Some more thoughts on Frank Miller’s work and a stupid–but at least brief–poem
Reading a bit more of Miller’s Batman: Year One. I think Miller has a good sense of the aesthetics of violence. I am not a film specialist, but I think film critics said Sam Peckinpah’s movies were similar.
There is a kind of eroticism to some violence. They taught us when I was young that good sex between a man and a woman needs a certain amount of friction. I think the basic tendency to other kinds of violence is similar. Jane’s Addiction has a song called “Sex is Violent.” There is a link between the two, even though we think of romantic love as only being gentle. Freud said the two driving factors in human life are eros and thanatos, the will to life and the desire for death; I think even wanting to fight is in a way a kind of eros.
Some lines from Miller’s graphic novel: “They did just enough to keep me out of the hospital… ‘Detective Flass? He’s off duty, Lieutenant, probably at the poker party over Chute’s. With the guys.’ …can’t let Barbara see me like this…”
And another weird poem.
“Oh Man” by yours truly
Oh no! Mr. Man again.
He has a plan to invade Afghanistan again.
Well, he may. And, he can again.
Out of the fire, and into the pan… again.