Most Certainly No Makovsky Here

   Today was the last day of Comic Book Workshop for the semester, like how yesterday was the same thing for Animation Workshop, except that also involved pizza for free and the CBW is having its pizza day next week, and paid for by donations. So, yeah, I guess there is still one last week of CBW for the semester.

   To send us off, this week we discussed the notion of morality, in the industry and the medium. How do we create and/or consume comics that are a force for good in the world? And what does that even mean? How can we tell whether a work is moral or immoral?

1. The kneejerk "big three," sex, violence, and language, of course, but does the willingness of a work to depict immorality make that work itself immoral? The Bible's got all three, in spades, and that book is, is the Bible, so... could that really be it? Orson Scott Card wrote that there are three ways that evil can be depicted: 
1. depicted, or whatever the word was, which is a good thing (ignoring the problem makes it worse,) 
2. endorsed, or whatever, which is a neutral thing (villains can talk about how great it is to be evil and we can despise them for it, or the hero can do the same which is beyond the pale,) and
3. whatever the third one was, glorified or something, which would be a bad thing. I brought my notebook this evening, but neglected to bring any writing instrument.
2. John Gardner's theory, from his book-length essay "On Moral Fiction," breaks down every story, based on its outlook and ultimate message, into three possible outcomes, of which only one is moral. A work can either tell lies or tell the truth, about the world, and it breaks down as follows:
1. life is easy (lie! immoral!); or
2. life is hard, and thus not worth living (lie! immoral!);
3. life is hard but it's worth living (truth! only moral option!).
3. Joseph Campbell also had ideas about morality, and how good stories are for our lives, and how a "moral" story is one that helps one advance in one's life journey. But I don't even come close to remember the exact wording, because this is Joseph Campbell's writing we're talking about here, and I didn't have a pencil like I said...
1. I think there was something about navels in there, though. And... a river? or ribbon? of... cream? Does that make any sense?
2. Dang though but it was poetical.

   So that's that.

   Pic absolutely unrelated:

"The Dancing Crane" by Aleksandr Makovsky, oil on canvas, 1897.