tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post6894065870995078992..comments2024-03-29T10:23:10.538+00:00Comments on Thoughts Of A Workshy Fop: Cerebus Book 7: Flight (#151-162)varalys the darkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17032083859598898676noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-46340309527425838882014-05-24T10:31:04.570+01:002014-05-24T10:31:04.570+01:00Cool, looking forward to that.Cool, looking forward to that.Lucy McGoughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11343777122050849475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-38510094054862349392014-05-24T08:50:58.038+01:002014-05-24T08:50:58.038+01:00I think everyone needs to be in touch with their i...I think everyone needs to be in touch with their inner Promethea. Interestingly Alan Moore and Dave Sim were friends, I'm not sure if they stayed friends, especially after all the misogyny and homophobic nonsense that overtakes the books. But in the late 80's-early 90's they were definitely bro's. And Moore even shows up in a cameo in a later book too!varalys the darkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032083859598898676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-54225094699260618432014-05-24T08:10:54.602+01:002014-05-24T08:10:54.602+01:00Oh, everyone creates God in their own image, even ...Oh, everyone creates God in their own image, even the atheists. Compassionate and loving people think that God must be compassionate and loving. Puritans think that God must be puritanical. Violent people, like those nutters who killed Lee Rigby, think that God totally wants them to get out there and slaughter the infidels. And so on.<br /><br />To be honest, sirens don't really lure men with their sexiness but with their <i>voices</i>, i.e. the spoken/sung <i>word</i>, which is the external expression of an internal philosophy. So it still kind of works. I think. If the female characters leaving makes the books worse, Alan Moore would say that Mr Sim needs to get in touch with his inner Promethea and use himself as a conduit for her divine creative fire, unifying the forces of will, compassion, intellect and... uh... whatever pentacles/coins are supposed to be. Earthly stuff. And then he'd write cool books again, with the help of his caduceus.Lucy McGoughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11343777122050849475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-22083044353020279982014-05-23T21:31:17.165+01:002014-05-23T21:31:17.165+01:00Again, you make fine points. I think you'll b...Again, you make fine points. I think you'll be faceplaming a lot when you hear more direct from the pen of Mr.Sim, unfiltered through the storyline as it is here. It's unfortunate that when he does come down with religion he only picks the bits that support his nasty worldview.<br /><br />I like the idea that Cirin might be derived from Siren. She and her philosophy wouldn't be what I'd call sexy, but Sim seems to depict his men as powerless to resist it (at least for now). It's a strange, strange combination.... and yet his female characters are varied, fully rounded and interesting more so than ones we get today from more "enlightened" authors. It's noticable that as his female characters exit the storyline, the books get worse. Bewildering.varalys the darkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032083859598898676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-30804438946774820922014-05-23T20:31:15.644+01:002014-05-23T20:31:15.644+01:00You know lots about religion - just not Judaism or...You know lots about religion - just not Judaism or Christianity. Perhaps if Mr Sim were more in touch with eastern religions and philosophies he'd be more chilled out and compassionate. Having said that, there are good bits in Judaism and Christianity too. Religion is like feminism - the extremist bits are well dodgy but that doesn't make it uniformly bad.<br /><br />Creativity has traditionally been viewed as a male attribute, but that was only 'cos patriarchy spent millennia not letting women anywhere near the paintbrushes (perhaps from fear of being outclassed... although who knows what gender the painters of buffaloes on the walls of caves were?)<br /><br />Cirin = siren = beguilingly sexy female monster that lures men to destruction with its overpowering sexiness. Ancient Greek myths, comics about anthropomorphic aardvarks... nothing really changes, eh?Lucy McGoughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11343777122050849475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-40076576730270026452014-05-23T13:02:52.409+01:002014-05-23T13:02:52.409+01:00You make some excellent points there! I'm afr...You make some excellent points there! I'm afraid Mr. Sim's denial of his feminine side gets even worse as the series progressess, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but in Reads he defines creativity as a male trait, that women strangle and suppress.<br /><br />The Golden Sphere as a reference to the Israelites is a good one, you can tell I don't know much about religion, I'd never have made that connection. Nice one.<br /><br />The Roach doesn't handle love very well it's true, rejection in the next book, Women turns him into an emo-goth-Sandman parody, I miss his fourth wall breaking antics when he finally departs the series.varalys the darkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17032083859598898676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2243012679315072030.post-52662270176596551612014-05-23T12:25:38.094+01:002014-05-23T12:25:38.094+01:00I think that Dave Sim needs to get in touch with h...I think that Dave Sim needs to get in touch with his inner, feminine side instead of trying to crush it. Despite the pen/pencil being a potent phallic symbol, creativity is an essentially feminine pursuit that utilises the female parts of our personalities. To try to destroy it leads to a fiction composed of black-and-white forces with no subtlety or characterisation - in short, bad fiction. Perhaps in choosing to relate his stories in monochrome pictures Mr Sim was unconsciously denying an essentially feminine part of his personality. He needs to realise that he is one of the pieces in the chess game being played.<br /><br />Also, I wish my church had a giant golden sphere. That'd be cool. (Reference to the Israelites worshipping a golden calf in the desert, showing that Cirinism is a tainted religion? Yet again femininity is linked with idolatry, the frivolous, the exterior as opposed to the interior, etc.)<br /><br />The Roach clearly cannot handle being in love, like Troilus in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. This parodic example of an unreconciled ego produces pathos as well as humour.Lucy McGoughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11343777122050849475noreply@blogger.com