joreth | Media Reflections

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I often hear or see things in popular media, such as television, radio, comic strips, etc., that provoke a long, complicated internal analyzation and I decided I should get these thoughts out of my head. So I'm going to start posting quotes, youtube links, and images of things I hear and see that give me something to think about (and usually I have a strong opinion about, but not always). I think I'm going to arrange it in a format such that the initial post is nothing but the quote, image, or video file, then give people a chance to comment if they'd like. Then, in a comment, I will include my own thoughts on the subject unless the original post speaks for itself.

So, here's the first one. I don't know how regular these will be, since I tend to be irregular myself when it comes to internet interactions, but we'll see how it goes.

Current Mood: introspective

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Hmm, I could be totally wrong here, but given some experience trying to write comic strips, that one now reads like: author had a good idea for a joke, that the question, "What are you doing?" is usually asked when what the person is doing is obvious... it's more about the emotional reaction, the why are you doing that, and the attempt to make someone assume that what they are doing is wrong. Then put in the punch line, is that a trick question? to try to convey that, but needed a setup, and just grabbed any setup that would work and had some mild humor value.

The strip is okay, but not brilliant, and I think the setup is weak.

That's what it makes me think of.

While I agree with you about everything you said, what struck me about this particular strip was that I was put in Calvin's position very often growing up, so I feel sort of nostalgic about it. Everything I did or tried to do seemed obvious and natural to me, but it seemed to come across like hammering nails into a coffee table to my parents, accompanied by the typical emotional knee-jerk reaction and waves of disapproval.

And sometimes I just wanted to put nails in the coffee table, which has no purpose, other than to hammer nails into something, which now I can do with no one looking over my shoulder and complaining that I'll ruin the coffee table.

My upbringing was very different, so to me it strikes me as a cliche' thing to say that is part of the culture, but not something I'm actually used to encountering.

I discovered last week just how much distance I have put between myself and my family. I was raised strictly middle-class, Middle American. Everything about my upbringing was normal, even the bizarre parts. What made my life so strange and what made the bizarre parts actually bizarre ... was me.

I realized last week that I don't know anyone anymore who comes from a similiar background. For all the thousands of Americans who grew up in cultures just like mine, or who desire to attain the lofty heights of Middle Class, I managed to create a social circle comprised of absolutely no middle-class children. It's kind of strange.