Comments on: Captain America R.I.P.

By: Jan Armon

Jan Armon — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:31:20 +0000

I’m devastated. During the 1970s, when I was a huge Captain America fan, he represented the liberal American values to which I continued to cling during these horrible Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years. Never be afraid to stand up for people in need. Fight bigotry stubbornly. And you don’t need to be as strong as the people you lead. Just take responsibility. Yes, the Red, White & Blue Avenger became a symbol as powerful for me as his D.C. counterpart, Superman. Jan

By: ball*istic

ball*istic — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:36:23 +0000

On that we are agreed.

By: copernicus

copernicus — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:45:11 +0000

And just to reinforce the point about genre fiction and realism - JRR Tolkien himself said when people tried to make direct comparisons between the narrative of LotR and the Second World War that he cordially disliked allegory.

That’s certainly not to say it didn’t speak to its time or that BSG doesn’t have something to say about the War on Terror TM. But it’s not a metaphor or an allegory.

And if your point was that you interpreted my remarks as dismissing anything other than realism as art, that was like assuming I don’t consider painting to be art either, just because I didn’t make an exhaustive list. Metaphor and allegory weren’t relevant to the point I was making - see above.

Plus, The Wire has boobs.