Daredevil Message Board

[james castle]

[jumonji]

[james castle]

[jumonji]

[Gloria]

[Francesco]

A quick recap of JC's points:

[jumonji]

[james castle]

I didn't realize it was an "opinion piece".

Hahaha.

Get real.
_________________
JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

[jumonji]

[james castle]

[The Overlord]

[harryhausen]

Maybe Nocenti = Trotsky (minus the icepick); not Nocenti = Stalin.

Nocenti = Zinoviev?

[Gloria]

Strikes me as being more on the Bakunin side: she's quite anti-authoritarian
_________________
Gloria
Devuélveme el rosario de mi madre y quédate con todo lo demás

"Para la cuesta arriba quiero mi burro, que la cuesta abajo yo me la subo"

[Francesco]

While we're at it, that fan in that blog linked before called Miller a fascist or something.
Now we just need a couple of authors that fit in the middle.

[jumonji]

Since this topic went off the tracks many posts ago, I thought I'd instead take the opportunity to just express some thoughts I had from looking back on this thread.

When I wrote the very first post for this topic, I knew not only that many people wouldn't agree with me, but that many would have a complete "WTF" moment. From reading what I wrote I imagined any and all of the following reactions:

1) I've thought about this as well
2) I've never thought about that, but in retrospect you might have a point
3) I can sort of see what you're saying, but I don't see it that way
4) I don't agree, and here is why...
5) What the heck are you smoking?

When it comes down to it, and this is true of all forms of fiction, our reading experience is a combination of what is on the page and what is in our minds. We all bring with us our own attitudes, experiences, interests and preconceived notions. The characters that come to life are not fixed because they will inevitably exist in slightly different forms in each and every one of us. That is why a character's actions in one situation might seem out of character to some readers and not others. That doesn't mean that the concept of a particular behavior being "in character" is completely arbitrary. All of us would probably agree that if Matt Murdock were to pick up an AK-47 and start killing people while donning a Big Bird costume that would be seriously out of character for him. However, we all come to the reading of this book wearing different "glasses."

In some cases, and this is particularly true of scholars, people choose to study a work of fiction through a particular pair of glasses. That is the reason we have such (doubtlessly) interesting works as: "Secret Identities: American Masculinities and the Superhero Genre in the Fifties" (Best, 2002), "New Heroes: Gender, Race, Fans and Comic Book Superheroes (Brown, 1997), and "Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form" (Duncan, 1985). In fact, you can take almost anything and analyze it by looking at it through any of a number of different filters, some of which will seem more relevant than others. To a lesser extent, as mentioned above, this is done by all of us every day without much conscious thought.

As is also true for all of us is that there are certain insights or pieces of knowledge that we've gained that we can't unlearn. There are, in essence, certain filters that we can't remove, even if we wanted to. In my case, I have one such filter that prevents me from enjoying Ann Nocenti's work as much as many others do. Likewise, my guess would be that there are other things that someone else might look at and react to that I wouldn't even give a second thought to. The guy that I linked to, and that Francesco mentioned above, labels Frank Miller a fascist based on some combination of his ideas about what a fascist is and his perceptions of Miller's work. I may disagree with him, but his opinion is his own and to him it carries with it a certain amount of truth.

I read through the entire history of Daredevil in short order. I started with the first part of Volume 2 and worked my way through it before going back to the very beginning of Volume 1 and did the same thing there. When I reached Nocenti's run I was really looking forward to it. I had heard so many good things about her, and I could never have imagined that my reaction would be as negative as it was. The things I found myself reacting to were quite subtle, but, all taken together, they were enough to ruin much of my appreciation for her work. If I didn't have my particular views on issues related to disability (which, incidentally, are analogous to my views on women's issues, gay rights and general civil liberties), I would most likely not have reacted to Nocenti's work the way I did. However, as things are, I cannot undo my own reactions anymore than anyone else can.

Okay, this post has gone on a bit too long. I just wanted to end this thread in as positive a way as possible. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many of you who, while not necessarily agreeing with me on this issue, have taken the time to, in various ways, show your support in favor my right to voice a personal opinion. You know who you are. And, yes, I know that last part sounded like something someone might say at the Oscars, but oh well.

See you around the board.
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The Other Murdock Papers