The Cognitive Impact of Early Childhood Comic Book Reading (and Constantine)

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Okay so I watched Constantine and having not read comix for yrs. and yrs. and yrs. had pretty much no foreknowledge or preconceptions going in. I missed the first few minutes, so they might have explained it, but otherwise when he summoned Gabriel near the end out of the ether with the two tattoo things on his arms I had no idea what the tattoos were or that they could do that or what else they could do or anything.

It only hit me much later that I just sort of shrugged and thought "oh, okay, those tattoos are for angel summoning then, among perhaps other magic things" and left it at that.

I then realized that this was contrary to whole bunches of ppl. I know who go NUTS trying to figure out partially explained things in films, books, conversations, ANYTHING.

I then realized that maybe early childhood comic book reading jumping into the middles of series sort of accustomed you to think in a certain way, to accept new developments and partial information, and not to ask distracting questions that got in the way of COOL STORY EXCITEMENT. And that this is perhaps a great life skill?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 5 March 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

sterling there was a article linked on "crooked timber" (which i think i linked to freaky trigger), where a lit prof wz puzzlin at the fact that his students — reading a not particularly demanding book (i *think* it was by neil gaiman) — were simply not making the connections that "good reading" requires (eg not carrying information in their memory until the pay-off), and thus not following what wz going on

he wz rooting his puzzlement in yr point — that tv, films and comics, read closely — make very similar demands, and use similar devices, so he wz wondering where the tumble in concentration had occurred...

the upshot was a discussion along the lines of "in the 60s we approved of the establishment of modes of 'literacy' NOT related to reading books - eg actually 'visual' or 'semiotic' literacy mostly - but were we wrong? maybe being good at one thing makes you bad at another etc"

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 6 March 2005 11:39 (twenty years ago)

The thing is that a proportion of the comics audience reacted in just the opposite way - me included. When I first came to comics part of the wonder was this vast arcanum of backstory which I realised one could either reject (i.e. not bother with comics) or take on trust (Sterling's option) or try and investigate, which is the road to ruin and obsessive fandom. I could say that comics literacy is what pushed me towards being an (amateur) historian, that desire to find the backstory, the origin, collect the complete run (this is the hidden motive of Popular I've just realised - treating pop music as if it has a continuity!)

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 6 March 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

I dunno if taking on trust is opposed to searching out backstory? It is opposed to giving up, or *refusing* to formulate and reformulate partial theories of backstory as one goes along -- in which case the urge to investigation is a sort of satisfaction of "response of the real" -- i.e. confirming that one's own theory of backstory matches what is written. (As opposed to those who, lacking backstory, refuse to move forward, or ask random questions to everyone w/in earshot).

Dunno if this is a visual vs. nonvisual type thing. Movies are quite good at telegraphing crude forshadowing with at *this* will be important later moment. (Just watched Alien v. Predator and it was laughably overt on this count, tho it made enormous historic gaffes, such as precision with the Aztec calendar over a span of centuries when the Aztecs had the y2k problem in spades, and reading a NONEXTANT inca glyph system, but i digress..)

But I guess it might be the whole idea of puzzle-solving that lacks? I mean there are the narrative-games school of puzzle-solving movies these days (usually relying on some crazy twist -- i.e. memento) and the "oh zany it all comes together!" films (pulp fiction derived often) but the classic detective hunt has been replaced by a sort of "explain the clues as we go" thrillah, as opposed to the type of sf plot where the unfolding of the backstory is the thrill-ride in itself? (another thing that struck me about avp -- these people are in a "pyramid" full of revalations that call the whole of human history into question and there's not even a little big of magnificent awe of discovery!)

A sense of delayed reaction and randomness in causation is maybe what comix provide?

Crooked Timber post is here:
http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002889.html

Article itself is here:
http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2004/11/american-gods-in-high-school-classroom.html

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 6 March 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

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