Rants & Rambles
7 - A Graphic Novel Future
Do graphic novels predict the future? If so, it'll be a bleak one. Cities will be over-crowded, the landscape blighted, the politicians corrupt, the population criminal, the heros half-criminal themselves. And the sun won't come out very often either, because of a thick fog of pollution blanketing the Earth, or because it will simply always be night.
These dystopic visions disturb me. They seem to indicate that our only hope (if there is any hope at all) lies in the hands of violent men and women whose actions are driven more by rage than morals; whose success is due solely to their being more clever, more brutal, and a little luckier than the bad guys.
As a writer, I understand that there wouldn't be much excitement and adventure to be found in a perfect world. Those dark, dangerous city streets and violent bad guys are important plot devices. Without villains, you have no need for heros. My problem is the depth of despair painted so vividly in so many graphic novels, and the lack of morality on both sides of the battle.
My son would scoff: "We know this isn't reality," he'd say. But why do he and so many other young men and women find entertainment in these visions? If this is escapism, what could be worse than what they are escaping to?
Certainly, the news these days is ugly: war, terrorism, AIDS and Asian bird flu, ENRON, layoffs, global warming, shrinking resources (particularly oil), "bad intelligence," torture, richer rich, poorer poor, and increasingly strident demands from fundamentalists of every persuasion. In lock step with that, we have an increase in depression and suicide among teenagers. Seen against the backdrop of this reality, the anti-heros of the graphic novels can very well seem like angels in disguise, their violence the only solution.
Finding Hope in History and Visionaries
Personally, I don't believe it's that bad. The world has survived Genghis Kahn and Adolph Hitler, the ice ages, the Great Depression, Sovietism, the exploitation of many past industrialists, corrupt administrations, and the Crusades. Knowing a little history does provide a helpful perspective. Reading the words of such visionaries as energy specialist Amory Lovins also helps. His recent interview in Discover magazine will make you realize how many solutions there are out there, quietly coming to fruition.
I draw the most hope, however, from my own son, the one who introduced me to graphic novels in the first place. He has just finished the second draft of his first full-length novel. It addresses slavery, fundamentalism, hypocrisy, homosexuality, extreme prejudice and privilege: very adult themes. It has its share of sex and violence, including sadism and torture. You can see some of the nihilism that flourishes in many graphic novels. Yet this book ends not with vengeance, but with hope. Not a complete reversal of all that is bad, nothing that pie-in-the-sky, but still with a physical and moral victory over the powers of evil.
It helps me believe the sun will some day shine on Gotham.
|
"My problem is the depth of despair ... and the lack of morality on both sides of the battle."
|
