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Watchmen and Petroglyphs
Mar. 10th, 2009 04:26 pmI was going to post something here about Watchmen, which I've not seen yet. I am a bit miffed at all of the people that are complaining about the fact that it had Nixon in it, or the fact that it's based on 1980s culture, or the fact that it's a hetero-normative story... because, you know, 1980s culture WAS hetero-normative and to change the aspects of the story that made it what it was would make it untrue to the original story, which would piss off an entirely different group of people.
I mean, it's like me complaining that Pride and Prejudice doesn't adequately reflect the plight of the young gay men in Sierra Leone. It's entirely factual, a fair criticism of what a work of social commentary should do and doesn't. However, the big thing to remember is that Pride and Prejudice isn't written to comment on OUR culture. The culture it comments on is gone, and if you expect it to be other than it is, you might want to do something else with your time.
I suggest watching Edward 2, Alice or reading Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges.
Of course, I don't have time to post something like that, so instead you get petroglyphs from the Valley of Fire State Park. (set here)
This group is a bit different. The first section here are some "big picture" shots of the petroglyph areas, some of them seriously edited to make the glyphs more readable.
( big picture stuff - 7 )
The second section requires a bit more explanation. I spent four years getting a degree from Grinnell College. Grinnell graduates a whole lot of people with sociology and anthropology degrees. Though my degree happened to be in Physics, and I never took a mainstream sociology or anthropology class, I figure that just being in that environment for four years qualifies me to translate the glyphs. :)
( The I'm-really-tired-and-distracted 'translation' of petroglyphs )
I mean, it's like me complaining that Pride and Prejudice doesn't adequately reflect the plight of the young gay men in Sierra Leone. It's entirely factual, a fair criticism of what a work of social commentary should do and doesn't. However, the big thing to remember is that Pride and Prejudice isn't written to comment on OUR culture. The culture it comments on is gone, and if you expect it to be other than it is, you might want to do something else with your time.
I suggest watching Edward 2, Alice or reading Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote by Jorge Luis Borges.
Of course, I don't have time to post something like that, so instead you get petroglyphs from the Valley of Fire State Park. (set here)
This group is a bit different. The first section here are some "big picture" shots of the petroglyph areas, some of them seriously edited to make the glyphs more readable.
( big picture stuff - 7 )
The second section requires a bit more explanation. I spent four years getting a degree from Grinnell College. Grinnell graduates a whole lot of people with sociology and anthropology degrees. Though my degree happened to be in Physics, and I never took a mainstream sociology or anthropology class, I figure that just being in that environment for four years qualifies me to translate the glyphs. :)
( The I'm-really-tired-and-distracted 'translation' of petroglyphs )
