Avoiding actual work again, I came across an amusing illustrated paraphrase of the first appearance of the original comic book villain called The Monk (Detective Comics #31/32, reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told). It's from a blog called "Once I noticed I was on fire, I decided to relax and enjoy the fall". That name sounds familiar; I'm pretty sure I've seen it in other comics-bloggers' links lists.
This "Ezrael" guy has been keeping it for quite a while, and any time I find a blog that dates back 4 years or more, I immediately check to read entries from around September 11, 2001. Just sort of a reflex, I guess, but I've long been fascinated by people's responses to that super-charged time (which already feels so long ago, doesn't it?). There was so much bullshit being spewed at the time, between the kneejerk flag-waving and the talk about how everything would suddenly be different and we'd never again enjoy mindless escapist movies and Halloween was suddenly an inappropriate holiday and so on and so on. There are plenty of post-9/11 entries here, and although I confess I've just kind of skimmed them so far (as is my wont), I really like the basic sentiments expressed: initial shock/grief, followed by some beautifully sane stuff about the madness of national ID cards, war fever, etc., as well as the way they're expressed. Well worth reading--for different reasons than the Monk recap, of course, but I appreciate both the humor and the sober insight.
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Wow, that has to be the fastest turnaround time between posting something and hearing from the subject I've ever experienced!
Funny you should describe your post-9/11 reaction as a "breakdown," in terms of becoming more strident. That pretty much describes me at the time, too. I cringed for a while when the moment passed and I thought back on things I said and did in those hazy, crazy days. But now that even more time has passed, and we've seen how the flagwavers' thirst for vengeance morphed into a war on a completely unrelated country, I'm kinda thinking it was the nation as a whole that had the breakdown. Maybe ours was more of a breakthrough...
After all, a little stridency is not such a bad thing in certain circumstances.
Since my post a few hours ago, I've wasted even more of my not-so-free time poring over your blog. Actually, "wasted" is surely not the right word: I've enjoyed it, I've laughed at the funny parts, I've admired the turns of phrase. No, the "wasted" part came when I actually pulled that Greatest Batman Stories book down off my shelf and pored over that for the umpteenth time.
More Bat-writing coming? Bring it on!
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