Anime is Fun
I spent the weekend at Katsucon, an anime convention here in our fair city. There were a number of things I got from the experience, but here’s what I’d like to pass along for now.
A fundamental relationship exists between Art and Civilization. Which is why Lord Kenneth Clark wrote a book called “Civilization” that was principally about Art. Those were the days when people wrote books that stood out for decades after you read them. Books that bridged the gap between mind and spirit. Books that changed your life.
This was before Jonah Goldberg was born, of course. The idea of writing, for example “Liberal Fascism” would not have occurred to anyone, except as a concept in a distopian novel as an illustration of the degeneration of some future epoch. That would be ours. My point here is just that the birth of Jonah signified the end of a particular thread of civilization. I’m not accusing him of being the Anti-Christ. Not exactly. More the anti-Lord Kenneth Clark.
I have no doubt that anime and manga has affected our little western experiment in society. I can tell you that the experience of watching Astroboy as a child whetted my appetite for the sciences. You can see how it’s influenced our filmmakers of this time. I’m thinking of Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, but if you look at the way each cell of manga is a coiled spring, how something explosive is just about to happen, I’m sure the impact is much wider than Ghost Dog and Kill Bill.
I also have little doubt that the intermarriage of art and technology drove the way computer games were designed.
I have little doubt that Astroboy, and descendants of this genre was for my generation the manifestation of East meeting West.
