Tennessee's long history of ignorance just got a Book Banning Fascist Veneer

Two members of the Spotsylvania County School Board in Virginia advocated for burning certain books.  Courtland representative Rabih Abuismail and Livingston representative Kirk Twigg both championed burning the books that have been removed. “I think we should throw those books in a fire,” Abuismail said. Meanwhile, Twigg said he wanted to “see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff.”

Conservatives loved Game of Thrones

Tennessee has long been known as a stupid state based in no small part for the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.  Traitor Trump won 92 of 95 counties (of course that Rightwing agitprop because two of the counties he lost were Shelby 246,000-129,000 and Davidson 199,000-100,000).  Additionally, to be fair to Tennessee, it was the Klan State of Indiana which, in 1897, attempted to legislate Pi = 3.  But now almost 100 years after fighting evolution, Tennessee Conservatives have declared Maus, the acclaimed graphic novel of Art Spiegleman about the Holocaust, to be on the list of Material Objectionable to Conservatives. 

The McMinn County School Board voted 10-0 to ban the book citing concerns over "rough" language and a nude drawing of a woman...  "It shows people hanging. It shows them killing kids. Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff?" School Board member Tony Allman 

These justifications would be ludicrous if it wasn't so fascist adjacent.  As I mentioned before the fascist Inflection point is past, we are now in the window when Fascists use bureaucratic tricks to maintain power while the openly legalize repression. 

Certainly, it always starts the same way; the GOP are censoring things for the children. Parents want their children protected from lewdness!  From UnAmerican ideologies!  Cultural Marxism, CRT, LGBTQ, Maus...

This is what the current generation of right-wingers in America crave.  Their parents were taught by Nixon and his fascist flunkies to code their language.  To substitute terms.  To use dogs whistles.  Because their grandparents were the ones beating and attacking John Lewis, screaming at Ruby Bridges, threatening to assassinate MLK Jr, and opposing Civil Rights.  But, this generation, ooh they aren't satisfied with sly allusions.  No, no no... they yearned for raw bloody racism which Trump gave them.  

What they want is what fascists have always wanted.  To control.  To blind their children from truth, from knowledge, from reality, from growth, from change, from progress, from tolerance, from freedom.  All in the hope they will grow up as bigoted, blind and vile as they are themselves. 

Always remember Fascists don't stop until they are stopped.

The Amazing Marvel Film Universe

Since 1998, when the Batman Franchise imploded under the weight of total camp and silliness, Marvel stepped up and 35 films based on Marvel Comics have been released.

The Amazing Spiderman 2, in a very poor showing, only held the Top Box-Office spot for 1 week before being knocked off by the juvenile movie Neighbors starring Seth Rogen and Zach Effron.

However, this is mostly because, The Amazing Spiderman 2 was awful. Modeled on the classic Death of Gwen Stacy storyline, the film simply failed. Besides the terrible special effects and the obligatory scenes of New Yorkers standing around gawking at explosions while NYPD vehicles exist only to be blown up, far too much film time was wasted on Electro's Origin, which followed the standard OSHA-violating industrial accident imparts super-powers to the victim who in reality would be dead.

The worst scene being the torture of Electro by the male Doctor Kafka, who wears make-up and listens to classical music while conducting experiments as an obvious cliched caricature of Doctor Josef Mengle. This character is made worse once it's understood that the inspiration for "Doctor Ashley Kafka" is an actual person.

One of the brilliant things The Dark Knight (2008) did was not show a villain creation scene for the Joker. Besides happening off screen, this also allowed Heath Ledger to taunt the audience and his on-screen victims multiple times with the 'Do ya wanna know how I got these scars?' line.

Instead of the cartoonish Electro created by genetically altered eels, why not just have Electro appear in New York rampaging and out for vengeance? During the course of the film, and I'm drawing off of Johnny Got His Gun, you can reveal this Electro is an eye-less, ear-less mouth-less electrically burned monster who can sense/manipulate electricity. Having been traumatized (perhaps by war or as an experiment for instance) and being little more than a charred corpse you can make him a lost soul who Peter Parker is forced to stop and is dismayed to learn he can not help.

One could argue such a film idea is too heavy or disturbing for a children's film? Well, ***spoiler*** Gwen Stacy does indeed die in the film. Though her death scene is, fortunately, not graphic.

Also why bring back the Green Goblin? However, it was accomplished the character would be compared to Willem Dafoe's excellent and psychologically frightening turn, in the Sam Rami Spider-Man film. There are many other Spidey enemies to choose from!

Of course, I would prefer the ultimate Spiderman Story of the 1980's; Kraven's Last Hunt.

But, perhaps I should be glad Sony Pictures won't be ruining that storyline the same way they flubbed Gwen Stacy's death.

Now, these films run into problems because even the Elektra (2005) and Punisher: War Zone (2009) had 40 million dollar budgets and even that kind of money is going to entail meddling from people unfamiliar or uncaring about the original source material. 

For instance, Ben Affleck's Daredevil (2003) committed the mortal sin, literally, of Daredevil letting a villain die. Daredevil, as the ultra-catholic, never kills and doesn't even let the scummiest of the scum die if he can prevent it.

The two Hulk movies (2003 and 2008) failed because the Hulk is an unworkable character for a stand-alone film. He's far too powerful, having literally carried a mountain range on his back in The Secret Wars. And the films end up with Hulk smashing a bunch of things and fighting a Hulk-esque enemy.

Iron Man 2 (2010) was an film which drew many detractors but, for the wrong reasons. I movie was fairly decent but was disappointed the film executives decided to give Robert Downey "palladium-poisoning", cured by Tony Stark's discovery/invention of a new element, as opposed to staying true to the source material and making Tony a drunk. The disease of Alcoholism, apparently being too heavy a topic for a film ostensibly marketed towards children.

The writers for the second Fantastic Four film (2007) apparently never read the Silver Surfer. While the decision to change Galactus from a big guy into an celestial monstrosity was fine, the Silver Surfer, that goofy footed philosopher has one line, "To Me, My Board"which must be included as the character swayed by the promise he sees in humanity turns on Galactus and fights for Earth.

Any film which doesn't include that line shows a lack of basic understanding of the character. Let alone the deeper Hegelian arc the writers undertook culminating in Issue 64 from 1992.

"On approaching the other it has lost its own self, since it finds itself as another being; secondly, it has thereby sublated that other, for this primitive consciousness does not regard the other as essentially real but sees its own self in the other." - G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit

The Dark Surfer and the Silver Surfer engage in the struggle unto death, as they attempt to get the other to acknowledge their superiority.

Complaints aside several of the Movie Franchises have succeeded both financially while staying true-ish to the characters. The Captain America stories (2011 and 2014) have resonated quite well. The Avengers (2012) succeeded with it's blockbuster approach. The Wolverine (2013), adapted from the 1982 limited series, overcame the earlier dreck from the first solo Wolverine movie Origins. (Please Note: Any comic book movie with Ryan Reynolds is guaranteed to be bad.)

The problem is Movie Studios don't want to take any risks with these stories. They'll go for what they think will make the most money as opposed to crafting a piece of cinematic art, based on a comic book.

But I, of course, am not the intended audience. Having collected comics from the early 80's through the mid-90's my quibbles and critiques are dismissed as those of a fanboy. What the Studios look for is the Hundred of Millions of dollars these movies make them in profit.