To Hell With The King... Long Live The Graphic Novelist!

O.K. So I missed a few weeks here… Making this one the last post for this course but hopefully not my last post in the process of reviewing the ways . tell stories

However I was suffering from a small addiction of my own that I didn’t know I had…  And no I didn’t get hooked on “Gaming”, which is, as you can tell by my post of the novel “You”, something that I still loathe.  Wouldn’t that be ironic though. 

            I guess you could say I really dug into the Graphic novel concept…  I actually had some family issues to take care of but the trip last week did allow me time to read through the following: Reinhard Kleist’ Johnny Cash, I See A Darkness that depicts Cash’s eventful life.  Another one I delved into was Marvel Illustrated version of Homer’s Illiad retold by Roy Thomas.  Now I have just started on Barefoot Gen by Keiiji Nakazawa, more of a manga style story of the aftermath of Hiroshima.  I have read the Pulitzer Prize winning book Hiroshima by John Hershy about 20 years ago.  After finishing the Barefoot Gen series (Can you believe the library only has three of the ten?)  I’ll probably have to go back and re-read Hiroshima as a bit of a comparison as distorted as it may be.

            Obviously the whole visual side of the Graphic Novel is appealing to my left-brain self that I’m trying to restore here at Ringling.  Dr. Steiling thanks to your approach in course like this my idea of literature and media have changed.  I’m now a lot more comfortable in this new approach than the stuffy academia of old.  Thanx Doc…

Much Respect,

Maurice

You by Austin Grossman

O.K… To say that I’m not a big gaming person is an understatement…  In fact I’d say that I the opposite…  In fact I really want to put this in perspective, I’m an ex-Arcade Junkie that, now, really just loathes the way video games and the industry have evolved.  The whole reality vs. fantasy line blurring that goes on…  The consumers demand visual reality.  The producers are producing the products in demand…  They also steer the production which increases the demand.  Unlawful and even worse immoral violence and murder are at the core of several of these games.  One of the hardest things to do is kill another human.  Shoot or don't shoot video “scenarios”, cant call them games, are used to aid military and law enforcement agencies in making the decision to kill.  Most of these personnel are vetted for their mental stability. Therefore the argument still exist about how these games will affect “off centered individuals”. Damned if ya do…  Damned if ya don’t…  Where do you draw the line who can get what?  Can you say Fantasy Games only are O.K….  Alright define Fantasy then…  After that then try to define what’s a stable individual on a scale that includes all people that would purchase a game.  Can't be done... The Cat’s Outta The Bag.  Still doesn’t mean I have to like "Gaming" much less be interested in reading even a fictional about the industry.

Hmm…  this one is looonnnggg and drawn out book.  Austin Grossman is at times effective in getting me into descriptions.  Then at times I begin to tune him out… Sometimes he’s just a bit over the top in describing a setting or feeling.  This is a book where nuance kind of becomes entwined with the nuisance.  Perhaps it’s opinion I have entered the book with but I don't think so.  I will say that the book has had an effect to change some of my personal opinion of high-end graphic video games.  There are tidbits of how the gaming industries problem solving has affected and contributed to the world of computing and information.
Anyways back to the book it’s exploration growing up in a “real world” only to find satisfaction (with some frustration) in a world of what has been an adolescent industry.  Growth of a company along with growth of an individual… Plus there is always the office politics is only made interesting because of their connection as youth.  I could have done without all the story line inside the game.  But it’s not my book and Austin wrote it the way he wanted.  So Grossman only gets a small kudos from me for developing this into the plot.

Cool... Todd's in Town!!!

Having the author of a published work such as “Newsworld” come to the class was very helpful in understanding a literary work like this.  Sometimes I don't always get the crux of written satire and sarcasm.  Having him here many of the comments on social issues were brought to the forefront with answers.  So rather than me walking around with lingering thoughts in my mind with the question such as “I wonder if he meant to say…”  Because ultimately I could have said  “Ah forget about it.  I’ve got other things to think about right now.”  I think just meeting Todd James Pierce gives us (the student/audience) a better understanding of his demeanors and what drives him to put his ideas in print.  Then when he tosses out a reading by another author it's like BOGO at WallyWorld!

On Viewing of Peter Greenaway

Blog 23 Oct 2013

So I picked Peter Greenaway at first because I heard he was an auteur with a Fine Arts background and a bit of an artist himself.

Peter Greenaway, Chernobyl 1986, 90.5X61cm

Well little did I know I would be picking someone that, for my generation mind you, was such a cult film “Phenom”.  Realizing that I am viewing a series of films from this producer as would “Joe… the Plumber”.  Except I’m just “Moe… the Po-Po” and don’t have all the liberal frame of mind just yet that an artist of my generation should.  However, I sense that I’m getting there because I actually saw five of his films not just once but several times each.  I reviewed: A Zed and Two Naughts; The Belly of an Architect; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; The Pillow Book; and Nightwatching.  At first, with the exception of Nightwatching, I thought who would pay to watch such a thing?  (The typical Hollywood produced, no make that induced, reaction to a movie of Greenaway)  After time for absorption I am absolutely fascinated.  Admittedly, sometimes I had to restart them because they were long and tedious to watch.  Like 2hrs is the norm for Greenaway!  However, often I was re-starting them because they were intricate enough to visually re-view.  Either way it was still nothing short of being the witness to a train-wreck…  You want to look away out of fear…  Then you look back because of that very same fear…  Then you look away out of respect for the dead… Then you look back because you cannot control your own curiosity!  I don’t necessarily describe this as a “cult films” in the most popular genre one would think of when one mentions cult film.  This is not just death for the sake of gore.  See, as only he would have it, Greenaway’s film take on a defiantly different approach.  Greenaway has challenged the conservative film format and aspired to tear down their walls.  At the core of his films are the sins that break our humanity.  His films center around opulence, greed, gluttony, tragedy, conspiracy, treachery, sex & sexuality and murder & death.  In all of these films I was forced to ask what would I do in these same situations?  I think that any director that can force you to confront these same issues in such a personal manner deserves to have his own cult following.  Then there is the visual renaissance and baroque presentations alone that also warrants him a cult following.  Greenaway attempts to draw direct correlations to film and other art via sheer visual “Homage” to the great artists of history.  His films take on direct aspects of theater.  At other time he creates scenes that are direct likenesses paintings of the old masters.   His highly praised films include: A Zed and Two Naughts, The Draughtsman’s Contract; The Belly of an Architect; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Drowning by Numbers; The Pillow Book; 8 ½ Women; and Nightwatching.  I addition he has made more recent films that I also intend to explore.

Just a thought of where the next medium is headed.

Generation MTV

Go on admit it…  The name is the coolest generation distinction name ever.
See our claim to fame, that's right “Generation MTV”,

Once hurled as an insult by crusty old Codgers,

Behind their fancy oak desk with their fancy Bick ball point pens,

They didn’t understand us… We were the “Big Scarrrry Unknown”

Now our negative connotation became our badge of honor.

TV?  How can those kids sit there and watch all that loud crazy…

“Look at there, Look at that,

That ain’t music,

That’s just somethin’ playin’ on the MTV.”

Then there was a new album by Micheal…Thriller!

"WHOO! Don't try to escape it.  You cant hide…

You’re just a Thriller…" 
You know you wanna sing out with it.  WOO, HOO!

If you were a teenager in 1984 then you are the MTV Generation…

Damn those were the days…  Rolling it up and Takin’ a Ride!

Hell yeah, when "Rock On" became "Party On"  

All because Bill and Ted believed in all of US!

We showed them…  Hell we showed them with Purchasing Power… 

Ya’ll ain’t seen nothing yet, wait until they see how we flash the cash at the mall.

Mom and Pops you may have been the Baby Boomers

But thanks to you laying your wallets and purses around the house, 
We are the New American Consumers, cause “I Seen It On The MTV”

There’s the new parachute pants, gotta get those.

See we were awesome…  All future generation should bow down to us.

Just like Garth, say it… You’re not worthy… You’re not worthy.

See thanks to us, the media absolutely knows how to target you,

That’s right, we taught the media that trick, you who are the youth of tomorrow.

We are the proven success of teenagers succumbing crap sold as fashion. 

We showed you how to invent new music, and slang terms…

Cause, Hallelujah the Lord knows, that was never done before the MTV.

That's right all us rebellious MTV kids, we did it all.

There are no Rebels before us, there are no Rebels after us…

You are all just jealous of our now, given name.

And you’ll a be even more jealous real soon,

Especially...  When we start to get our Social Security checks.

Girl in Landscape = Literary?

I think it’s just because Jonathan Letham may write a “coming of Age” book well may not make it a good book.  See I was so indifferent to this book that I actually went ahead and experimented with ordering the Audio Book format just to keep getting through this book.   Is it a Genre Novel?  Well before this book was in my sights I would have said in this day and age there really isn’t a great deal of book that are genre book.  Wow…  Would I have been wrong. 

The book did a lot of he said she said to illustrate the characters depth…  Or in some the lack thereof.  This story deals with the downside of earth in decay and dreams of a better future elsewhere.  Then in the ultimate ending it shows us that life is what you make of it where you stand right now. 

Now is it literature… Nah.  I’d say it’s definitely genre.  SyFi with a bit of spaghetti western, coming of age-puberty, strife, racism projected via human vs. alien, voyeurism, sexual identity and power struggles.  All of these are just a work that when he wrote the story in 1998 were directed to an audience in not much more than pandering to a base that he knew would purchase his book.   Is this literature for the fact of trying to write a great story that someone will someday say “Now that Novel is a great literary work”….  Heck No, he was just trying to sale a book…  Nothing wrong with that either, everyone needs to put food on the table.

Anyway the adapt, hit the road again for greener pastures or just plain die existence of the character situations works well for the semi-trapped teens in the story.  I was kind of surprised (I think it’s funny in a cheezey way) to see that by the end of the novel how Pella who was written as a really rebelliously independent character ends up fawning for the “Bad Boy” to return.

Hell I guess it grew on me and I’ll have to listen to it again the next time I’m up for a long drive.  But is it a Literary work of art I doubt it but hey if had that crystal ball I’d be down at the dog tracks instead of here trying to learn something.