So I had occasion this week to re-read Jules Feiffer's superb 1965 The Great Comic Book Heroes, still one of the best books ever written about pop culture and one that had a huge impact on me when it first came out. Feiffer concludes it with the following paragraph; he's talking specifically about comics, but in retrospect, I now I think the point he's really making is somewhat broader.
Comic books, which had few public (as opposed to professional) defenders in the days when Dr. Wertham was attacking them, are now looked back on by an increasing number of my generation as samples of our youthful innocence instead of our youthful corruption. A sign, perhaps, of the potency of that corruption. A corruption -- a lie, really -- that put us in charge, however, temporarily, of the world in which we lived and gave us the means, however arbitrary, of defining right from wrong, good from bad, hero from villain. It is something for which old fans can understandably pine -- almost as if having become overly conscious of the imposition of junk on our adult values: on our architecture, our highways, our advertising, our mass media, our politics -- and even in the air we breathe, flying black chunks of it -- we have staged a retreat to a better remembered brand of junk. A junk that knew its place was underground where it had no power and thus only titillated, rather than above ground where it truly has power -- and thus, only depresses.
As I said, Feiffer was talking specifically about comics, but he might just as well have been talking about...oh my gosh -- rock and related pop musics, no?
And if so, the question arises -- is what Feiffer's getting at just a philistine old man's prejudice or an actually valid point?
Discuss.
I go back and forth on this, BTW. 😎
Meanwhile, have a great weekend, everybody!!!
BTW, In the lead up to that Feiffer graph I quoted, he starts by saying comic books are junk. "But of course. Why else read them?"
ReplyDelete😎
Steve:
ReplyDeleteAny chance you could explain what you're asking for in a way that I could understand? I'm not being a wiseass (for once) but I'm not clear exactly what you're asking us to discuss.
Captain Al
Are rock and pop music junk? If not, why are they different from comic books or any other aspect of pop culture in that regard?
DeleteAsking for a friend. 😎
After I retired, I went on a bit of a spree, buying some old books I always wanted, including some childhood favorites. One of the first was The Great Comic Book Heroes. I still remember discovering this book in my local public library branch when I was a kid. I don't know how many times I took it out but I finally own a copy of my very own!
ReplyDeleteIt got reissued sometime in the last couple of years as a paperback. Didn't have the gorgeous color reproductions of the classic comic books that were in the original, alas.
DeleteThat's why I bought an original hardcover.
DeleteRock and pop are not junk. “Who’s Next” is just as valid an artistic expression as, say, the “Eroica”. Great music is just as lasting when it’s played by guitar, bass, and drums as when it’s played by a symphony orchestra.
ReplyDeleteSo comic books are? How about comic book movies?
DeleteI have no opinion on comic books; they never appealed to me, but in no way, shape, or form did I say or imply they were junk.
DeleteComic book movies can DIAF as far as I’m concerned, though ;-)
we humans have both minds and hands, hearts and souls - its not just what you do, but how you do it and your intention while you do it - and not just the creator of the art, but the beholder of the art, participates in it
ReplyDeleteto summarize - with regard to my view, is feiffer right or wrong here?
it depends on the circumstances
I think that's where I come down as well. 😎
Deletei.e., "I may not be able to define junk, but I know it when I see it"?
DeleteComics aren't junk, though some may be (I don't read comics so much). Pop/rock isn't junk, though some sure is. This discussion was had when Worhol's soup cans paintings were made. Some people still think that's junk. Jackson Pollack, too. Art and junk are sometimes opinions, and other times almost everyone agrees, at least for a while.
ReplyDeleteWow - where to begin? I was born in the very late 50's and first began to really engage with pop culture (comics, TV shows and of course rock/pop music) in the mid 60's. In my highly biased view of things, I sincerely believe it was on of the greatest times to be a kid. On more than one occasion it has subsequently occurred to me that while there was a lot of serious, significant events going on at the time in the adult world (multiple assassinations, war, protests, riots, etc.), my world at the time was defined in large part by the pop culture of the era. So, were comics junk? For me, definitely not; Batman, Superman and the rest of the DC Comics world helped further define for me the difference between right and wrong (my major influence being of course my parents). They were fun, escapist adventures for my buddies and me to be in on with the super heroes they portrayed....and all these years later, I still get a kick out of reading them. Regarding pop/rock music of the era, the songs truly were the soundtrack of my life. There was and always will be magic in those songs and records. Again, far from junk in my mind. To sum up quoting Mr. Dylan: "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command".
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