tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post6669282059883987217..comments2024-03-22T17:14:36.551-04:00Comments on Wasteland And Sky: Cult Above the RestJD Cowanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-85005208885879959342022-09-30T12:47:15.137-04:002022-09-30T12:47:15.137-04:00I haaaaaate this people.I haaaaaate this people.Heorothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11232241502230784674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-34245212508997054022022-09-25T01:08:01.103-04:002022-09-25T01:08:01.103-04:00It's interesting how different people talking ...It's interesting how different people talking about the same subject can use the same terms in completely contradictory terms. Most people covering the pop culture ideology wars (especially on YouTube) mostly use the terms "fans" and "fandom" to refer to people who respect the original source material and oppose it getting corrupted (such as Star Wars aficianados who reject the sequel trilogy or readers of Tolkien and watchers of the Peter Jackson movies who reject Amazon's "The Rings of Power"), and refer to the "consume product and get excited for more product" crowd who will gladly accept any junk as long as it has the right brand name on it as "normies". This is probably largely because the term "fan" became divorced from its original association with the word "fanatic" generations ago and has instead become a synonym for "aficianado", "enthusiast", or "appreciator". I doubt it's possible to put that etymological genie back in the bottle for most people.<br /><br />Regarding Star Wars and religion, George Lucas said something interesting in a 1999 interview with Bill Moyers:<br /><br />"BILL MOYERS: The central epic of our culture has been the Bible. And it’s about fall, wondering, redemption, return. But the Bible no longer occupies that central place in our culture today. More and more people today, young people, in particular, are turning to the movies for their inspiration, not to organized religion.<br /><br />GEORGE LUCAS: Well, I hope that doesn’t end up being the course that this whole thing takes because I think there’s definitely a place for organized religion and it’s a very important part of the social fabric. And I would hate to find ourselves in a completely secular world, where, you know, entertainment was passing for some kind of religious experience."<br /><br />"There is also the most popular dying comic book company and their unending stream of formulaic movies. They've been pumping out the same gruel for nearly 15 years at this point with no end in sight."<br /><br />It wasn't gruel 15 years ago, though. Many of the Marvel movies of phases 1 and 2 were good, largely because they stuck fairly close to the Golden Age and Silver Age comics, which were themselves similar in spirit to the pulp adventure classics of the 1930s. "Captain America: The First Avenger" isn't all that different in sensibility or storytelling quality from the average Doc Savage novel, for instance. They started turning into gruel once Ike Perlmutter got ousted in 2015 and the ideologue Kevin Feige got to do whatever he wanted (which in this case was to push agenda over storytelling and to skip decades worth of good stories from the comics to focus on recent ideology-filled ones).hbenthowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13797195539880473914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-17809885764611341232022-09-23T20:20:04.931-04:002022-09-23T20:20:04.931-04:00Thanks for reading!Thanks for reading!JD Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-45362979189264643902022-09-23T19:34:09.960-04:002022-09-23T19:34:09.960-04:00Thanks for this article, JD. Thought-provoking as ...Thanks for this article, JD. Thought-provoking as always, and I'm already poking through it to find good quotes to share with my writing group. :-)Kessiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15019626781634777336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-33988671360793836732022-09-23T15:48:31.370-04:002022-09-23T15:48:31.370-04:00This is why going back to a specific year and pret...This is why going back to a specific year and pretending this didn't happen will solve nothing. It will only lead back towards the same situation again. We have to think bigger.JD Cowanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03548340507655076198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4520528486728008071.post-24422085495985701072022-09-22T20:59:05.481-04:002022-09-22T20:59:05.481-04:00Considering the Cult's accomplishments, one is...Considering the Cult's accomplishments, one is almost tempted to praise them. Yes, they're evil, and their motives are insane. But they have a vision, and they worked tirelessly to realize it. In a material sense, they deserve their gains by right of conquest.<br /><br />The group I find myself having less and less patience for are self-described enemies of the Cult who can't be bothered to actually fight it. The free market wonk who dismisses the arts and remains convinced that setting the right tax rate will fix everything. The one-man Magisterium who spends all day pointing out specks in the few successful dissidents' eyes while Cultists stumble around in pinewood spectacles. The mainstream Conservative™ creator who chuckles "I got mine" before flinching as his fanatic publisher cracks the whip.<br /><br />If anything tarnishes the Cult's victory, it's that their nominal opponents have a fetish for losing.SChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07581652190466314341noreply@blogger.com