InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Great Scott!"

box_in_the_box (box_in_the_box) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-28 14:38:00

Entry tags:

creator: steve ditko, theme: objectivism

"If only that Ditko fellow was less subtle and more overt regarding his personal politics ..."
For as much fail as it churns out, Big Hollywood occasionally offers some genuine gems.

I can't stand Objectivism, but I find Steve Ditko's treatment of it irresistibly compelling, perhaps because the comic book medium is a far more appropriate venue for such a Manichean philosophy than the thousand-page rape-justifying tomes that Ayn Rand routinely shat out (it certainly helps that none of Ditko's characters ever barfed up a 70-page screed like John Galt, not to mention the fact that Ditko actually managed to create characters who were more believable as human beings than any of Rand's strawmen or Mary Sues, even when his characters were radioactivity-powered superheroes).

The following four pages constitute "In Principle: The Unchecked Premise," a short story originally published in the 160-page graphic novel Steve Ditko's Static in 1988:

As crudely simplistic as it is, it's still better than either reading or watching the "fireplace scene" between Howard Roark and Dominique Francon in The Fountainhead, but then again, so is getting punched in the crotch until you hemorrhage internally and die.

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	Re: An even darker view: xandertarbert 2009-08-29 01:15 pm UTC (link)
	Quoting from Pratchett again. Even hating God means you believe in him, it just means you don't like him. And since he hates him just so much, well, that's a lot of belief. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: An even darker view: runespoor7 2009-08-29 01:36 pm UTC (link)
	Well, yeah. That's what I just said. Box does believe in God, ergo he's not an atheist. (Again, according to what I understood of Box's comments.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: An even darker view: box_in_the_box 2009-08-29 11:48 pm UTC (link)
	I don't dispute this. :) The difference between me and the religious fundamentalists is that I base my beliefs on evidence - and in my case, part of my evidence for the existence of an evil God is the overwhelming preponderance of religious fundamentalists themselves, which indicates to me that God exists and endorses their message. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: An even darker view: icon_uk 2009-08-30 08:43 pm UTC (link)
	Except that's refusing the concept of free will. We always have a choice to do evil or good and oppose evil, but it's the choosing which defines our nature, whether we believe it's shaped by a deity or not. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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