![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Or, the project about which I was being sort of coy because I wasn't sure how much I should say in public before it actually appeared.
Strange Horizons Columns: Anyone for Blasphemy?, by Iain Jackson:
I can't describe how shocked I was to be asked to do this, or how glad I am that they asked!
It's a regular gig, a monthly column on comics as speculative fiction. I have to say, until I was asked to do the column, I hadn't really thought of comics as speculative fiction. But then, if you're flinging superpowered people, beings, entities, what have you, around the universe, into and out of civilizations that could only exist in someone's imagination ... well, what else is that but speculative fiction?
I think I even have the idea for the next column, assuming that it gets preliminary approval.
Strange Horizons Columns: Anyone for Blasphemy?, by Iain Jackson:
What do you believe?
Faith and religion can be used in fiction, speculative or otherwise, to show how your characters are or are not like others in their society, how faith or lack of it shapes and forms them and their reactions. This is true even when your world is this one at a slight remove. (Or not so slight, as the case may be.) But sometimes, the mix of comics and religion can just be . . . odd.
I can't describe how shocked I was to be asked to do this, or how glad I am that they asked!
It's a regular gig, a monthly column on comics as speculative fiction. I have to say, until I was asked to do the column, I hadn't really thought of comics as speculative fiction. But then, if you're flinging superpowered people, beings, entities, what have you, around the universe, into and out of civilizations that could only exist in someone's imagination ... well, what else is that but speculative fiction?
I think I even have the idea for the next column, assuming that it gets preliminary approval.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I think it comes down to (sort of, kind of) what Mrs. Johnson is talking about, to the extent that you have to decide what kind of faith to go with. Belief in the human spirit, in the power of doing good deeds, in making the world a better place for as many people as possible...
Anyway, *that's* the kind of faith superhero comics are built on, which is as it should be. I mostly, at this point, just try not to think about the presence of gods and everything that means. And the characters in my head mostly do the same, except for when they choose to torture themselves.
From:
no subject
Thanks!
Periodically these questions bubble up in my brain, and I mostly just flail around a bit until the thoughts make me gurgle. Then I think about other things. Because, yes, what *is* the point of faith in universes like these?
Well, exactly. Does faith count when, say, the fallen Angel Zauriel pops up and says, "Excuse me, but we're having Armageddon in your back yard today. You might want to go visit the next planet over," and you look up and see the heavenly host, weapons at the ready, heading off to battle Mageddon or whoever.
Anyway, *that's* the kind of faith superhero comics are built on, which is as it should be. I mostly, at this point, just try not to think about the presence of gods and everything that means. And the characters in my head mostly do the same, except for when they choose to torture themselves.
You know ... THAT is the one way in which I haven't seen you torture your characters! Maybe you could do it in your NML stories...
From:
no subject
*cackles* Often, I crack myself thinking about Batman, and how he probably really, really *wants* to be an atheist. The atheists he's peered in on and occasionally beat up seem so happy!
You know ... THAT is the one way in which I haven't seen you torture your characters! Maybe you could do it in your NML stories...
*cackles* Oh, man. It's bad enough trying to write around the idiocy of having NONE OF THE OTHER SUPERHEROES HELP.
Tim: *says a quiet prayer*
Bruce: "No! This is MY CITY."
Tim: "...I might have been praying to the Scary Bat God. You can't know for sure."
Bruce: "... all right. That's fine."
From:
no subject
Comics are totally speculative fiction. They're fantasy and science fiction and a double-handful of assorted mythology dumped in a blender in preparation for four-colour process printing.
From:
no subject
It seems perfectly obvious, in retrospect, that comics are clearly speculative fiction, but they always seemed to be their own thing, you know? Superhero comics, and other comics, and off over there is speculative fiction, and I just never thought to think of them in the same group.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject