Mythologies

     Our culture is ever more in love with mythologies: Star Wars, Harry Potter, superheroes.  The more that are invented and the more available they are, the deeper we go.  They're so much fun, it's easy to get lost in them, like we might lose track of the forest for how closely we're studying the trees.

     The forest -- the larger world the trees inhabit -- is important, though, because that's where we live.  We need to judge mythologies based on what they say about the world, on their metaphors and lessons, not just on what they say about themselves.  Relating them to our lives draws us outward and helps us engage with the world.  If we go down the rabbit hole of their invented histories exclusively, then the stories draw us ever inward, away from the world.  The best mythologies have always been about something bigger than themselves.

The Superhero at 80

     A one-day-belated birthday to the Man of Steel, whose first appearance in Action Comics 1, though cover-dated June, hit newsstands on April 18th, 1938.  Eighty years later to the day, Action Comics 1000 hit comic stores yesterday.  From two-fisted, tough talking champion of social justice, defender of the oppressed and scourge of corrupt politicians to iconic symbol of humanity's best values and hopes, Superman seems as necessary a symbol now as ever before. 
     An eightieth birthday makes a fine time to revisit, or experience for the first time, what makes the character great.  This New York Times article is quite helpful in that regard.
     Not incidentally to all this, it's good to see that eighty years after their invention, superheroes are still leaders in a particular field of specialty: breaking down walls, in this country and all across the world.

American Social Discourse

     As reported in the New York Times, Ta-Nehisi Coates, "one of the country's best known intellectuals" and recent writer for the Black Panther comic, will be taking over writing on Captain America in July.  So, to sum up, one of our preeminent social thinkers is consistently choosing the form of comics to hold a discourse with the American people.  In the immortal words of Stan Lee, "'nuff said."

New York's Angels and Gargoyles

     A recent article in the New York Times covers an obscure but fascinating element of the city's history, one that my family has been closely involved with, as the story elucidates.  Those ancient, stony faces looking down on the city in judgment were, without a doubt, rumbling in my subconscious as I imagined the tone of the future New York for Those That Wake and What We Become.  Give the story a read right here.

The City Inside

     In Rome I have seen the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, extraordinary fountains, high-end clothing stores, statues, churches, trattorias, osterias, gelaterias and pasticcerias . . . but not a single grocery store. There is no hint here of a Rome where people actually live and work, only of a city where tourists are catered to. It is as though I am experiencing a city inside a larger city, almost a set piece that has been constructed for the use of me and millions of others like me. Even our map (given to us at our hotel) appears to end at the borders of the city we are supposed to be a part of, trailing off at the edges into the real city which will forever remain invisible to us.
     The other great cities of the world -- New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong among them -- integrate their tourist industries with their "true" selves and allow you to form a connection with the urban culture and community. Rome seems to want to keep me at arm's length. I have a better sense of how Ancient Romans lived than how contemporary Romans do.
     But, my God, they make good gelato.

Things I Saw In Paris

Walking around the streets of Paris with my family, I see Coca Cola, Danon Yogurt, Lay's barbecue potato chips and Snickers on the shelves of every grocery store and deli, the movies Green Lantern, Bad Teacher, Hangover Part 2 (charmingly retitled Very Bad Trip Part 2) and Mr. Popper's Penguins playing in the theaters, and a McDonald's or a Starbucks on every block.
I understand the idea of exporting culture, but I have a hard time thinking of a single French product, movie or restaurant that I might see casually walking down the streets in New York. Is France accommodating us? Surrendering to us? The other day, a couple came up to me while I was on my way home and, told me they were from out of town and asked me if there was a nice place to eat nearby. I suggested a place I thought had good food and was distinctive. "No," the woman looked at me with clear confusion, "I meant something likes McDonald's or Wendy's." Seems like traveling is becoming more a matter of feeling at home wherever you go these days than really plunging into another culture.
We're all closer now than we've ever been, we all "know" each other with a cultural intimacy we never have before. That's a good thing, right?

Dumb

     Earlier today, a colleague lamented to me what she saw as the dumbing down of culture.  It just so happens that I'm reading a book right now that is also extremely critical of what it sees as popular culture's downward spiral (Dark Dreams 2.0, an incredibly insightful look at what horror does for us and to us).  Taken together, it got me thinking: yes, there is definitely a lot of stupid stuff out there.  But among the most popular books out there right now is the Hunger Games Trilogy, which (say whatever else you like about it) tries to tackle some heavy, pertinent issues.  The best received movie of 2010 was the Social Network, which was as thoughtful an examination of a relevant topic as I've seen.  Perhaps what's going on here is a matter of massive proliferation.  With thousands of channels available, more reading choices open to us than at any point in history, not to mention the limitless offerings of the Internet, there's just so much more out there that we have access to than ever before.  Given that a good 95% of Human artistic endeavor is crappy to mediocre (and always has been), that remaining 5% -- which has also been growing and is more accessible to us -- just appears that much more inundated by the lousy stuff.
       What's the point?  That things aren't as bad as they appear, or that things are, in fact, as bad as they appear but in a completely different way.  The good news, it seems to me, is that if we can just work hard to discern the good from the dumb, to wade through the bad to reach those precious gems of artistic achievement and intelligent consideration, there are as many out there as there used to be; more, even.  Paradoxically, it just takes a little more work to hear it over the static.