Seduction of your tastes

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Have any of you noticed comics having a deleterious effect on the rest of your tastes? And I don't mean not having any money left to buy other media; taking myself as an example, nowadays I'm only interested in feel-good popcorn films and have an aversion to watching "difficult films" (Legally Blonde is monumental and all that, but it's no Passion of Joan of Arc); I've been watching more reality tv than ever, plus the increasingly middling Joan of Arcadia; and most notably, I have lost any compulsion to read anything that doesn't have pictures.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Friday, 14 May 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

There's still a lot of coincidence involved in the fluctuations of taste -- having gone through four years of rigorous study of Literature will obviously drain whatever pleasure and motivation for reading books, though interestingly enough, at about the same time I started to hate reading did my comics thing kick into full gear. Ditto my un-film-geeking. I was always a bit of a reality tv buff though.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Friday, 14 May 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess it depends what comics you choose to immerse yourself in. i think the best comics are as (or more) "difficult" and sophisticated at least as the best films/TV/etc (maybe not the best books) so there's no feeling of "slumming" involved for me.

oddly enough, i actually find it much easier to get bored by a bad comic than a bad film.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 14 May 2004 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

as has been mentioned by Tom and myself when discussing Buffy, a childhood immersed in genre fiction comix has possibly reduced my taste for genre fiction as an adult except as nostalgia. i don't think this is to do with comix - it was telly too.

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Friday, 14 May 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I find I've been reading fewer novels recently (but don't tell anyone over at ILB- I told them I've been cutting back on the comics). I think it's all about instant gritification. I can read a comic quickly, in one sitting. I gotta commit to a book a whole lot longer and half-way through a book, I think, "Man, I coulda read, like, 2,000 comics in this time."

But the instant gratification is hollow. I feel a whole lot more satisfied after reading a nice long novel. But my tastes are all over the place; I'm currently reading the Cliffs Notes for The Iliad before I go see Troy.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 14 May 2004 11:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel the same as Amy. I've been feeling really guilty that I kind of stalled on my novel reading list (I'm still in the middle of House of Leaves). I usually read before going to sleep, and I'm always tired, so it's more appealing to pick up a comic that's easy on the eyes and has a complete story that I can finish, as opposed to getting through fifteen pages of Jonathan Lethem before conking out.

OTM about the fulfillment thing too. I re-read Watchmen recently and got that sense of accomplishement that usually comes with finishing novels, noticing only then that I had been missing it. If I can only curtail my trade-buying for awhile and keep up with singles I should actually be able to finish some books, hopefully. :>

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 14 May 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I find I've been reading fewer novels recently (but don't tell anyone over at ILB- I told them I've been cutting back on the comics).

Ach, unreliability of the narrator! How can I trust this statement?? : )

Instant gratification is urgent & key -- nearly everything I read/watch/listen to has to grab me immediately, I've long past the point where I try to sit through and get something.

Fulfillment, I find, is a bit more specific, like a classic superhero comic will thrill me and leave me with a sated sense that's quite on par and perhaps exceeds what I'd get from reading a novel. But more often than not, comics seem to top out nowadays at a level similar to very good TV dramas.

How tied up is satisfaction with the feeling of accomplishment with slogging through a "difficult" work?

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Friday, 14 May 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I'm pretty much at comics as TV replacement these days, but it has affected my book book reading somewhat.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 14 May 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I find the opposite to be true - I read comics nowadays as the one guaranteed slice of quality trash available in Pop culture. Blockbuster movies can no longer be trusted, the good stuff on TV all approaches art in its perfection (I'm thinking HBO etc) and I mainly read literary fiction.

So comics - particularly Superhero comics - are where I go for escapism and "popcorn" thrills, basically. I know I can count on Alan Moore or Grant Morison or Mark Millar or Brian K. Vaughan in a way I trust no creators in any other medium.....I wonder if this is because my expectations are lower?

― David Nolan (David N.), Friday, 14 May 2004 23:44 (twenty-one years ago)

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