understand that there isn't a huge love for superhero books even though for some reason the same people love the movies for which they are based on. Superhero books aren't realistic and aren't meant to be.
Superheroes have represented a myriad of ideas over their history though. From their humble beginnings as male power fantasies being created by the fathers of "funny books" like Bill Finger, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, and the team of Seigel and Schuster things have drastically grown even in this small area of graphic print. Where superheroes are concerned though they mostly still tend to follow the trappings of individual/team find world level threat and pound it into submission while ignoring scientific and mathematic principles. I can see why that would roll some eyes. My reasoning for reading these really comes from a very very personal place that may one day be the subject of another blog entry. That being said though I can definitely understand the distaste for this kind of storytelling in general. Not always but generally it can be over simplistic and juvenile. But to then write off the entirety of the genre because of your limited sampling...well there is that ignorant word again.
Comics are so much more than superheroes these days, and really from their very beginnings have been. People know Superman, Batman, X-Men, and Iron Man but most don't know that many stories have been told of many different types in this form. The Spirit by Will Eisner is greatly unknown besides a horrible movie version by Frank Miller that butchered the character. The Spirit has inspired so many modern crime novelists and pulp storytellers for which without we might never have had Sin City or 100 Bullets (both comics). Maus by Art Spiegleman remains one of the most acclaimed works on the Holocaust ever written and something I would easily hold up against a Schindler's List or its like. The fact is that generalizing when it comes to graphic storytelling is a very American thing. Comics around the world celebrate a vibrant history that doesn't suffer from the limited scope of vision that we suffer from in this country. And comics like Unknown Soldier, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, and Scalped (all from the outstanding Vertigo imprint at DC Comics) work as complex tales that serve as a sharing of the authors ideology but also work as great pieces of social commentary while dealing with very adult themes. Again, don't just lump in everything into one group because of your limited understanding. That just makes you look stupid.
I do like some action movies and stoner comedies. There is some metal that I simply cannot imagine not listening to. And even when it comes to comics, I know Marvel and DC history like a planned tactician on the battlefield. I will be the first to admit that not everything I like is perfect. But I will soundly stand on the fact that my expertise in these areas (which to most of you I'm sure means nothing) is never to be denied. I've studied and ingested more content and information in these 3 areas and in a few others than generally anyone I know. You can have your video and board games. I don't understand it but I do get it from a strictly "this is the thing I love" standpoint. Just don't dismiss me as some soap box spouting ingest-er of media. I know media. I know its art. I know the complexity of what it can be. In that I get little reward but it is the one thing I have that is a part of me. And to not own this...well...makes me little more than a breathing carbon-based lifeform. I know the sum of me is much greater than that.
Thanks for your time and hope your weekends have been good...
J...
