It was illuminating reading how science fiction author John Scalzi talks about the classics with zero reverence this morning. It shows how the current crop at traditional publishing doesn’t love the genre and therefore could never do the genre well.
They always are attempting to “deconstruct” the stories, characters, art, in an attempt to show something ugly, vile, worthless and hold it up with a smirk as if those stories somehow hold the same value as great classics which upheld beauty, truth, heroism.
We face the same thing in comics. Reading an essay by Steve Ditko this morning, he brought up a quote from Joe Quesada, one of the higher ups at Marvel Comics, in his disdain for the heroic, beautiful and true, which rang very similar to Mr. Scalzi’s comments this morning.
He called the classics “toys that are meant to be broken”, much like Mr. Scalzi, denigrating the classics by calling them toys in the first place, which sets them at a point where they’re just something silly and not worthwhile even before the attempts to break them. But going further into this analogy, the current crop of Marvel writers are but toddlers throwing a fit and smashing the toys across the room.
This is the problem with any sort of mainstream entertainment. It doesn’t serve the reader when what they love is smashed. If someone orders a vase to hold flowers, and they get delivered a bunch of shards of broken glass and told it’s “basically the same thing”, they’re going to be rightfully upset, because it’s not the same thing by any means. One has form and function. One does not.
Of course, on the independent side, we are trying to bring back form, function, beauty, truth, heroism and show a way forward to where we won’t lose our culture to these self-appointed gatekeepers. There’s a long way to go, but their own words on their chosen industries and genres are very telling as to why they can’t tell a good story to save their lives.
Vox said almost the same thing this morning.
Hah.
It isn’t even the idea of receiving the broken vase.
No, if I received a broken vase, and was told it was the same, I would return it, and get my money back. And we’d go our separate ways.
Instead, they send the broken vase, and claim, “no, no… THIS is an improvement! THIS is BETTER. More ARTISTIC. If you don’t see that? You MUST be an idiot.”
And when I look for a shop that sells vases, all I can find are shards of glass, with fools bowing before them, and worshipping the “New Beautiful.”
It’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” writ large.
Do you not SEE the magnificence? Of ‘Modern Art’? Of the anti-hero? Of the deconstructed morality?
You DON’T?
You ignorant peasant. We will not be associating with YOUR sort.
Bah. Humbug.
Perfect analogy John.
It’s obscene and it actually does real toddlers a disservice by comparing these clowns to them. Real toddlers have more of an instinctive grasp of truth, beauty, and goodness than wretched adults with their twisted perceptions and a desire to destroy what better men and women have created.
They’re mad. Mad that they can’t create works of the same majesty, and mad that they’re unable to simply enjoy the good stuff.
This last paragraph nails it. Scalzi’s entire career has been built on pillaging ideas from the classic SF authors he despises and writing terrible reboots of books that didn’t need them – FUZZY NATION is probably the worst example. He wants the classic works of SF forgotten because despite his Hugos, he knows he’s not as good an author as Heinlein, Ellison. Anderson, or even Piper, and never will be.