Destiny, the Other Side, and Stuff

[Henry M]

A-and how about that "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

On 18 Feb 97 at 17:39, LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU wrote:

> 
> Paul comments:
> "The pop culture of the time presented H as a loony. Spike
> Jones and Charlie Chaplin, for example. (Come to think, pop
> culture today presents ALL our fuhrers as loonies. Is there some
> kind of conspirary to fill high positions with maniacs???)"
> 
> 
> Certainly in a war or even pre-war situation (remember that Chaplin
> was one of those accused of being "prematurely anti-Nazi"), humor as
> satire can be a useful weapon.  Think of that dinner at the
> Utgarthalokis! But it is also a comfort to those who have to fight,
> another way of devaluing and casting the enemy as Other.  (and even
> putatively democratic satire fulfills similar functions.)
> 
> But pop. culture can also take this stuff pretty seriously.  Just
> look (or don't) at THE X-FILES, etc.  It's interesting, for example,
> how this German mysticism has crept into the comic book world of the
> "DC Universe." It stems in part from an attempt to explain why, if
> there were costumed superheros who could take down entire cities as
> part of a day's work, WWII was so hard to win.  The answer was that
> Hitler had found Wotan's Spear of Destiny which prevented said
> heroes from using much of their powers in Europe, so they had to be
> content with fighting spies and catching jewel robbers and the like.
> 
> Now, this mythology has been brought up to contemporary speed in
> recent issues of THE SPECTRE (heh, heh), one of the holdovers of the
> Golden Age.  I've only skimmed these issues, but Spec. is apparently
> trying to keep Naziism from further infesting the American body
> politic, while wrestling with his own (sometimes literal) demons.
> 
> (And I'm wondering just what that power change is going to do to the
> very concept of Big Blue fighting for "truth, justice and the
> American way"!)
> 
> Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
> 

AsB4

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner