Comments for The Hooded Utilitarian

Comment on On Second Thought, I Really Don’t Like Wonder Woman, Part 1 by Andrei

Andrei — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:53:24 +0000

“Lacanophilia,” ha! Somebody please do something with that! Maybe call it “Seminar 300.”

Comment on The Therapeutic Narcissism of Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother? by David Roel

David Roel — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:13:35 +0000

Tenebrous? Or did you mean tenuous?

Comment on On Second Thought, I Really Don’t Like Wonder Woman, Part 1 by Jim S

Jim S — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:20:47 +0000

Last note. The other info on Sparta came from my memory. This next stuff comes direct from Wikipedia. I remembered reading the Nazis admired ancient Sparta, so I doubled checked using Wikipedia. The info seems well documented and adheres to what I remember.

Anyway . . .

“Laconophilia is love or admiration of Sparta and of the Spartan culture or constitution. Sparta was subject of considerable admiration in its day, even in its rival, Athens. In ancient times “Many of the noblest and best of the Athenians always considered the Spartan state nearly as an ideal theory realised in practice.”[105] Many Greek philosophers, especially Platonists, would often describe Sparta as an ideal state, strong, brave, and free from the corruptions of commerce and money.

Young Spartans Exercising by Edgar Degas (1834-1917)With the revival of classical learning in Renaissance Europe, Laconophilia re-appears, for examples in the writings of Machiavelli. The Elizabethan English constitutionalist John Aylmer compared the mixed government of Tudor England to the Spartan republic, stating that “Lacedemonia [meaning Sparta], [was] the noblest and best city governed that ever was”. He commended it as a model for England. The Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau contrasted Sparta favourably with Athens in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, arguing that its austere constitution was preferable to the more cultured nature of Athenian life. Sparta was also used as a model of social purity by Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.[106]

A new element of Laconophilia by Karl Otfried Müller, who linked Spartan ideals to the supposed racial superiority of the Dorians, the ethnic sub-group of the Greeks to which the Spartans belonged. Adolf Hitler praised the Spartans, recommending in 1928 that Germany should imitate them by limiting “the number allowed to live”. He added that “The Spartans were once capable of such a wise measure… The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans.” The Spartans had created “the first racialist state”.[107]”

A fascinating society, unique in the ancient world. I wouldn’t want to live there, but then I wouldn’t have wanted to live anywhere in the ancient world. I’ll take 2012, Kardashians and all.

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by R. Maheras

R. Maheras — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:28:07 +0000

Derik wrote: “Bif Bam Pow comics aren’t just for kids anymore.”

If I had a buck for every article that sported that headline over the past 40 years, or something similar, I’d be typing this from a beach on St. Croix.

Comment on On Second Thought, I Really Don’t Like Wonder Woman, Part 1 by eric b.

eric b. — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Also, the claim that Spartan valuation of “homosexuality” is somehow an opposition to “traditional” gender roles doesn’t completely hold up. Part of the valuation of gay male love/sex was linked to the notion that “male” was the ideal or superior gender and that, therefore, the most exalted form of love could only be between men. That is, Greek homosexuality was a byproduct of extreme patriarchy, not some kind of opposition to it (or at least some have argued this to be the case…I’m not an expert on Ancient Greece). Sedgwick goes into some of this in _Between Men_– She notes that in modern Western civ. homosexuality is cordoned off from homosociality as a means of perpetuating misogyny and the use of women as “objects of exchange”–but other patriarchal societies (like the Greeks) have had more fuzzy lines between male homosociality and homosexuality, without necessarily disturbing underlying misogyny.

Somewhat funny that Russell was invoked, since the Cambridge Apostles self-consciously referred to the Greeks as models for their own blurring of homosocial/homosexual divisions—which also often had an undercurrent of misogyny.

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by Robert Stanley Martin

Robert Stanley Martin — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:11:41 +0000

Personally, I think the most telling what-if event would have been Fantagraphics publishing that announced Harlan Ellison-Michael Kaluta The Shadow graphic novel, which got derailed because financial problems forced Gary to recall the advance money he paid Ellison to write it. If Fantagraphics had been better capitalized back then, they might be more like what Dark Horse is now than what they actually became.

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by Derik Badman

Derik Badman — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:03:02 +0000

That old hippy comment probably came off harsher than I meant it. I was just lacking for a good metaphor. I still read the Journal and enjoy a good bit of it (admittedly, I found the last paper issue mostly boring, no one needs that much on Crumb… ever… please).

“Do you feel there are boundaries it should be pushing, Derik?”

That’s hard to answer without coming down to personal taste, I think. They are pretty good about covering a range of comics (style, format, etc.) They could be better on international content (though I suspect a lot of that is a lack of contributors and language barriers).

I really think it’s just a case where the broader argument that TCJ used to be making has been made. Bif Bam Pow comics aren’t just for kids anymore.

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by R. Maheras

R. Maheras — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:00:57 +0000

Dang! I wish there was an edit function!

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by R. Maheras

R. Maheras — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:59:31 +0000

There were lots of folks (including me) trying to make the comics-are-serious-as-an-asthetic-medium argument long before Groth and Company entered the scene. But what TCJ did, and why folks like me embraced it, is because they took on that fight much more visibly, forcefully and with more fundamental journalistic solidity than virtually any other widely-read comics publication of that era. And thus it did not take long for TCJ to become the de facto surrogate spokesman for those of us who honestly believed the assertion that comics-as-art had validity.

That doesn’t

Comment on Voices From the Archive: Robert Boyd on TCJ and the Mainstream by Jack

Jack — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:56:43 +0000

Actually, I guess you can argue that TCJ gave birth to Fantagraphics the publisher, which didn’t exist until the Hernandez Brothers sent their work to TCJ and Gary asked to publish it. So maybe comics as art really does have TCJ as its lovably irascible grandparent. To truly gauge the magazine’s impact, we’d have to go back in time and murder Gary before he could purchase The Nostalgia Journal (or we could purchase it ourselves but murder him anyway).