Yes, I did that. I started off a review about 9/11 with a Family Guy quote. You all saw it. Take my goodreaders badge aLet's terrorize the terrorists!
Yes, I did that. I started off a review about 9/11 with a Family Guy quote. You all saw it. Take my goodreaders badge away.
Too late? When did the satire on 9/11 begin? Is it still acceptable? Let's ask the hipsters.
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okaay...
Yes, I laughed at the Family Guy episode. GW refounding the confederacy and starting a 2nd Civil War that resulted in 17 million dead including Cesar Millan.. it puts a nice spin on the 'what happened if 9/11 was thwarted'idea.
I guess I'm just feeling...uncomfortable? lax? unworthy? about reviewing this... I also feel that everything has been said. Jaded. I think that fits. I'm jaded.
Last year I visited the 9/11 Memorial with my two daughters, then 16 and 13.. The line was one of those bank sort of lines where the nylon rope is zigzagged and you're carried like a mouse looking for cheese until you get to the airport like security circus at the end, and through all this, all you see is a baracade. No glimpses of what to come.. My daughters complained about the line to which I gave them my evil stare and then used all my guilt tactics... then ended up telling them to shut the hell up. The mood of the crowd was light... kids were skipping and people were snapping photos... I just stared. I tried to imagine where I used to sit when my husband and I would take nightly walks to the towers. I tried to recall how repulsive I thought they looked at night, big.. well SHADOWS blocking out the sky. I tried to remember hugging one of them and staring straight up and getting dizzy. It wasn't happening. I stared at the two square holes in the ground and saw two square holes. I didn't even take in the installation, the cascading water, the names etched on the side. I do remember the trees. They were so tiny.. and the one tree that had survived the attack and then later survived a hurricane so that it could be replanted and memorialized.. it was tethered with wires, kids were trying to touch it and people were posing in front of it smiling. Jaded.
Spiegelman's story seems just as jaded in his paranoid, neurotic, disillusioned, horrorific take on the attacks. He constantly refers to his pivotal image.. "The image of the looming north tower's glowing bones just before it vaporized" It is present in each piece and it's beautiful.
He talks about visiting small town America a month after the attack--"Still the small town I visited in Indiana--draped in flags that reminded me of the garlic one might put on a door to ward off vampires--was at least as worked up over a frat house's zoning violations as with threats from the 'raghead terrorists.' It was as if I'd wandered into an inverted version of Saul Steinberg's famous map of America seen from Ninth Avenue, where the know world ends at the Hudson; in Indiana everything east of the Alleghenies was very, very far away."
His references to early twentieth century comics is astute, in a conspiratoral sort of way.. how there are allusions to falling towers...Sometimes I had to put aside my cynicism and see this for what it was.. a scared, but prolific writer, trying to figure out what all of this means and how to survive it.
"Still time keeps flying and even the New Normal gets old. My strips are now a slow-motion diary of what I experienced while seeking some provisional equanimity--though three years later I'm still ready to lose it all at the mere drop of a hat or a dirty bomb. I still believe the world is ending, but I concede that it seems to be ending more slowly than I once thought... so I figured I'd make a book."
Gray skies are gonna clear up, Put on a happy face
As a self-proclaimed Pollyanna, I will be the first to admit that I would want to punch you in the f Gray skies are gonna clear up, Put on a happy face
As a self-proclaimed Pollyanna, I will be the first to admit that I would want to punch you in the face if you said this to me. What the hell is wrong with a little rain? Huh? You can't be happy if it rains? Fuck you.
You can have your gangnum style and complain about never ever ever ever getting back together again and umm... okay, that's my extent of youth culture... you guys like furbies again, right?
Happy face is old school teen angst. There are no vampires or faeries or dystopian threats... hell... HIGH SCHOOL is a dystopian threat. It is the absolute clear definition of dystopia: "an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives." Can't get much realer than this.
Brush off the clouds and cheer up, Put on a happy face.
Seriously. Fuck you.
Happy face is special in that it gives you the out. It tells you how to beat this. It's all right there in front of you. Believe it or not, the song has it right....
Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy, It's not your style; You'll look so good that you'll be glad Ya' decide to smile!
....
See? I just told you. DO NOT BE YOURSELF. You will be ridiculed, you will get beat up, you will be lonely and want to die.
You see, I was this thing. I was a miserable a-loaded-gun-won't-set-you-free-so-you-say sixteen year old who wore my Undead t-shirt proudly and played my 1987 UK second issue 3-track 12" vinyl single, also including How Soon Is Now? & Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, Billie Whitelaw image picture sleeve with light blue die cut and I was totally into IT. Where did it get me? Being spit on at Pep Rallys, my friend... do not follow my example.
So, I decided to stick out my noble chin... I decided to wipe off that 'full of doubt' look. I decided to... no offense to the hair colored challenged... go blonde. Literally. I got rid of the Siouxsie Sioux hair color and cut my bangs and found the bleach beat my hair into submission. I even went further.. I found saddle shoes and letterman sweaters and poodle skirts and listened to rockabilly and man DID I EVER SMILE. I slapped on that happy grin! And spread sunshine all over the place, goddammit. And guess what?
People actually bought it. They totally liked the new me. It depressed the hell out of me. Didn't they understand the mockery?
And then... I bought into it. I said, hell... if this is what it takes, then this is what I will be. And I bounced and I giggled and I hello kittied my way through my senior year.
So, I can relate with Happy Face. He gets it. If you are pathetic in your old life, then create a new one. Yes, eventually this will lead to some sort of dissociative identity disorder and you may need sleep hygiene therapy, but maybe by then you will be out of high school and finding a new "society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding."
We can only hope.
And if you're feeling cross and bitterish Don't sit and whine Think of banana split and licorice And you'll feel fine
Ohkaaaaaaayyyyy... Now I get it. Carrie D'Amour, if you're out there, I apologize for mocking your Sandman fascination back in 1989. And for that hairOhkaaaaaaayyyyy... Now I get it. Carrie D'Amour, if you're out there, I apologize for mocking your Sandman fascination back in 1989. And for that haircut....more
I have a confession. I… um… don’t know how to read comic books. There. I said it. Let the heckling begin. In my defense, I am a girl. Ok, no. I mean, I have a confession. I… um… don’t know how to read comic books. There. I said it. Let the heckling begin. In my defense, I am a girl. Ok, no. I mean, it’s not like the mid 1970s really gave us any good comics. Uhh… Okay, I don’t know. I have no excuse. It’s never been my thing. I remember trying to read some Archie ones and some Wendy Witch ones.. meh. Plus, I um... always screwed up the reading order.
So, last night I sat down across from my sixteen year old. She had the manners to at least glance up at me during My Little Pony (the NEW version… I must specify that) and give me a look like ‘Wait.’ I did---until a commercial, when she proceeded to dramatically roll her head in my direction.
“What?” “Um.. I need your help.” “I’m not doing the dishes. It’s Marley’s turn.” “No, not that. I um… got this from the library…” “Sandman. Cool. Nice graphics.” “Yeah, yeah… cool. Um… how do I read it?” “What?” “I mean… what’s the order? Do I read the balloons that are above the other balloons? Do I read down or across? Why are some fonts different?” “Seriously?” “Um… Yes.”
After much laughing and calling in ALL the other children, she showed me the correct way to read a comic book. Sorry, graphic novel. I still screwed it up. I jumped all over the place and then had to go back and re-read the pages. I probably didn’t pay enough attention to the pictures because I’m not used to doing that while I read. I didn’t understand who some of the characters were. Especially when they brought in the Justice League peeps. I think I missed some of the nuances. I didn’t understand why Dr. Dee had to (view spoiler)[kill that really nice woman who gave him the coat. (hide spoiler)] I mean…c’mon… you were like gross looking and she helped you out.
The scenes in Hell were interesting, even if I didn’t get the whole battle. It reminded me of a Wonder Twins cartoon where Zan and Jayna are constantly changing forms. Lucifer was kind of hot if you like that fallen angel look. He reminded me of a young Leif Garrett...
The scenes in Arkum were confusing. I am not familiar with those characters outside of the Batman movies. Like the professor who was tricking people into thinking he was a hanging corpse? What was that all about?
I did enjoy the last part of the story where Morpheus meets up with his sister and they’re hanging out in Washington Square Park. I’ve heard that there are other stories where his family play into the plot more. I’m looking forward to those. That whole Robert Smith/Siouxsie look is fun to revisit and I can't wait to meet Delirium.
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