Sentential Links #183

The Labor Day edition. Say, anybody ever wonder why we don't have "Management Day"?

:: The kids with those books in their hands may look like they're reading but what's actually going on in their heads is that they're watching television or going to the movies. There are plenty of books that aren't meant to be read only skimmed in a way that allows readers to remind themselves of things they've seen on a screen of one size or another. The trick of these books isn't to stimulate imaginations, it's too trigger memories of the most familiar cinematic cliches. A lot of books supposedly aimed at adults are like this. Most mysteries and thrillers, for instance, even ones by the supposedly best writers. Michael Connelly writes excellent screenplays that he publishes in the form of novels. I think it would be better if the students were given a list to choose from, a junk-less list that was truly eclectic and took into account that most twelve and thirteen year olds are not like I was.

:: As a comic book, From Hell elevates the comic book medium. As a graphic novel, it diminishes the comic book medium, in the same way Margaret Atwood insisting A Handmaid’s Tale isn’t science fiction diminishes science fiction. Both situations encourage those who don’t know what a comic/sci-fi is to believe the comics/sci-fi they’re consuming is something else. They are given no incentive to seek out good comics or sci-fi, because they aren’t interested in comics and sci-fi. The fact that they just enjoyed those very things is immaterial to their future reading choices, because they don’t understand what they just read was the very thing they’re predisposed to believe they’ve no interest in reading.

:: So long as Disney keeps out of the creative content of Marvel Comics this should be nothing but good news, right?… right?

:: Again, ladies, take away the fact that he's a vampire. Now here's what you have in this entire conversation (paraphrasing): "I'm fascinated by you because you're so much different than everyone else. I worry about you when I'm gone because you're so clumsy and stupid that you can't take care of yourself. I need to watch you like you're a toddler because you can barely stand on your own, so I follow you around all the time. I'm a dangerous creature who you should be very, very frightened of, so I'm going to hang around with you as much as I can and force you to let me treat you like this is the Victorian Era. I could kill you, and in fact I really want to kill you, so much so that it makes me uncomfortable to be around you, but I also kind of like you and it amuses me to watch you pretend to be on my intellectual level. Here, put on my jacket." (SamuraiFrog continues to do yeoman duty in establishing why Twilight is so staggeringly awful.)

:: Did you have a good Mootday? We sure did. The traditional Mootday Breakfast of cold cereal and milk was enlivened this year with the addition of dried raspberries. And there was much rejoicing.

:: There’s been a lot of talk about Archie’s proposal to Veronica, and most people tend to fall on the pro-Betty side of the debate. And while we all know that pretty much everyone in Riverdale sucks, I think we should consider what it’s like to hang out with Veronica.

All for now. Tune in next week for more.