tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post4665553412068603855..comments2023-10-05T07:46:44.392-04:00Comments on And Now the Screaming Starts: Comics: Gossip gore gore girls.CRwMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-48862482402509691952008-09-11T11:14:00.000-04:002008-09-11T11:14:00.000-04:00No, interesting answer :-)And I fear you are right...No, interesting answer :-)<BR/><BR/>And I fear you are right. Of course it saddens me sometimes that the new generation can´t appreciate the books or movies I grew up with or read as a young man. It is hard to imagine that that todays ADS challenged kids could like a novel like Stoker´s Dracula or a movie like The Haunting - the original, not the dire remake -, because they are not fast reads or easy watching.<BR/><BR/>But everything evolves, for every Alien you get hundreds of imitations, and if some concepts don´t work any longer in their old context, that is the way it is. <BR/><BR/>I re-watched Targets with Karloff the other day, hadn´t seen it for some years. Still liked it much, great movie, but my appreciation came largely from being able to "get" the context. But I could really understand if a 30 year younger viewer disqualify this movie as boring and the ending lame. From his point of view he may be right.AndyDeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12806906746754478064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-83488981624628258002008-09-10T13:57:00.000-04:002008-09-10T13:57:00.000-04:00Andy,In something like Deah High Yearbook, one cou...Andy,<BR/><BR/>In something like <I>Deah High Yearbook</I>, one could argue that the writers are smart to use such short cuts, as they're working with only eight comic book pages and they can use all the borrowed context they can't give space to. But it is something one sees everywhere these days.<BR/><BR/>I think there are several factors for it.<BR/><BR/>1. Kids don't care about suspending disbelief. They're willing to enter into the "reader's contract" with the artist without demanding the artist spend time making the impossible seem possible. In fact, such effort seems like wasted time to younger horror viewers. There's little that makes sense about vampires, ghosts, or whatever - why waste valuable entertainment time trying to prop up these inherent paradoxes with shoddy, always-unsatisfactory excuses? Just get to the good stuff.<BR/><BR/>2. Euro-influenced art-horror made being nonsensical seem deep. This isn't my complaint; I steal the idea from Pauline Kael who pointed out that people have simply become more accepting of incomprehensibility, seeing it as a marker of intellectual complexity. Creators influenced by such artists have learned the unfortunate lesson that style triumphs substance. Working in a rational, naturalistic style or with elements that demand, and then get, an explanation is considered a sign that you're a uncreative, dull hack with nothing to say.<BR/><BR/>3. I think supernatural horror has the tendency to encourage sloppy work in lesser artists. Because the rules governing the non-naturalistic world can be whatever the artist need them to be, the great temptation is that you'll bend them whenever you've painted yourself into a corner. Eventually, the much vaunted "uncanny" becomes just a trite form of deus ex machina. It takes real discipline, or a camp sensibility that just doesn't care about stuff like narrative logic, to work it right. (This happens with non-supernatural horror as well, but the temptation seems almost built into supernatural frighteners.)<BR/><BR/>Executive summary: the kids don't care, the adults taught them not to care, and the field is booby-trapped to begin with.<BR/><BR/>Sheesh. What a long and ranting answer. Sorry about that.CRwMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07896615209770501945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34993991.post-59687778324516358112008-09-10T12:58:00.000-04:002008-09-10T12:58:00.000-04:00There's also a tendency to simply slam elements of...There's also a tendency to simply slam elements of story together on the basis of reader-acknowledged references and not internal story logic"<BR/><BR/>This is a thing I also noticed of lately - how a lot of writers seem to work with the assumption, that you don´t have to explain supernatural things or concepts because todays audiences are expected to know them beforehand. Cue in postmodern joke and don´t waste any time on elaborate set-ups. The Buffy-Syndrom. "So you are Count Dracula? Thought you were bigger."<BR/><BR/>I wonder if this attitude is a bigger problem for the genre than all remakes and rating problems and the disneyfication of horror as a juvenile market category together.<BR/><BR/>Or, if we as an jaded and experienced audience, are any longer capable for the patience and the suspense of disbelief the genre needs.AndyDeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12806906746754478064noreply@blogger.com