Comics and Not Comics
by Jeet Heer
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Our new site looks great, so I’m ashamed that my first post will be a series of quick pointers, not an impassioned and well-researched essay like the other guys have been writing lately.
Here are are few things I think people on this site will be interested in:
1.Not comics, science fiction. R. Fiore has a very good essay on changes in the science fiction field, jumping off from an earlier piece by Tim Hodler (or T. Hobler, as Fiore called him in an earlier draft of the essay). Go here.
2. Not comics, climate change. I have a long article in today’s Globe and Mail on the attempt by some bloggers to discredit the science of climate change. Think about it this way: if the world heats up and we face an environmental catastrophe, it’ll be hard to enjoy comics. Go here.
The core paragraph:
The key objection to the work of bloggers such as Mr. McIntyre is that they are engaged in an epic game of nitpicking: zeroing in on minor technical issues while ignoring the massive and converging lines of evidence that are coming in from many disciplines. To read their online work is to enter a dank, claustrophobic universe where obsessive personalities talk endlessly about small building blocks – Yamal Peninsula trees, bristlecones, weather stations – the removal of which will somehow topple the entire edifice of climate science. Lost in the blogging world is any sense of proportion, or the idea that science is built on cumulative work in many fields, the scientists say.
3. Not comics, everything else. Earlier this week I was on the Michael Coren show as part of an arts panel. We talked abut everything under the sun (Sarah Palin and the Family Guy, Sikhs in werewolf movies, a new comedy about suicide bombers, the Olympics, Tiger Woods). Everything but comics. Go here.
Labels: R. Fiore
Oh please, the “science” is being discredited on it’s own terms, as more comes out about their horrible methods and outright lying.
http://www.noteviljustwrong.com/
climategate.com
http://www.minnesotansforglobalwarming.com/m4gw/
http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.co.uk/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5206383248165214524#
How could debunking specific claims be called “nitpicking”? The entire case for AGW is built upon those increasingly falsified claims. When they presented the “science”, did you write an editorial about how those claims amount to “nitpicking”?
Hey guys — I hope neither of you are offended, but you’ve both made your points, and I think it would be best if we ended this discussion before it goes any further. There are many, many other places online to argue about politics and science. If you want to keep discussing it, please do so via e-mail or elsewhere. I hope neither of you takes this the wrong way. Thanks.
I’m all with your comment T. but why post Uland’s (Luke P.’s) comments?
If you aren’t going to allow Jeet to respond (assuming he’d bother) Ulands comments should be deleted.
Tim’s right, of course, this is not the place to debate the issue, so I won’t repsond to Luke’s comments. I do think that people who read this site might be interested in glimpsing my non-comics writing, but maybe I’m wrong on that point. In which case, I won’t link like this again.
I’m content with leaving it as is. I think it’s generally safe to assume that comments are open as long as they’re relevant to the subject(s) of the post, right?
Hi Luke — this one was my fault, not yours. I put the article up because I thought it would be of interest but it wasn’t my intent to start a political discussion. The last thing I want is for this site to replicate the atmosphore found in the Comics Journal message board, or elsewhere. So from now on, strictly comics.
Jeet:
I must say, however, that some of the discussion on the Michael Coren show touched upon some issues of what is funny/not funny, which is highly relevant to me at this time, and I therefore appreciated hearing that discussion. As for the sports talk– that ate up too much of the roundtable time. Also– looking forward to that book you mentioned working on.
Cheers,
r.