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October 11, 2013
Sequential arts
"Why is it that--in movies and in comics--genre fiction completely and comprehensively kicks not-genre-fiction's ass?"
Here's what I think it is: when the medium is not just visual, but about visual storytelling in time, genre films and comics can make some promises that fully grown-up movies and comics can't.
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The beauty of Star Wars is based on nouns--robots, space ships, and lasers that are only ever present when they can be made beautiful whereas the beauty of Manhattan is based on adjectives--dark, contrasty, mysterious, bold--applied to something (real life) we know is capable, at any moment, of boring us.
The genre film, by it's very structure, can promise more nouns and verbs where the opening nouns and verbs came from. They have a Chekhovish visual logic.
...
The beauty of Star Wars is based on nouns--robots, space ships, and lasers that are only ever present when they can be made beautiful whereas the beauty of Manhattan is based on adjectives--dark, contrasty, mysterious, bold--applied to something (real life) we know is capable, at any moment, of boring us.
The genre film, by it's very structure, can promise more nouns and verbs where the opening nouns and verbs came from. They have a Chekhovish visual logic.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 11, 2013 08:47 AM