The Quest For Hyperviolence. A review of Man of Steel.

The Story of Superman is, I would venture, a very well known one. For those who aren't familiar the next two paragraphs will give an executive summary.

Kal-El is sent to Earth, as an infant, by his his parents, Jor-El and Lara, to save him from the impending destruction of their planet, Krypton. Krypton is a planet populated with technologically advanced inhabitants whose technology cannot prevent its' ultimate demise. Kal-El's ship crash lands in a field in Kansas where he is found by a barren farm couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent. The Kents rename him as Clark Kent and raise him as their own child.

It is while he grows up in Smallvile, Kansas with the Kents that Clark learns many virtuous lessons about human behavior. Most notably he learns about fairness, justice, modesty and protecting loved ones. It is also the time where his abilities or powers from his Kryptonian physiology begin to develop and his Kryptonian heritage is revealed to him. His ship from Krypton has been saved by the Kents and Clark is able to begin learning about Krypton's cultures and way of life. Eventually, Clark outgrows Smallville life and moves to the "big city" of Metropolis, where he lands a job as reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper, The Daily Planet. He becomes Superman while saving a large group of people from a disaster. Covering this event is Lois Lane, star reporter, who then wants to find out all she can about the intriguing and powerful man.

Man of Steel as a movie is another reintroduction to this origin. The movie adds many elements to the Krypton legend. Most notably that Kal-El is the first naturally born Kryptonian child in a millenia. It also introduces us to Zod, a Kryptonian general whose army of followers try to stage a coup under the guise of saving Krypton from destruction. Caught in the chaos of the coup Jor-El winds up at odds with Zod. With all this additional Kryptonian drama, Kal-El is still sent to Earth with his Kryptonian father's advanced knowledge and Krypton still blows up. (If this is a shock to you, then you must have been surprised that the luxury liner sank in Titanic.)

Then the movie cuts to a man, who we must assume is Kal-El/Clark Kent on a fishing vessel in rough seas. Crisis comes about and our hero is forced to take action to save people on a burning oil rig and risk revealing himself to the world. He does this despite his memories of his foster father spouting a platitude about not using his powers in public and making people afraid of him.  He then goes off looking for another place to be anonymous and winds up saving Lois Lane, while figuring out that he has been essentially wearing an Kryptonian USB drive, which just happens to fit in a socket in a mysterious building and allows him to access the knowledge of his birth father.

In an effort to move the plot forward we are treated to the Kryptonian army of Zod makes itself known and demands that Kal-El turn himself in. To figure out what to do our hero he visits his foster mother on the family farm. While there he shares memories about his foster father's advice/platitudes that amount to little more than "don't open a jar of peanut butter at the peanut-free allergy table" and his mother helps him find his fighting duds from Krypton.

From this point on, it is all about fighting, generating epic damage and proving to the Armed Forces who is the threat. It gets there by advice from USB Jor-El, Lois Lane defying the Kryptonian army and memories of the final sacrifice made by Jonathan Kent so that his son will not have to use his powers publicly.

The movie climaxes with a carnage porn battle in which Superman and Zod face off, mano y mano. This battle gets resolved but, whether you agree with it or not, it is done with all the grace and style of someone opening a jar of peanut butter.

This movie has a lot of sparkle and dazzle, but ultimately lands with a thud. It disrespects several of the core values and lessons from fathers while degrading mother's contributions all to get the muscle bound protagonist in to action. This movie ultimately emasculates both the 'super' and the 'man' in attempting to give us a more modern (read dark and gritty) version of Superman.

..... um, yeah......

I have seen the human soul,
Its' intentions and motivations
Both warm and cold.

The fabric of the cosmos
Shaped in human form
Light and dark given mass.

I have seen holes torn
in your soul and mine
Whose edges are tattered and ragged
Or meticulously sharp and fine.

As if damaged by carelessness
and happenstance, while others have
Been assaulted by malice most  precise.

Burdens borne with dignity and strength casting light on those
crushed with embarrassment and shame.

The voices raised shouting
"You know you're just like me!"
over the raspy whispers of "NEVER AGAIN."

Approaching the reflective apex.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

People reach an age where reflecting on their lives, their past, holds a benefit not only for themselves but for others. Too often introspection, examining your past, is the purview of the "important" people, the decision makers, the rulers, the celebrities, troublemakers or the moralists. These people find it necessary justify in writing, to the world, their actions. As if this will absolve them of any harm, oppression, injury or evil caused by them and their behavior.

But what about the common people? What about the people who rode the ripples caused by these so-called leaders? Do they ever need to voice their reflections, their reactions? Could they be the true leaders because of their instinctive adaptation to changes in their lives?

Perhaps everyone should have a blog. Not a blog for rambling about "your issues" rather an essay blog where an issue, question or event can be addressed en masse by individual participants and observers. It could be like a societal response portal. Everyone would log in to it to respond and give their opinions. Then it would close to any further responses to that specific issue, while other topics are opened up for discussion.

I realize it sounds like a mandatory web forum, but I am trying to figure our a way to get the broadest input from as many individual members of society as possible. Imagine what insights could be found if a larger number of people were able to speak their minds at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution or during the height of the Black Plague.

Apologied

One of our local radio stations was doing an 'anonymous' apology segment. Just text in your apology and they would read it on the air. So I sent them the following " I'd like to apologize to all the women who turned me down for dates in school. Maybe if I was a Deebag then, wouldn't be a passive-aggressive deebag today."

I wonder if I should have gone with "I'd like to apologize to my Baby Mama. If I had known my girlfriend was gonna poke holes in my condoms, I would have sent you to the store for a new box."
The world may never know....

Prose Sketch

"Here's hoping your next bout of explosive diarrhea is caused by someone showing a grenade up your ass." He said as he turned on his heel and marched out of the bunker.

Getting things out

I often ask myself "why do I have a blog, if I never do anything useful, insightful or even therapeutic?"  After all I have a catchy title for it, why can't I put content behind that title?

The answer is that I am afraid to put myself out there.  So for me to do this I have to stop letting my fear run my life. I have to be honest, direct and own the things that have shaped my life. 

I need to pay attention to the man behind the curtain and lead him out in to the light. Maybe I can do it before I hit the big five-o? 

A Cold Dose Of Reality

"The NFL doesn't care about your team." That was the support I received from a "friend" in January 1976 from a friend. My twelve year old brain was still trying to process the injustice that I found in the Hail Mary pass that happened in the December 29, 1975 NFC Divisional Game between my beloved Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys. I reran the logistics of the play in my mind constantly. It didn't help that the play caused a near riot of the fans in Metropolitan Stadium and referee Armen Terzian was struck in the head by a whiskey bottle.

My "friend" went on to tell me that the National Football League was a business and all it was concerned about was getting better ratings on their television broadcasts. The Cowboys were from a larger TV market and the NFL would get them more money in advertising dollars for the NFC Championship game. He said that I really shouldn't be surprised that a "new" team like the Vikings (at this point they had been in the NFL for fourteen years) would get treated so poorly by the league officials since they did not have any credibility or history to have their complaints treated with respect.

This "friend" also pointed out that the behavior of the outraged fans did not help in having the NFL officials and management really want to address these complaints. If they did then they would be giving a validity to the riotous hooligans who sought to bully their way into getting the outcome they wanted, not the fair call made by the referees on the field. If the fans of a NFL team that had more history and credibility did this then  the NFL might want to listen.

My "friend" then suggested that I really should cheer for a team like his team, The Green Bay Packers. This would never have happened to them. They had been around since the beginning of the NFL. They would be taken seriously in their complaints about pass interference. Their fans would not have disrespected the game by causing a riot over the outcome of one play regardless of how much the game depended on it. The Green Bay Packers were a morally superior team, even though they played so poorly then, and as such they would never have had that happen to them.

After Monday Night's game in Seattle, between the Packers and the Seahawks, this discussion came back to me after 36 years and all I have to say is: The Minnesota Vikings will welcome any converted Packer fans with open arms.