Peder
Well-Known Member
Re-labeling doesn't help the problem. I really do want to get back to my goal of shifting time away from BAR and into more personal activities (memoir, poetry).
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ComiXology
- Thread starter direstraits
- Start date
Meadow337
Former Moderator
sigh LOL means it's a joke! likewise when ppl use
or 
or even better 
= FUNNY! ha ha! Laughter ensues.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
'Re-prioritizing' is a word I use maybe a little too often at work.
"What happened to so-and-so's document?"
"I was too busy, and I needed to re-prioritize."
"Yeah? Well, what about so-and-so? Did you reply his email?"
"It was re-prioritized."
"What about the training next week?"
"Re-prioritized!!!"
"What happened to so-and-so's document?"
"I was too busy, and I needed to re-prioritize."
"Yeah? Well, what about so-and-so? Did you reply his email?"
"It was re-prioritized."
"What about the training next week?"
"Re-prioritized!!!"
Peder
Well-Known Member
I would recommend two books, if you haven't already read them. One is Maus by Art Spiegelman (recommended it to you a few times now, Peder, get to it!
Just occurred to me, DS, that I owed you an update on Spiegelman's No Towers and Maus. Have now finished them both and I have to confess that I am somewhat underwhelmed by each of them.
No Towers has prevailing views that are out and out political diatribe which strikes me as irrationally over the top -- no matter how much one might dislike the (then) Bush administration. (Which means I am probably taking my life in my hands, saying that in Liberal New York, and maybe even here).
Maus is more complicated to explain. My years go back to the actual Holocaust and I can't expunge my reactions from my mind. So while I always knew of the fame of Maus as, roughly speaking, a Holocaust novel, I was a little surprised to see it as a Holocaust survivor's story. Though the horrors of extermination camps are indeed present in the novel, it seems to me that the story of survival takes the foreground at the expense of the Holocaust in the background. That anyone survived is indeed wondrous and those who managed to do so should be blessed and respected forever. However, to me the story of the Holocaust is one of extermination, not of survival, and I am disappointed in any work that makes extermination any less horrible than it was or mitigates it in any way. So I was a little disappointed. But that may be just me.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
Peder, thanks for your feedback.
I've not read No Towers, and may not now that I've read your thoughts. On Maus, though, I suppose it's our backgrounds that influence our judgement a bit. I come from a place where the Holocaust was a couple of lines in a history book. Growing up far from the sensitivities surrounding the event, I and I believe my peers grew up quite oblivious to the impact. I think even now there isn't that huge a focus on this event, because I think South East Asian cultures probably feel we're too far removed to feel any sort of connection to the problems of the West. We often hear how horrible it was, but our true education of it comes from popular culture more often than not. Schindler's List came closest, but our censors wanted to cut the sex scenes, and Spielberg insisted on it being shown in its entirety or not at all. Guess which one Malaysia chose?
That's why, while I know of the death camps and the chimneys, it was such an incredibly horrifying experience reading about it in Maus. I had no idea of what these people went through. I do think that in retelling a survivor's tale that the horrors were indeed magnified, not reduced in any way. It sort of emphasizes the scale of the effort. I have read Elie Weisel's Night earlier this year, and it's a very similar book to Maus in many ways. In it Weisel said it was merely the luck of winning a lottery that he survived, not through any skill on his part. That's precisely what I thought when I read Maus. That's frightening, and that's why I think Maus was a great piece of work.
I've not read No Towers, and may not now that I've read your thoughts. On Maus, though, I suppose it's our backgrounds that influence our judgement a bit. I come from a place where the Holocaust was a couple of lines in a history book. Growing up far from the sensitivities surrounding the event, I and I believe my peers grew up quite oblivious to the impact. I think even now there isn't that huge a focus on this event, because I think South East Asian cultures probably feel we're too far removed to feel any sort of connection to the problems of the West. We often hear how horrible it was, but our true education of it comes from popular culture more often than not. Schindler's List came closest, but our censors wanted to cut the sex scenes, and Spielberg insisted on it being shown in its entirety or not at all. Guess which one Malaysia chose?
That's why, while I know of the death camps and the chimneys, it was such an incredibly horrifying experience reading about it in Maus. I had no idea of what these people went through. I do think that in retelling a survivor's tale that the horrors were indeed magnified, not reduced in any way. It sort of emphasizes the scale of the effort. I have read Elie Weisel's Night earlier this year, and it's a very similar book to Maus in many ways. In it Weisel said it was merely the luck of winning a lottery that he survived, not through any skill on his part. That's precisely what I thought when I read Maus. That's frightening, and that's why I think Maus was a great piece of work.
Peder
Well-Known Member
Hi DireStraits,
It may well be, DS, and I can't disagree with you. If the book brought the horror of the Holocaust home to you then I can have no complaint. And if that and Wiesel are what are now available re the Holocaust then that is what the more recent generation will have to work with. (I presume, I know -- but hopefully without being condescending.)
Full disclosure: I have not read too many Holocaust books, because for the longest time I did not care to relive the horror that I already knew from when the news was fresh. I felt that I already knew as much as I needed to know about one of the worst genocides to befall mankind. I have steadfastly refused to read The Diary of Anne Frank, for example, for fear it would be just too much. It is only more recently that I have been looking at books on the subject, and they have struck me uniformly as being diluted and surprisingly calm presentations of the events while focusing interest elsewhere. (e.g. Book Thief and The Language God Speaks) So I suppose it is fair to say that I sound like a one-note song when I reply as I did to you and as I have replied to others in the past.
Anyway, I am glad you recommended Maus to me. I had to read it sooner or later. It is a good book if it brings the horrors of the Holocaust home to a new reader, and I am sorry that I sounded negative about it
Thanks for the prodding,
Peder
direstraits
Well-Known Member
Peder, c'mon. It's ok that you don't like it, there's no way that people are going to feel the same about everything.
This is such a deep subject to me. I'm just learning about this, and will always be someone who is still learning. That reminds me of a running joke I have with another former member of this forum about finishing books we disliked and abandoned while we were younger. She finished her Charles Dickens, but I have yet to complete my reading of the Diary of Anne Frank.
It's ok that you don't like it, there's no way that people are going to feel the same about everything. This is such a deep subject to me. I'm just learning about this, and will always be someone who is still learning. That reminds me of a running joke I have with another former member of this forum about finishing books we disliked and abandoned while we were younger. She finished her Charles Dickens, but I have yet to complete my reading of the Diary of Anne Frank.
Peder
Well-Known Member
Peder, c'mon.
Yes, that's certainly true, and I totally agree with it.
Good luck with your learning. Genocide (there have been others) is a dismal subject and hotly argumentative at times.
Peder
I saw Maus and a special edition Maus for sale at the Dachau KZ book shop/gift shop on Saturday. I guess that's to be expected.
Peder
Well-Known Member
Wow. There has to be a word for that. Oxymoronic isn't quite it.
Ironic hardly comes close.Spiegelman will do well (or is already doing well), but there is still something about his underlying tone that puts me off (sardonic poor-me tone, maybe), and sometimes the comic-style images don't have the gradations to follow the nuances of emotion that his words project.
But then again, Bill Maher doesn't exactly grab me either, even though everyone else laughs.
Just getting grouchy, I guess,
(and older)
Peder
Clarketacular
New Member
LOL the way you began I thought for a moment this was going to be an anti-comiXology post. I love comiXology too, and am a great proponent of digital comics in general, but yes, great app and service, very helpful staff (who do a great job tracking comments on social media and responding), and yes, love the ease and efficiency of having all my comics on a few devices.
By the way, the risk of losing your comics digitally is no different than the risk of losing physical comics if your house floods. Yes, you can buy flood insurance, but IF you can get them to pay (and that's a big if) you don't get your comics back, you get a portion of their value. Digital comics need to offset this by lowering the cost of new comics. That is my one complaint and I will never stop hammering on that point. The price point of new comics MUST be lower on the digital than their physical counterpart or it is not worth buying them new.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
I live in an area where flooding is quite unlikely, so given that I've books that I've owned for more than 20 odd years, it's a little less risky than companies that generally tend not to stay around beyond 10-15 years on average, however successful they are at their peak. Blackberry is a case in point.
The thing is building a digital media library of anything on the internet (digital goods) require you to place implicit trust on the companies' continued existence. That's why DRM-less solutions are best, but of course you lose a lot of the great service that something like iTunes store or Comixology provides. So the real solution is to *read everything thing you buy!!!*, which I never do!!!
I have a collector's mentality. Translates badly on the internets.
Meadow337
Former Moderator
I have the same opinion on e-books vs physical books.
direstraits
Well-Known Member
Agree from a consumer standpoint, but they will never cannibalize their print business.
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