Last one, I've been working on a paper for my History and Theory of Rhetoric class about Stan Lee and ethical issues that a comic book writer faces in his particular form of rhetoric. I consider a lot of comic books to fall into that Sci Fi category so I think that it fits here as well. Stan Lee worked for about twenty years writing junk at the then Timely Comics. His publisher just wanted him to write stuff that was popular, for example, if war stories were big he wrote about war, if detectives were in he would put out a detective series. Stan writes in his autobiography, "Martin(the publisher) never wavered from his insistence that the strips be done the way they had always been done, with very young children in mind. He wanted the most basic plots, utilizing a vocabulary that could be understood by a child of six or seven. No words of more than two syllables if possible, no attempts at irony or satire or philosophizing. I often felt we were writing stories just one level above 'See Dick and Jane. See Dick run.'" Stan changed this in the sixties with his creation of dynamic characters, starting with the Fantastic Four, that faced real problems and made the characters interesting. He created many of the most popular heroes in comicdom: X-men, Spider-man, the Hulk, Iron-man, Thor, Dare Devil, the list goes on and on. Stan writes that it was his personal pledge not to write about politics or religion, but to write about characters and how they deal with life and the troubles they face. Stan wrote that he only had one lesson in his books, "Be good to each other." To me this seems to be a good policy with a worthy goal. These books get into the hands of a multitude of people with different backgrounds, religions, and politics and to attack one or say that one was better than the rest seems wrong, not to mention pointless, but to encourage people to be good to one another seems to be a good goal and one that could have a major impact on a reader, I know that my love of superheroes has made me into the man that I am today. What do you think? Should authors focus on these simple ideas of being good to each other, or do they have a greater responsibility to spread a different message?
Labels: the ethics of comic books
posted by Jor-El at 7:38 PM
3 Comments:
I am an "author" by no means, but I would like to respond from my point of view, what I like to write about and how I like to present ideas. I think it's good for authors to try to stay simple. Some of the best metaphors are simple ones! A simple tale can expand into great meaning! That is my favorite kind of writing. Simple, but resounding. To think about an author who is Christian and who wants to spread Jesus throughout her writing (wihtout purposely talking about Jesus) the concept of "being good to each other" would connect (Jesus calling his followers to love one another, love their enemies...). I do not like to think, however, that the ONLY thing an author should write is this theme. (Though I suppose you could argue that a lot of stories could, essentially, be broken down into this theme?) I think that would be too limiting, to purposely ONLY focus on "being good to each other." It'd be like telling an artist to only paint flowers. There needs to be more. Perhaps parallel it with an artist using the elements of design throughout her work. Using the concept of "being good to each other" throughout, but not making it THE story all the time. However, even that could be argued :p, cuz in art, certain periods of work (Picasso's blue period) alright, it wasn't bad he was focusing on one thing, it was the fact that it was a period. He painted other creations that weren't blue. He was in a kick, did it, and grew. I hope this is making sense! In my sculpture class right now we are reading a book called _Art and Fear_ and the main gist of it is to make the art you are supposed to make. Alright, yeah, that may sound like a "duh, of course" but what it means is not to force your art to fit your audience or fit what you think you are supposed to make. You're suppoed to make art that you can't get out of your head. I think the same can go for writers (artists with words). Authors should write what they can't get out of their heads, they should write what matters to them. That is the important message they have to share. Anything that is not of them will never hold. The readers will know.
The concept of "being good to each other" is a very simple and that is perhaps one of its greatest strenghts. People often add so much extra stuff to "being good to each other" for instance adding different perspectives on morality, cultural differences, and the largest being the almighty rule maker: Religion. In an effort to follow all of the idioms and rules of what it means to "be good to each other" through religion, culture, etc; one can often lose sight of how simple "being good" can be.
So the point of this ramble is that sometimes simple and fun things like comics can be more valuable than people realize. I love complex, rich, and dramatic stories, but sometimes a simple story can tell it best.
By writing about simple moral issues the author is making there peice last longer through time. I say sure. Write about simply moral issues like be nice to your neighbor, but more complex issues will inevitably arise whether or not the author meant to write about them.
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