Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 281
Happy Election!
SOUNDS LIKE I’M JOKING BUT I’M NOT
I got the whole of my politics from a Zounds album insert I found in my teens.
For those of you who don’t speak Crass font, the quote is:
“Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant, and I declare him my enemy" - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Best of luck this week to all who involve themselves in representative democracy. If I can run afoul of anarchism for a moment and recognize the notion of nation, I’ll remind you, your countryman is not your enemy.
WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT
At a show this week I had a very hostile, perhaps very drunk, perhaps very unwell, asshole making demands of me. This person screamed at me from the second song until 2/3 of the way through the set when I asked what the problem was. This person gave me the finger while having what appeared to be a mental break of some sort.
What did they want?
“How dare you come to my town and not talk about Palestine? My scene? Fuck you! Fuck you! How are you not talking about Palestine?! In my scene! Talk about Palestine!”
Seemed they wanted me to talk about Palestine.
It was nothing like this, but it was funny this hit my Recommends a couple days later:
Back to my situation, let’s put the absurdity of demanding a stranger say a thing aside. Let’s also ignore this person’s assertion they own the city and scene. Why did this individual assume I know enough to talk about anything? And what if I did know a lot on this subject? Do they want me to discuss the 20-year occupation of Gaza we’re likely to see as the next step here? Do they wanna have a conversation about how they intend to sustain this level of energy for decades? Because I don’t remember anyone being all that exercised about Afghanistan by the time we exited, despite leaving 150,000 bodies behind us. Do they want me to talk about being a critic of Israel when such a thing had professional repercussions?
The answer is of course they don’t want that. They want me to yell a slogan, to reiterate solidarity among people who have no stake.
Here’s what I say to that:
Don’t assume that because someone poorly sings they know shit about shit. They very likely don’t even understand themselves, never mind decades-old conflicts 6k miles away. I wouldn’t want the musicians I know to join me in anything, because I know they are stunted people who are good at one thing. And that qualifies them to talk about, exactly, one thing.
BLIND, BUT ONLY TO GOOD THINGS
A writer friend and I were reflecting on one of our contemporaries. That person was doing a whole meltdown thing on social media, so this friend and I were walking through options for this individual. Other writers’ career paths will always be clearer than your own, after all.
After some deliberation, we couldn’t find a next step. Because this writer, so far as we can tell, has a vision impairment of some kind. Any criticism we might have of their writing was exasperated by the fact they’ve never once, in an entire career, worked with a good artist.
What can be done for such a writer? If you were merely bad at your job, you could find projects that obscure it. But you’re also blind to good art. That’s hopeless.
And it got me thinking (I’m in a van for 6hrs a day) about the death grip some of the current writers have on a specific aesthetic. I mean, we all have our tastes. But some writers seem married to Approved Vibes. That is to say, the dominant aesthetic of whatever the era/community/milieu they grew up in. The old guys are hanging onto a dated look, sure. But the young writers are just as bad. They are always pairing with, for lack of a better phrasing, under-skilled YA hacks.
Some say the look in question was born from a generation of (prospective) comic readers growing up on Tumblr. I couldn’t say for certain, though it does seem editors briefly were tapping the overflow of those OC commission taking, never read a comic book but love anime, can’t draw a background to save their lives, breed of internet artists. Which led to horrendous comic books. Pinup artists can’t draw sequential art to save their lives. And if you need proof, look at the guys who transition from interior to fulltime cover art. The first skill always atrophies.
So, ok, an era. We have a lotta them. Most misguided. But it’s over. So what’s with the writers who still seek out that energy? I guess we could say they are the new ‘old heads.’ The crowd that thirsts for Jim Lee clones is now being supplanted by a new generation of writers that craves a corporate instructional aesthetic drawn by journeymen artists who never rise higher than the writer.
Something I never thought I’d say: Bring back the Lee clones.
I suspect some of this isn’t born from a real love of the YA look, but a type of confused effort at branding. If it’s the type of book you’re known for, of course you’ve gotta keep it up (lest your dumbest reader finds you challenging). And maybe it’s for the best. Because on the occasions these writers are paired with proper comic book artists, the result is a clash of tone so severe it breaks the page. Or the two parties meet in the middle to form brackish water.
I don’t typically spend any time thinking about how history will judge us. The answer is always “with prejudice.” But I do sometimes wonder how comic historians will contextualize the era. “Between social pressure and poverty, we got dog shit.”
FLASHPOINT: ELVES AND SHIT
My Youtube Recommends is dominated at the moment by the topic of Dragon’s Age: The Veilguard. It’s a new AAA video game that is way too long for me to play. But, like most games of that sort, it’s found itself trudging through some culture war morass.
Like most sane people, I try not to engage with this stuff. There’s no way to win. Anything you say doesn’t really matter, and people will just use it against you later.
But, I can’t help my brain from being curious about the details. And this one goes some interesting places. There’s whole kettles of fish I won’t get into, like the change in tone from previous Dragon Age games to this one. Or the fan response which might be review bombing or might be legitimate reviews how do we even tell anymore etc etc. Rather, what I wanna talk about is how current concepts are inserted into medieval settings and how that can or can’t work.
I don’t wanna be pedantic about any of this. People arguing about the timeline of crossbow technology can exit now. There’s a specific thing that I’m discussing, which is the boundaries of immersion.
In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one of your party is non-binary. And it’s addressed multiple times. One clip of the party interacting is going viral for how painfully didactic the writing attempts to be. You can like it or hate it, but there is no doubt it’s a writing team’s effort to ‘teach’ you something.
And there’s another clip doing the rounds that is very clearly supposed strike an emotional chord of some type. A mother struggles to understand when ger child comes out as non-binary. That one, at least in isolation, is a more successful piece of writing.
Please excuse my nitpicking rigor here, but non-binary as it applies to gender is new. Not the concept, which has manifested in culture-specific ways throughout history. But the word as it applies to gender. That’s really, really new. Does it not risk dragging players from the experience in the same way a character using a vape might?
‘Trans’ would be another interesting case because there has always been trans individuals, but ‘trans’ as a political concept is relatively new. Could you write a trans character in a medieval setting? Of course. But using our 2024 idea of ‘transness’ would likely break immersion.
Whenever someone asks these questions, there’s an impulse on the part of some to deflect with “it’s a world with elves and magic, ok? Now you wanna get historically accurate? Why?” Essentially saying you must harbor a prejudice. See also: “you don’t have a problem with the use of the word ‘ok’ which wasn’t a thing until the 19th century!” Again, these are deflections. There’s a threshold. A carrying capacity for things that don’t ring true in a setting or time. And once you reach it, all you get is side-eye.
Which isn’t to say this is a topic that can’t be addressed in genre fiction. Because it certainly can. Either through dreaded metaphor or directly. But there’s a certain no-win here. If you use ‘non-binary’ you remind people “this is a work of fiction made by a committee of writers with their attendant 2024 worldview on display.” But if you create an in-world fantasy word for the same concept, you risk being accused of cowardice. “Why couldn’t you just call it what it is?”
From a craft perspective, this stuff is fascinating because decisions have to be made. Many of the comments I’m seeing express that this reflects long development periods where sentiments en vogue at the outset of a project are dated by the time it goes to market. I dunno. As the internet picks through the lives of the developers (yes, the gaming space gets this ugly in 2024), it seems that this is likely what the writers woulda delivered five years ago or right now. Was it a good decision? Well, there’s the money thing. Did this cause more sales or less sales? Can’t quantify it. So is it successful as a piece of art?
I will likely never know. These damn games are too long.
LOCAL NEWS AGAIN
Sad story, clearly. But I enjoyed the interview with the neighbor. This is the sorta stuff national news and even the internet can never provide.
ALLEGORY, METAPHOR, AND OTHER NERD ASS THINGS
This is a crossover with the Media Consumption portion of this newsletter. I spent my time in the van watching vampire movies this week. And, man, for someone with my sensibilities, it was like being locked in a lit class with particularly dumb children.
The idea that every piece of fiction must be an allegory is ass. It’s mental clutter sold to you by academics who have created nothing of value. There’s a phrase format many of you will be familiar with. “X is Y’s idea of Z.”
“Joe Rogan is a dumb person’s idea of a smart person.”
“Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich person.”
“Trudeau is a Conservative’s idea of a progressive.”
Etc. Etc.
It’s a dismissal, meant to handwave away both the subject and the object in the sentence. It’s pretty obnoxious when deployed as a meme, because what right does a memer have to dismiss anyone. But has a certain brevity you’ve gotta appreciate.
So, allow me: Allegory is an incurious person’s idea of an answer.
In comics there’s a couple cheap pops you can get as a writer. You buy your way into the Nice Guy Club by sucking up to editors while Tweeting inoffensive platitudes. You buy your way into the Right Side of History Club by telegraphing a child’s idea of politics online, typically through slogans. And you buy your way into the Smart Guy Club by writing the most braindead and obvious allegorical stories possible. Something something capitalism, typically.
Allegory is frustrating for people who believe in the primacy of character. Because in the allegory, all story elements are subservient to the theme. Characters are not allowed to interact naturally, because it may not serve the ‘idea’ of the story. It is always a story on rails, rather than a view into a writer’s mind.
Vampire stories are particularly taxing in this way. Your lit teacher from high school who never quite got around to writing the great American novel would like you to know: Dracula is about class struggle.
A friend recently said, “Clive Barker has no meaning post-AIDS crisis.” Which is to say, his metaphors are so on-the-nose and of-a-time that you can no longer feel them. We’re no longer in that time. You can only research them. Maybe that’s true. But I think Nightbreed -which I’m classifying as a vampire movie because it is- demonstrates the larger problem is how shit a director he was.
This is a B movie. Seen through that lens, it’s a fun piece of shit. Are the best B movies made by self-aware directors or frustrated artists? Your milage may vary, but what remains is a wholly ugly movie. The fun matte painting backgrounds aside, this looks like a soap opera.
Persistent note for vampire films: why are normal people so desperate to join the vampire lifestyle if that lifestyle is objectively nightmarish? In this story everyone in the underground city of Median is on a spectrum from sex-offender to mindless monster. Everyone is deeply unpleasant, even as monsters go. Why join that?
Moving on, Near Dark is the ‘junkie couple living in drug motels’ vampire metaphor. Ever fall in love with someone you shouldn’t have? Been drawn into something that seemed exciting but soon realize you’re in over your head? And then, uh oh, too late? Well, we got a vampire movie for you.
Coming off Nightbreed’s sitcom lighting and paper mache sets, Near Dark was a revelation. It’s a really beautiful-looking film. The cinematographer, Adam Greenberg, has a journeyman’s resume [see next entry], but he really hit something lasting in this one. Kathryn Bigelow does a lot with two leads I did not have much faith in, but it’s the supporting cast that make the film. This one is called a neo-western, but that’s dumb. It’s a crime story about drug addicts. It’s well done and formulaic in the best possible way. My favorite of the heavy-handed allegorical vampire movies this week.
Next up, a real forgettable pile of vampire sex comedy. And this one I can’t exactly accuse of allegory, because it constantly states the idea as a blunt in-story motivation. An old vampire seeks to be young again by drinking the blood of a virgin. Age is the thing here.
This movie is breezy in a derogatory way. It’s not funny, but it sorta just moves from smirk to smirk in an inoffensive fashion. Karen Kopins is the spirit of the 80s here. Fun fact: she was in a half-dozen movies, a number of guest spots on television shows, and then retired to Connecticut with her high school sweetheart. They live in a big house, which I know because it has its own wikipedia entry by virtue of being on the National Register of Places registry.
Next up is a brilliant director someone shoulda told to relax. Tony Scott made great-looking films, but sometimes you need a escorts-and-cocaine-addicted producer like Don Simpson to give shape to these things.
The Hunger is a series of well-filmed scenes that mean nothing. This one is about a fear of aging and distracting oneself from realities like death. And do you know why I feel confident saying “x is about y?” Because it wears it like a parka. Tiresome.
Next we’ve got a time capsule rather than a film. The Addiction is very 1995, very Manhattan, and very stupid.
There’s a difference between an allegory and a metaphor, and it’s all down to what fits under the umbrella. This story is not complex enough to be an allegory, just in case calling the movie The Addiction didn’t make that clear enough. Lili Taylor becomes a vampire [addict] and brings other people into her vampire [addict] orbit while pushing out anyone who tries to help her address her vampirism [addiction].
I should mention that the whole film she’s monologuing about the meaninglessness of morality. Which makes the resolution sorta fulfilling, even if it’s so abrupt a sneeze may cause you to miss it. Not that the end is good, but it at least says something unexpected from such a nihilistic ride. Abel Ferrara shoulda had a crack at a Daredevil film, because he demonstrates a real understanding of Miller’s Hell’s Kitchen style Catholicism here.
I did find Ferrara’s real-life heroin addiction an asset. Because for all the pretentious bullshit of the film, it occasionally hits a line that feels very informed. “Why didn’t you just tell me to leave you alone? Like you meant it” sounds like a man really truly wrestling with the reasons for his struggles. A painful movie in most respects, but worth watching as a relic of a time and place that can’t exist again.
Remember when I asked “why in these films does everyone wanna be a vampire when being a vampire looks like such shit?” I guess that’s the addiction metaphor in a nutshell. It’s just interesting that nobody ever attempts to answer the question in earnest. The allegory stops where self-reflection begins. Because, of course it does. When your story is about ‘thing’ rather than the people you populated the story with, you’ll run into brick walls over and over.
Finally, I wanted to cleanse my palate with some real 2020s Hollywood horror trash. Something I was sure would have no artistic ambition.
And I mostly got that in Abigail. Now don’t misunderstand me when I say this thing had no higher goals. That’s a good thing in this case. Not trying to buy its way into the Smart Guy Club of films. Just the Sharp Craftsman Club. The jokes are less painful than the ‘Marvel Movie Thing’ but still a bit too glib for the subject. I guess all movies are in this moment. The ‘dumb character for laughs’ thing is taken to an extreme here. Three of six characters is too many ‘laughs.’
And while we’re in the vampire spirit, let’s end on a high note. Here’s the best to ever ride that gimmick.
IT’S TIME FOR BED
Thanks for reading. I hope you have a productive week. I hope I do too. Remember, your countryman is not your enemy. Do for self.
No mention of the beetlejuice outfits on halloween?