InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hell to the No"

drsevarius (drsevarius) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-27 09:01:00

Entry tags:

char: batman/bruce wayne, char: catwoman/selina kyle, char: joker, char: robin/catgirl/carrie kelly, creator: frank miller, series: bat/cat, title: the dark knight returns

Bat/Cat: The Dark Knight Returns

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sherkahn
2009-04-27 08:46 pm UTC (link)

I like your ideas and admire your youthful enthusiasm, but I can see that age and the generation issue gives us different perspectives to "how dark is our world". I guess I should compare the scenes in TDKR that I am using against these real-life examples.

I am referring to the return of Batman and how the depraved reacted to it. Namely, the porn star who would make a midget gang bang dressed as Snow White, and she would do it "for the children." And I am talking about the repressed pervert who blow away the people attending said porno, and the media twisted into a "Batman related crime."

The big thing that the generation before mine had to worry about was child molesters at schools, gang fights with equipment from the PE lockers, and the popular kids taking a cruel prank too far. And when my generation was growing up and in school, our school life got more of the same, with the exception that guns had come to paradise. Gang shootings were a part of life, as an accepted cultural issue and something to aspire to, getting into a gun battle after school with your homies against someone else's crew. Drive-by's were the big threat, and I have walked away from two of them within the clean suburban neighborhood that I thought was too far away to be touched by gang violence. Then I grew up, got older, let life slap the stupid out of me and got kids to share my comics with. And read the Dark Knight Returns.

Now the youth in between my generation and the up and coming ones have to deal with planned out school massacres where the kids kill their tormentors, their classmates and then kill themselves with a capable arsenal and, most frightening, a well thought out plan. I hate to sound like an old timer, but we didn't have that in my day. And I fear for the kids these days, who have one of these school shootings in the news at least once a month, and who may come to be numb to the horrors.

And the octo-mom would not have the coverage she has enjoyed of so recently. Moral disgust for such a woman back when I was young would've kept her on the freakshow tabloids with Bigfoot and the bat-baby. Now, she's been approached for her own reality show and her break downs make the news. Not the more worrthy mothers who struggle to raise kids on their own and get by... this human gets all the attention. Are worse yet, she inspires... the worst in us. Yup, you guessed it kids, they're going to make a midget porn about octo-mom. (Not that I have anything wrong against porn, one of my best friends is in porn).

Back to the point. The level of human decency and standards, has gone down, and its the argument each generation makes about the next, and it's true. And for all of the bright hope so many of you bring to the world, it only takes one rotten apple to bring tarnish the rest.

So, I am making a loose comparison where octo-mom gets so much press, and inspires the type of porn these days that is so common that it's funny but not shocking or disturbing. A day where the persecuted kids have to worry about popular kids, or the popular kids worry about the ones that keep to themselves, or the up and coming gang bangers. Based on how prevalent these issues are in our meedia and common life experience, I do believe that the US today is that much closer to becoming the Dark Knight Return's America.

But I read TDKR, see someone who has seen the horror we can unleash on one another and who fights the impossible fight to make our world a better place, and I appreciate what the writer is trying to convey as to just how much Bats can move and inspire, as Superman does.

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	drsevarius 2009-04-27 09:26 pm UTC (link)
	People were a lot more racist, misogynist, and homophobic back in the good ol' days. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ashtoreth 2009-04-27 09:33 pm UTC (link)
	The problem is, as you get older you simply know more about what is going on. What was always going on. I'm almost forty, and there were no 'good old days'. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sistermagpie
2009-04-27 10:19 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, I loved through those days and these days, and I think if you average it up we just haven't taken a huge step towards this dystopia. There's some new threats, some things that are better. I think my city's generally considered to have become far less of a dystopia compared to, say, the 70s. It's not some paradise, but the blackout of 77 was very different from the blackout of 03.

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	sistermagpie 2009-04-28 09:11 am UTC (link)
	Heh--I meant I lived through those days and these days. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	darklorelei 2009-04-27 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	...there were no 'good old days'. Exactly. (Reply to this) (Parent)

interrobamf
2009-04-28 10:09 am UTC (link)

The level of human decency and standards, has gone down, and its the argument each generation makes about the next, and it's true.

You realize the "decency and standards" of times gone by include things ranging from slavery, racism, homophobia, misogyny, communist paranoia, blind patriotism, ignoring and hating any religion aside from Christianity, killing off the Injuns, and child labor? You'll have to forgive me if I don't take "things were better back then!" seriously.

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kagome654
2009-04-28 10:41 am UTC (link)

Word.

Modern society has its own issues and obstacles, but anyone who looks around and says we're worse off as a society than we were a hundred, fifty or even twenty years ago has historical blinders on...or is speaking from a privileged viewpoint. We still have a long way to go, but to deny that we've made progress when it comes to issues of tolerance and equality is simply asinine.

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	sherkahn 2009-04-28 11:18 am UTC (link)
	Oh, they're still around. That hasn't changed, and won't change after we all have left this mortal coil. that's why I didn't bring it up. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	drsevarius 2009-04-28 11:20 am UTC (link)
	Just because they're still around doesn't mean they weren't worse then. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

interrobamf
2009-04-28 12:03 pm UTC (link)

This. We're at the point where homosexuals can feel safe coming out of the closet and racism (or at least the public expression of) has an intense social stigma against it. Yes, things like the glass ceiling still exist, but women can get those jobs and live independently as opposed to years ago where they were essentially the property of the men in their lives.

It's not perfect, but we're getting better. For you to ignore that and say society is getting worse on the single basis of school shootings is disingenuous.

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