elderwyrm

November 26, 2008 3:30 pm I feel of two minds on this subject, which, as always, is just the one.

Cultural relativism is when something not understood by someone is discussed in terms of something they do understand.
At first, this is wonderful, it allows people to come to grasps with the idea of new DIFFERENT ideas and ways of thinking, but then it turns sour. If the introduced ideas and concepts aren't then discussed in terms of their own (it's own language), then they aren't really new, are they? they're just reinterpretations of the viewers own culture, which isn't correct. In order to see things as they are, the language the viewer is speaking has to expand and adapted.
This is where the problem seems to be cropping up. Keeping in mind that movies and comics are subcultures of their own and really sects of the same sub-culture (that is, from the etic [outside observer's] side of things, the two are almost identical, varying on very specific points), what we have here is Movielanders assimilating Comiclanders.
They are coming at comics from a very similar world, but lack the language they need to trully understand it. At the moment, they are describing things through their own language, one that will remain inefficient (and insufficient) until it adapts the language of comics (hehe, the "invisible art"), but there's a little kink in the normal learning process ... like cartoons, comic are viewed by the dominate culture as something to "grow out of", and not a legitimate art form of their own. This is inbred into our way of thinking, because it's our culture. As such, the sect of moviegoers are unintentionally avoiding the language of comics (they don't know they're doing it, they just are). As a result, they are not learning how to understand comics, they are learning who to treat it as an inferior art.

So now's the time to take advantage of a brilliant situation. The world of comics could potentially expand by using the movies to validate them to new cultures (the very thing this article is railing against). Instead of complaining that people aren't getting it, that it's it own thing, that it shouldn't be compared to, JUMP ON IT. Say things like, "that wouldn't be here without the comic, bet you thought those were just for kids, eh?", "want to see the original before it was remade?", "yeah, the adaptation was good. You should read the original *hands 'em a comic*", "Thank goodness people like us support the comic industry, so movies won't always be crap. You don't read comics? So you like bad movies?".

Don't lose this chance to expanded the world of comics by complaining about ignorance to the ignorant, use their lack of knowledge to your advantage!

In other words CONVERT THEM.

Do it before we lose yet more of our hard-won validation in the dominate culture that surrounds us.