Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3661-3665 (22nd to 26th January 2018)

<< < (44/48) > >>

Is it cold in here?:

--- Quote from: Emperor Norton on 26 Jan 2018, 12:06 ---I do think that this forum as a whole seems to very very quickly look for the worst in every new character introduced (sometimes inventing things that aren't even THERE. Seriously if half the stuff that offended the people on the forum was how they treated people they meet in real life, I can't imagine how they would ever have any friends).

It is honestly why I went back to lurking for a long time rather than ever posting. It is just tiring.

--- End quote ---

I know what you're talking about.

Some fraction, I don't know how much, is an unintended effect of how well Jeph writes. With a few words and a few pictures he makes characters real enough to remind forum-goers of real people from their pasts. Then his readers respond with the same emotions they felt toward the person from the past. Sometimes those feelings are at traumatic levels of intensity.

EDIT: on top of that, the game of overanalyzing everything can make us lose perspective. I step back, I stop over-thinking Evie, and I see the fact is the the last few days have had me laughing out loud on every strip.

hedgie:
These fora could use a heavy dose of the MST3K mantra, and I don't mean the bit about Tilly getting shot into space.

DannyboyTheDane:
Adding to the current meta-discussion, I've also been baffled by the response to Evie*; less so regarding the initial dislike - she did demonstrate a certain lack of social grace, which probably struck a chord with some people more so than with me because I've been lucky enough not to have my lived experiences talked about like that - but more so regarding the following analysis of her entire character and motivations. It seemed as if people were almost starting to see her as some sort of "intellectual terror", an academic completely out of touch with ethics and basic decency, solely fuelled by her desire to further her research. (Obviously this is an exaggerated image of people's reactions to her, but not, I'll argue, an unfounded one.) We have barely met this character, and so we are sorely lacking the necessary amount of data for any sort of thorough character analysis; let's not jump to conclusions, eh? And maybe, just maybe, not think the worst of a character from the get-go because of less-than-perfect initial impressions?

*I was also shocked at people's hatred of Tilly, but let's not get into that here and now.

MrNumbers:

--- Quote from: Shjade on 26 Jan 2018, 13:42 ---
http://www.thewriteturn.com/kishotenketsu-the-four-act-narrative-or-the-plot-without-conflict/

"All drama needs conflict" is common knowledge. In western/european schools. That doesn't make it universal truth any more than any other euro-centric "truths" about civilization, social norms, etc.

--- End quote ---

I... did you really have to make it a 'European' thing?

Despite having studied mandarin a while back -- Some poetry even! "Shī Shì shí shī shǐ" or "The Story of Mr. Shi Eating Lions" is one of my favourite literary works of all time -- I wasn't familiar with this particular narrative structure, because while I have made an effort to study other cultures outside my own, all of my formal literary and screenwriting education has been what's commercially viable in my own culture. That's a fair criticism.

If you had taken a kinder tone, I could have pointed out this is a more abstract style suited for other works, and doesn't work in a slice-of-life format like QuestionableContent, but thanked you for broadening my education, and that could have been a cool good interaction.

But instead you kind of... insinuated prejudice on my behalf. And that's kind of not cool?

Case:
Does that distinction even make sense, whatwith 'Drama' being a classification in European art? (originally Greek, right?)

We could, of course, debate which is worse: Implicitly excluding non-European art while talking about one category in a European taxonomy of art, or implicitly lumping non-European art into a European taxonomy of art ... but does that make sense? And isn't it a bit ... 'Eurocentric'? (*)

What would the respective non-European artists think about such a discussion? Don't they have their own terms for what they do?


(*) I mean, I'm a Euro on a largely USnian board, so I got no problem with a wee bit of Eurocentrism every once in a while ...

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page