EPISODE 631: DEAD CLOWNS IN A DARK ALLEY
Welcome to Peopleton.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi, welcome to Daylight Savings Time, or as I like to call it, Happy in the Morning, Happy at Noontime, OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LIGHT.
So yeah, it’s the downward slope now into darkness and cold. I’ve got heavy jackets, I’ve got sweaters, I’ve got winter boots. I’m excited for the change after eleven years in Los Angeles, and also, based on the fact that my therapist had to remind me that life does not just stop in the winter, probably a little anxious.
I’m not sure things would be any better if we didn’t mess with the clocks, but honestly I’d like to give it a go. Somehow it seems a lot worse to be going home in the dark than getting up in it.
Of course by late December we’ll have both. Just the Christmas gift we all wanted!
So apparently no one likes Eternals? (Actually, that’s just what a bunch of critics are saying. So huge grain of salt required.) It only makes me want to see it and like it the more. It definitely seems like a Marvel movie with some radically different concepts at its center—about a dozen new characters, a time span of thousands of years, a beloved Asian-American indy director.
What I hear is that it’s got so much stuff going on—again, that’s a dozen new super hero characters to introduce, all at once--that it ends up having to be mostly exposition just to explain it. And also, that it’s forced to use the standard quippy joke joke Marvel voice, which may not fit this world.
I’ve found my appetite for the Marvel show greatly diminished post-pandemic. Some of it is just Time Moves On For All Things, but I think some of it is that the Marvel shows on Disney+ have poisoned the well a bit. Each of them had some great things, but all of them ended up feeling like they were just here to set up the next movies and more or less unnecessary.
(Also, as I’ve written elsewhere, it’s just appalling to see a company that’s making so much money off its IP not sharing any of that with the women and men who actually created it. Literally every single element of the new Hawkeye TV show, from the basic plot and characters to the visual signature in the ads, comes from comic book creators Matt Fraction and David Aja. And they are not getting anything for any of it.)
It really is quite a project that Marvel has undertaken for itself, to continue to produce high quality super hero films three or four times a year plus TV shows without saturating the market. I give it credit for the attempt. But I’d also like to believe when you treat your creators as poorly as Marvel does, eventually it’s going to catch up to you.
Also apparently people are banning books again? Not that it ever ended, but it’s in the news again.
One of the books that’s gotten some attention is “Gender Queer”, a graphic novel memoir about a young person slowly coming to the understanding that they’re non-binary, that is to say they don’t identify as being either male or female but draw elements from both and use different pronouns such as “they/them”.
I had the chance to read “Queer” over the summer. I really liked it. It’s drawn in this very open and cartoonish way that really captures the innocence of author Maia Kobabe. And you end up taking the journey to self-discovery with them. If you’re at all puzzled by the idea of nonbinary people or the use of different pronouns, I recommend it so highly.
At the heart of it the book banning seems to be about “protecting kids” from “dangerous ideas”, aka “I’m afraid that reading “Gender Queer” will make my baby sick in the head.” Which is obviously messed up and also sad, as really the book is an attempt to help queer kids understand what they’re going through. If you think “nonbinary” is hard for you to understand, try being the 10 or 15 year old person for whom the standard gender categories don’t fit. Where do you turn? Now imagine somebody’s parents trying to keep you (or your child) from resources that could help. It’s pretty messed up.
“Gender Queer” is available on Kindle and also in print. Could be a great Christmas present for someone, and a great way to reject some really bad thinking about society and sexuality.
Kobabe wrote/drew a column for The Washington Post about finding out that suddenly, 2 ½ years after they released “Queer”, it was suddenly this conservative cause célèbre. It’s well worth a read.
Cecily Strong had quite a powerful bit on SNL Saturday.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a woman talk like she does about the shame and isolation that comes with having an abortion.
Personally I feel like the more the Catholic Church publicly shames politicians and women for being pro-choice, the harder it is for people to continue to support its position. And the more damage it does to its own people, too. Every time a priest gets up in the pulpit and talks about how he’d refuse to give Joe Biden communion—which I saw a number of people describe happening last weekend—they might think they’re just taking on Joe Biden (and hey, good luck with that, the man’s been through everything, he will eat you for lunch). But those priests are also undoubtedly and maybe unconsciously shaming a lot of other people in their own parish, who have had abortions or are pro-choice or supported someone that went through one. Those Catholics may very well leave—or, and this may be worse, stay and not go to communion and hate themselves.
I also resonate strongly with Cecily’s description of how amazing it is when one woman takes the risk of sharing she had an abortion and then that gives others the freedom to do the same. It’s pretty similar among gay clergy. So many of us live with it like it’s a dirty secret. But when someone opens up it liberates everyone to share their stories.
When it comes to matters of sexuality, the Catholic Church in the United States is usually all hammer, pounding away on the same messages that hurt people and—you would think more importantly for the mission of the church—persuade NO ONE. The Church would do so much better, I think, to stay out of the politics and brutal negativity completely and just present the positive images of life that it ascribes to. Give people something to imagine for themselves, rather than attempt to destroy their self-esteem or their livelihoods.
It’s definitely more likely to be successful. But it’s also just a much more Christ-ian image of church.
THREE TWEETS
Tall Yoda is terrifying and must not be allowed.
I actually think a Jar Jar Binks-led Meesa sounds better than a Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta. Which tells you how bad it is.
This next tweet requires you to click on it to see the fun, which is Substack being Substack, apparently. But it is fun if you do.
It’s November. We’ve still got pretty leaves here in New York. If they still have them where you are, hope you can give yourself some time to just sit and enjoy them.
(Remember last year, when we had nothing but time?)
See you next week…