tp's table talk

Before my one night stand with Just a Geek I spent much of the week reading Killing Monsters; Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by Gerard Jones. This is a fascinating book that talks about some of the uses children have for fantasy and play violence in their lives. In a world that constantly points its finger and TV, movies and video games for all the problems with today’s youth, it is refreshing to read a book that tries to examine why children enjoy make-believe violence and what, if any, benefits it might have. While Jones’ work is more anecdotal than scientific, he does raise some very interesting points that are well worth considering. I am a bit biased because many of his viewpoints coincide with some of my long-held beliefs, but he presents them far more eloquently and persuasively than I have ever managed.

I’ve always been interested in the debate about media violence. I grew up with video games, comic books and action movies and enjoyed them a great deal. But I have always been a very non-violent person. For that and other reasons, I was an easy target and got into more than a few fights in elementary and high school. I eventually learned how to defend myself, but I disliked violence so much that any time I hit anyone I would subconciously bite my lip. The harder I hit someone, the harder I would bite. So every fight would end up the same way, me with a bloody lip regardless of whether my tormentors even landed a blow.

And while my experiences are obviously that of one individual, whenever I read another accusation leveled at the entertainment industry, I take it a bit personally. It was a big part of my growing up (along with sports and reading) and every time I hear a criticism at some level I take it as a criticism of my development. And I think I turned out pretty well. I’ve got problems just like everyone else, but for the most part I’m pretty well-adjusted (thanks Mom and Dad) Now, I can’t account for all the crap that gets released these days – and a lot of it makes itself pretty hard to defend – but blind condemnation of video games, TV or action movies makes me crazy. The inescapable fact is that there are millions of kids who play video games or watch action movies, and the percentages of those children who are violent remains pretty small. And I have yet to read a convincing study determining a causal relationship between real-world and make-believe violence. Yet “Video games are unhealthy” and “TV rots the mind” are statements that are taken as absolute truths by too many people.

As I said, my rhetoric is unpracticed and not particularly convincing. But if you are at all interested in the debate, I’d highly recommend reading Killing Monsters.

I just read Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s first volume of their comic series 100 Bullets. I had opened it up to read just one chapter before bed, but I was unable to put down the tales about Dizzy Cordova and Lee Dolan and quickly devoured the whole thing.

Now, I don’t know which side most people fall on the graphic novel debate, but I have read a number of compelling pieces of fiction in this format and am a huge fan of the artform. I guess 100 Bullets would best be classified as conspiracy noir.
The premise is that a shadowy figure enters the life of our protagonists and offers them a briefcase with an untraceable gun and the titular 100 bullets along with the evidence against someone who has wronged them – in quite serious ways – in their past. The protagonist is then left to decide how best to act with this new-gained knowledge and means. The internal and external conflicts experienced by the main characters ring true, even if the situations are extreme, and this is probably the greatest strength of the series. But while the individual stories of the gun’s recipients are fascinating, there is the also the underlying conspiracy behind the provision of the weapon and the lengths these mysterious forces can go to in preventing police involvement. I am looking forward to putting the puzzle pieces together as I read the further volumes in the series.

Azzarello’s feel for dialogue, particularly the prevalent street-level slang, is uncanny. And Risso’s dark and moody art – of which I was not a huge fan, at first – suits the tone of the stories perfectly. When the action leaves street level, where much of the story is grounded, and moves to the high-powered business world, the artwork makes a similar shift to brighter colors and sharper lines that demonstrate why the graphic novel can be a powerful storytelling form. Highly recommended.