Even the Comic Books!

Was browsing a week old Saturday Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend and the cover story of Spectrum was about Japanese Manga and Anime.

Pamela Joyce was typically clueless - but I ma not really sure that celebrating the wonder that is Japanese animation was really the point of the article, the headline was about how Japanese animation was complex for a complex world - and from the very first it was about how the popularity of Japanese Animation was due to people being tired of the "simplistic" American comic book approach.

Aaaaargh! Even an article about Japanese anime can't help being infected by the ignorant and reflexive institutional Anti-Americanism of the Fairfax press. Aside from anything else it is just so idiotic - given especially the renaissance of American animation - from Pixar to South Park - to dismiss it as comic book simplisme (quite aside from the fact that the history of Comic Books themselves reveal a rich and complex art form in the US). It is especially idiotic in the context of discussing Japanese anime and Manga - given the huge amount of cross fertilisation between the US and Japanese traditions - and the increasing awareness the two pop cultural traditions have of each others artistic and cultural worth.

But then when you don't actually have to know anything about culture any more to be regarded as cultivated - all you have to do is master that art at sneering viciously at anything even remotely associated with America. Makes things so much simpler.