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Rafferty — Fingers Pointing At Moons
Published: 2009-04-07 16:47:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 1101; Favourites: 15; Downloads: 15
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Description
Meditations on art, fan fiction, intellectual property ... and a rebuttal to [link]Avery, Felicia, Ozy (c) 1998-2009 D. C. Simpson.
Read more at [link]
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Comments: 13
I enjoyed both strips.
I thought they both made relevant and interesting points. Neither strikes me as being more or less "right" than the other...and as a result, I find it curious that there is friction here, based on what appears to be a perceived slight of wording rather than an intended one of real differences.
I see, however, no particular reason that something must be EITHER emotional OR intellectual before one has the itch to "get it out on paper"...which is what both of you did.
Ironically, I see something paralleling this discussion in Raine's throwaway tagline...it's a conclusion based on an assumption with no supporting evidence. No, not whether or not God exists --- but whether or not His existence would or should, of necessity, worry the reader.
It gives the appearance that the author is worried about the possible existence of a deity that he or she consoles themselves as "probably" not existing. From the author's view, since he/she is worried about God in the event He exists, everyone else should be too...thus the advice being to ignore the question of whether or not God exists in order to avoid the "need" to worry.
I found Rafferty's responses thoughtful and aimed at explaining his reasoning. I was surprised to find Raine to be terse and apparently disinterested, segueing into personal insults and even more assumptions.
Ah, well. As Phil Foglio's Buck Godot once said, "They can't all be gems..."
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Yeah, I was disappointed, too. Especially when the original submission was marked "Advanced Critique Requested". But yeah, gems.
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It's a weird chain reaction, I can't think about fan disappointment and weird ownership/entitlement complexes without thinking about the Eltingville club
but I can't think about the Eltingville club without thinking about how disappointing milk and cheese became after like issue 4 when Evan Dorkin started trying to justify their violence
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Perhaps, instead of saying "this is a rebuttal to [link]", you should have said "This is an 'advanced critique' of [link]" -- since such were requested. This is a thoughtful piece, and it raises more questions than it answers. I'm a scientist by training, if not occupation, and that's how I judge the quality of an answer: how does it stimulate further thought, examination, and discussion?
It would have been easy to just use Ozy as your mouthpiece, and have him say anything you wanted. Instead, you introduced the appropriate foils to bring up the appropriate points, and the result is very faithful to the personalities of the characters. Ozy is very Ozy. Avery is very Avery. Felicia is, like, TOTALLY Felicia.
I particularly like the way that you have AVERY, of all people, giving voice to your knee-jerk reaction of "what right does Raine have to use Lisa Simpson?" -- bringing that reaction ITSELF into question. You then immediately swing it around, however, and suggest that it's Fannish Entitlement that REALLY turns "art" into a "brand".
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I'm actually not sure I see how this is a rebuttal, since nothing here responds even indirectly to my point.
Which was simply that, to my eyes and a lot of other people's, a once socially important and vital show has, over time, lost its soul and relevance and become a mere product.
All the meditations on intellectual property, on how much fans can be said to own that of which they're fans, is certainly interesting and I don't really even disagree with you for the most part.
But I think you must have misunderstood what I said...I fear it's another example of a common phenomenon. You see it a lot; people think they're responding to you, but really they're responding to other people whose objections sound, to them, vaguely like your own. Still having the last argument, fighting the last war.
Agree or disagree with me, and by all means use my characters to tell me so. : But understand my point correctly first.
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Nostalgia is rose-colored. There are lot of bad Simpsons episodes, period, even in the golden age of the 1990s. (How many times did they use the "Mr. Burns does something evil" gag?) The problem with nostalgia is that one can cherry-pick the episodes they love and forget the ones they hate. Thus when you tune in to the 400th episode, your first response is not to judge it against the other 399 -- your first response is to judge it against the top 10% that you remember liking.
Fortunately, the AV club has done a lot of my homework for me, compiling what they believe to be the 10 Best Episodes of the last five years:
[link] ...
However, there's no way to win that argument. If you didn't like the episode listed by the AV Club, you didn't like those episdoes, no matter how many words I type.
The mental puzzle that got me thinking was the fan-fiction comic that you posted. Instead of using any of your typical avatars, you used Lisa Simpson. You had Lisa say what you wanted her to say. You could have written a blog entry, or you could have used any other cartoon avatar. Does having Lisa say something give it a different relevance than other methods?
What if I don't like what your Lisa Simpson is saying? Would "my" Lisa say what "your" Lisa is saying?
It got me wondering, what right do we have to use ANY characters?
Where do I end? Where do you begin?
Frankly, your cartoon Lisa doesn't back up any of her points. As early as 1990, the Simpsons had already been heavily merchandised with toys, t-shirts, video games, novelty CDs, and all kinds of stuff that Krusty the Klown makes fun of. Your comic ends with one panel of talking head, without offering any solid points. It's rather like a Ditko objectivist comic.
I've read your Simpsons points in your blog entries .. but that was elsewhere, not in this comic. Your comic doesn't even bother. Does having a word balloon pointing to Lisa Simpson's mouth simply make a talking point to be true? Does the avatar of Lisa Simpson have a power that, say, a talking dog wouldn't make?
You could draw anything. You drew Lisa. Why?
You'd said these points before. Why did you have to have Lisa say them?
Your blog had particular umbrage for the retroactive-continuity that had Homer as an ersatz Kurt Cobain -- this is where Avery's comment about "documenting" comes from. That's the kind of thing Avery and Felicity would do -- take particular notes to make sure everything worked the way THEY want it to work. And things that don't work the way they want should be removed or destroyed.
Is the Simpsons funny? Maybe you don't think so. Is it still funny to other people? The answer is yes, just not maybe to you.
You left a DA comment that you wished they would cancel the Simpsons. I wrote a comic where Avery and Felicity told Ozy that he should leave because he shouldn't say things they don't want him to say.
Are people enjoying THE SIMPSONS for wrong reasons? Does their enjoyment diminish YOUR enjoyment?
Where does their Lisa Simpson end and yours begin?
And in the end, who has the right to be Lisa?
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I felt bad, and I drew this, and then I felt better. And, reading the comments, it resonated with a lot of other people too.
You can like it or not like it, but I don't have to justify myself to you.
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That's the same reason I drew my thing, too.
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That's pretty obviously not the truth, since you seem to view this as an intellectual rather than an emotional issue.
I initially faved this, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to withdraw that now, because you're really starting to irritate me. I suggest to you that perhaps you should examine your own insecurities before shooting your mouth off next time.
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And, since I can already hear you typing "nor does the Simpsons have to justify itself to YOU," I want to preemptively point out that for that to be a valid criticism, you would have to point out someplace where I ever said it did.
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Oh, and also bleh, forgive my typos and grammar. Usually I'm a stickler, but I'm still on my first cup of coffee.
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Eh, not a problem. I'm already seeing typos in mine.
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