Our Shrinking Culture: Movies and Cultural Literacy

BreakPoint ^ | 4 August 03 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

Critics were very hard on the recent film THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Roger Ebert, citing the movie's "idiotic dialogue . . . and general lunacy," proclaimed, "What a mess."

But what a colleague of mine, who saw the film, found most troubling about his experience was not what happened on screen but in the audience -- something that illustrates our incredible shrinking culture.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is based on a comic book series of the same name. It is set in 1899 in a world where the great characters of nineteenth-century fiction are real. You have Jules Verne's Captain Nemo interacting with H. G. Wells's Invisible Man and Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.

As a result, the film, like the comic, is filled with amusing references and allusions to nineteenth-century literature. At least, it would be amusing if the audience caught the references. In his review, Washington-area film critic Joe Barber wondered if the audience could be expected to be familiar with these books.

Judging by the showing my colleague attended, Barber's concerns are correct. Early in the movie, Nemo introduces the others to his first mate who tells them, "Call me Ishmael" -- the first line from MOBY DICK. The audience around my colleague had puzzled expressions on their faces. The joke, requiring cultural literacy, flew right past them.

Historian E. D. Hirsch would not be surprised. In his great book CULTURAL LITERACY, Hirsch writes that American children, including those from affluent families, are not being taught "the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world." Not only do they not get references to classic literature, but words like carpetbagger, Waterloo, and Alamo mean nothing to them.

It shouldn't surprise us then that this "cultural illiteracy" would be reflected in our popular entertainment. Forty years ago, THE MUSIC MAN featured a song whose lyrics went, "I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more 'A.'" Most of the audience today would miss the reference to Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER and the meaning of the lyrics that, in this case, glorify adultery.

To accommodate our illiteracy, this summer's fare is taken from comic books, television shows, video games, and even a theme-park ride. As Thomas Hibbs of Baylor University has noted, movies, like the rest of popular culture, are being dumbed down: They are entirely self-referential.

These pop-culture references are increasingly the only shared references in our culture. The participants on VH-1's I LOVE THE EIGHTIES know more about the hairstyles worn by musicians in that decade than they know about the Declaration of Independence or the great books of our history.

The problem is not only that this glorifies the trivial and the fleeting, but it deprives us of the moral guidance and wisdom that only knowledge of our own heritage can provide.

Thus, Christians should act counterculturally by setting an example of cultural literacy for our neighbors to follow. Call us here at BreakPoint (1-877-3-CALLBP), and we will suggest some good resources. Not only is it a good way to preserve our moral heritage, but it will even enable you to go to the movies and enjoy the jokes.

[Petronski]

Yep. Kipling.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Twain gets credit for a lot of things. This one is, indeed, T.R. Marshall.

[Question_Assumptions]

The problem isn't that modern comic/SF/fantasy authors rip off their ideas. The problem is that they are fans. Imagine Shakespeare as a fanboy of Italian plays, for example, and what his work might have looked like.

[discostu]

What it would have looked like was Othello. But the difference was Shakespeare looked at some other plays and saw something cool and took it to another level, the fanboys writing now would do nothing new with it they'd just try really hard to do it again.

[Question_Assumptions]

Whoops. Crossed replies. (One of the reasons that I wish Free Republic was "threaded".)

Yes, Shakespeare stole but he improved and made things his own. To combine this with my earlier thought, modern comic writers could learn a thing or two from Shakespeare. It actually isn't fair to single out any particular element of Shakespeare for praise. Once could read and enjoy him for the poetry/language, for the characters, or for the plot. One of the more interesting proposals for a national education standard I've heard (in National Review, I think) was to require every high school student to pick a Shakespeare play and write a paper about it as a requirement for graduation. It would help create a common culture such that people could talk about which play they picked in social situations.

[discostu]

Kids aren't doing papers on Shakespeare?! I did five, Romeo and Juliet for Freshman English, King Lear (my favorite) and Macbeth for Sophomore, Midsummer Night's Dream in Junior (good timing because I'd just gotten into psycho-actives), and Hamlet as a Senior.

I still hate Hamlet, not for the play itself but for how everybody treats the title character, where all the books and my teacher and my suck-up classmates saw this renaissance man I still see the original Zonker Harris a perpetual student afraid of responsibility. I remember getting in trouble during class discussion for declaring that Hamlet's tragic flaw was being chicken sh!t.

Actually I guess I'm not into the play much either, lots of soliloquies, I never liked those, Shakespeare's love of iambic pentameter for soliloquies always put me in a trance, after about three lines all my brain hears is "da-duh da-duh da-duh da-duh da-(rhyming syllable)". Good actors tend to break the meter up and break the trance, trying to read that junk off the page was one of the most arduous tasks of my youth.

[Question_Assumptions]

I don't even think they think children are little adults. I think they found out they could make comics for grown ups and have never looked back.

True. They probably simply don't imagine a child walking into a comic book store and picking up one of these books. Of course they also probably don't imagine the reaction that a parent might have if their child does bring one of these comic books home and they see the content.

Eventually I think they'll need to split each company into two sections, one that's CCA (or some equivalent) and makes comics for kids and ones that's no holds barred and makes comics for adults.

Interesting idea, but I'm wondering what will really draw kids in.

The big problem with the fanboy problem is that there's so little originality. Fantasy is ruled by people that want to be Tolkien when they grow up, comics are primarily done by Frank Miller wannabes, everybody in sci-fi is either worshiping Rodenberry or Gibson. Nobody seems to learn something from their mentor and go off in a new direction, everybody is instead trying to replicate.

I think it is more than that. When Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, he had participated in WWI and had seen the Battle of Somme. Roddenberry had written for television shows in genres other than Science Fiction. I get the impression that a lot of the fans know the world only through the lens of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. While that looks and feels a lot like a lack of originality, I think the problem is much deeper -- I think it is a lack of depth and understanding about how the world works. How can someone who knows reality vicariously, second-hand, through watching Star Trek and reading science fiction novels write believable characters and situations that are original?

That's why in general I stick with the big names that are constantly being ripped off, or I break out of genre completely, I've read more Elmore Leonard in the last two years than all genre fiction combined, he's so much more entertaining and interesting, and if he is ripping somebody off I've never heard of them so I don't care.

I actually read a lot of non-fiction these days. A friend keeps suggesting that I try non-genre fiction and maybe I should.

One of the reasons that I speak so highly of Kurt Busiek is that he does an excellent job of writing believable human characters and plots that tell me something interesting about the world. While JMS did an excellent job with Babylon 5, I have mixed feelings about Rising Stars. Some very good ideas and great characters but some of the characters and situations (e.g., the religious kid) were just too cliched and forced. I also liked Kingdom Come quite a bit.

I think that part of what I also don't like about the modern graphic novels is the darkness and nihilism. Another reason why I like Astro City is that Kurt Busiek is a Silver Age guy and he isn't trying to tear down heroes while giving them a realistic treatment. I liked that about Kingdom Come, as well. I can also live without some of the leftist politics -- I gave up on the Stormwatch and The Authority. There was some good stuff there but too much anti-Americanism and such.

[discostu]

Yeah at this point the comic industry is writing for adults almost exclusively, while there's a market for it there's not enough of a market. As for drawing kids in, that's simple go back to the type of story telling they did before Alan Moore wrote Watchmen (IMHO the greatest story ever told in comic book form). That's the era being labeled the Green Age (as opposed to Golden Age and Silver Age, green for the money they made), both Marvel and DC had half a dozen titles with circulations in the millions. The stories were good, there were a few adult themes (like alcoholism, loyalty, the usual love garbage) but it was put in a way a 10 year-old could read and not go asking troubling questions of their parents and could even be instructive when the kid grew up. Of course it'll take some time to rebuild the fanbase (X-Men was the top hit with a circulation of 7 million, last I heard it's now the top hit with a circulation of 200,000) but we know that path leads to high circulation.

Definitely, I didn't think about it until you mentioned it but now that you jar the memories of some convention conversations I see it entirely. Way too many people in genre have no experience outside of it, about the only ones you can count on to have any knowledge of things outside genre are the ones into alternate history and the miniscule numbers that sub-genre puts up tells you how many people are in that list.

OK I had to do some poking on Amazon, I knew that name was familiar but couldn't place it. I've seen his stuff and wondered about Astro City, I'm sure I've read some of his stuff as a small timer in the sweatshop (I was primarily a Marvel junky, except for Batman).

[janetgreen]

who don't know Michaelangelo as anything but a ninja turtle

...sadly laughing at the truth of this statement.

[hadrianswall]

I saw The League of Extraordinary Gentleman recently and
I liked it. The graphics were really good but I mainly liked the literary references. I understood most of them
especially the one about the "Phantom of the Opera."
The dialogue was clever and the whole thing was well
acted. In order to understand the movie, people should
bone up on classic literature at least so they'll know
who the characters are. There are countless references
made to Romeo and Juliet in today's culture, but a lot of people don't know that "Where for art thou" means 'Why are you' not 'Where are you'.

The thing about literature is that is reflective of the period it represents. Though often fictionalized, it
offers a taste of both the author's creativity and imagination and history. The key to understanding modern
time is to understand what came before. A well-rounded
person knows not only about the culture of that time
but also what took place during that period in time.
What is culture really, but a reflection of what goes on
during any given period.

A lot of people think classic literature is a waste of time. I've even heard people grumble about having to read "Frankenstein." I also heard people say that some of the words in "The Time Machine" were mispelled. What they fail to realize is that the spelling of those words was correct at that time. Even the dialogue in "Lord of
The Rings" had to be appropriate, otherwise everyone
would go around talking like Duke Nuke'em [from the
computer game]. Which is exactly why the dialogue in the
remake of "Romeo and Juliet" didn't work.

Many references are made in today's society about classic works. This just proves that classics have
remarkable longevity and endurance, much like "Dorian
Gray." They could be exposed to fatal portraits, or
a stake driven through their heart like in "Dracula."
Or they may simply disapear like "The Invisible Man."
But they will never really be destroyed.
Even though the characters may die in their stories, their works remain immortal. Classics cannot and will not be killed!

[handk]

Nevermind literary references, have you ever watched "Street Smarts"?

How many moons does Earth have?
Four!

What is the name of the country immediately north of the United States?
Poland.

Name one country located on the continent of South America.
South Africa! No, Somalia!

Who was the first American president to appear on television?
Abraham Lincoln!

Or how about the guy, a law student in Las Vegas, and working at a law firm, when asked to pronounce the word "judicial" -- pronounced it as "JOO-duh-cal".

[hadrianswall]

Funny thing. Did you ever see "The Golden Girls"?
Well there was this one episode where Dorothy was
proud that she was going to teach a class with high IQ's
who knew that Chekov was a play writer and not somebody
from "Star Trek." To this Rose made one of her not-so-bright
observations that she didn't know the guy from "Star Trek"
wrote plays. Fairly recently I saw "Airheads" which is an
Adam Sandler movie. There was this one part where they
were talking about the movie "Moby Dick" and how there
was book with the same name. Steve Buschemi replied with
something like "Oh! There's a book too? Cool!"

[Young Werther]

Puhlese! Michaelanelo is an Italian Cargo Module constructed to support the International Space Station. Along with Rafael and Donatello, you have a trio of ninja cargo modules!

Isn't it sad that the most obvious lack of literary knowlegde exists in the entertainment field. The story tellers don't have a story to tell! Comic strips and 60s TV series are the stuff that dreams are made of???

[Mr. Silverback]

Either way, it's just Moby Dick, I'm pretty sure someone can live a full and rich life and never read it.

I have so far. Heck, I haven't even seen the movie version.

[janetgreen]

Reminds me of young people and music. They don't realize that many of the beautiful movie themes and background music that they hear are actually classics. They say "wow, I wonder who wrote that?". Many of them never heard a piece of classical music in their lives. Oh well, I guess I'm getting old and cranky...

[Mr. Silverback]

What was your take on The Watchmen?

[LexBaird]

Reading Shakespeare is all well and good, but the proper way to experience the Bard is to see his work performed.

[discostu]

I think the Watchmen is the best story ever told in comic book form. I also think it was the first step in destroying the industry. With Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Sandman suddenly everybody wanted to do dark comics dealing with adult emotions, unfortunately it turns out you need to be a very good story teller to pull it off and other than Miller, Moore, and Gaiman there aren't many up to the task.

[T'wit]

You make a nice point. This was indeed comprehensible to audiences in the late 50s and early 60s (the Broadway version opened in 1957, I think, with the great Barbara Cook as Marian. Cook, now in her 70s, is still delighting audiences with her singing, and somewhere, the Music Man is always playing.)

Book, lyrics and music all by Meredith Willson -- a rare three-bagger on Broadway. The show has THREE pairs of songs that were sung in harmony. Both Broadway and Hollywood versions had the great barbershop champions, the Buffalo Bills, to harmonize! The whole thing was amazing. The song "Till there was you" won every award in sight and I believe it was the only Broadway song ever recorded by the Beatles. The hard-boiled NY critics came away muttering to themselves, talking about "corn" and loving the show despite themselves. (You can see, I'm very fond of the show :-) )

But consider. Gilbert & Sullivan, writing for popular audiences in the Victorian era, eighty years earlier, got away with lyrics like this:

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's or Sir Caradoc's,
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolus.
I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies,
I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes,
Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore,
And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
...
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you every detail of Caractacus's uniform;
In short, in matters animal and vegetable and mineral
I am the very model of a modern major general.

Some people still understand this, too :-)

[T'wit]

I used to live in a small Hoosier town where Marshall had his home -- big red brick affair on N. Harrison street (guess who Indiana's only president was). The house is still there. It now houses the county United Fund.