I would greatly appreciate it if you guys could weigh in on a couple of things for me.
First, Neal once pointed out to me that Ohio is weirdly boring, in that it has no "thing"--you know, a particular hook or cliche that everybody associates it with. You think South Dakota, you think Mount Rushmore. You think Wisconsin, you think cheese.
This question is twofold: does Ohio have a "thing" that we're just missing? (I really don't think it does. One of its handicaps is that it has no principal city. Illinois can hang its hat on Chicago, but Ohio has three big ones that all start with C and also Toledo. This also means it doesn't have one major sports team that you can pin on it. Also, it has quite a few native presidents, but they're all boring.) The other fold is this: is there any other state without a thing? Molly and I unsystematically tried to think of one, but we thought of a thing for every state we tossed out. What do you think?
Here's the second and altogether unrelated question--I came across an internet discussion about how the movie Watchmen has not been very successful at the box office. People were putting forth different ideas about why that was--length, reviews, the end of the comic book movie boom, or that it's a dark, dystopian movie and these days people just want escapism. However, my thought was that it wasn't any of those things, it's that Watchmen does not have any mainstream cultural cache.
I had never heard of Watchmen before I started hearing about the movie. Is that just me? Should I be embarrassed? If it's not just me, is it everybody besides hard-core comic book nerds? The graphic novel Watchmen was put on Time's 100 Greatest Novel list, so you would think not. So here it is in specific question form: had you heard of Watchmen before hype for the movie started? If so, have you read it? If not, do you know people who have? Finally, did you go see the movie (or do you plan to, if it's still in local theaters)?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Two Questions for Discussion
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11 comments:
Ohio has the buckeyes, the trees, the sports team and the delicious chocolatey-peanuty buttery treat. That is what I think of when I think of Ohio, and my grandparents, but that is just me so it doesn't really count.
I hadn't heard of Watchman until the movie. I won't see the movie because of personal convictions and I don't think I'll read the book either. I don't know if the book is "dirty" too but even if it isn't, it's just not my thing.
Ooh, which convictions?
I guess Ohio does have buckeyes, but it seems like most people don't know what those are.
Ohio - I have nothing for you.
Watchmen - I have indeed read the graphic novel before the hype of the movie began. I love the novel, and can see why it made the Time top 100. However, the movie seemed like it wouldn't have made sense without reading the novel first. But I felt the same way about some of the Harry Potters. I think it is because I am looking at the movie with knowledge that goes outside of what the movie shows. I think it was unsuccessful because of how much explanation it takes. I felt as though I had to explain to people that they were not getting a normal comic book movie when they walked in, then had walk them through the thought processes I went through after reading the novel before they understood what they movie was trying to say. My two cents, probably worse less than that.
They aren't fancy convictions. I just don't want to expose myself to graphic violence, sexual perversion, frontal nudity, or profane language.
I think people in Cincinnati like to put chili on spaghetti. That’s got to count for something, right?
Never heard of Watchman, either.
I think Ohio State would be the thing that unites Ohio, for the most part. That, and being a presidential swing state.
What was the hook you came up with for ND? Cold? Plenty of states are cold.
The state where Craig comes from - obviously!
North Dakota is a tough one. Fargo? It's too bad Craig isn't (more) famous.
Watchmen is pretty much a big deal for those who care about graphic novels/comic books.
However, mainstream movie audiences don't. They care about movies based on comic books, and comic book characters who they grew up watching in cartoon form or in TV serials.
The exceptional successes--Sin City and 300--drew in crowds because they looked original and played along with relatively straightforward story types. (Everyone knows about the hard-boiled detective or stoic warrior, even if they don't think or talk about them by name.)
But I don't think cultural cache is the only thing at play. Watchmen is simply not the type of fun story that you see over and over. If there were no graphic novel, if the movie was all there is, I'd say it's likely to be a cult classic along the lines of Blade Runner--watched (and bought) over and over by a wide variety of people, but not all at once in a blockbuster smash. But there is the graphic novel, which will remain the cult classic. So I think even long-term revenue will be limited.
Ummm...I was born in Ohio. In the same city as President Harding- a small town known as Marion. Ohio doesn't really have a "thing" in the big sense. The license plates like to claim Ohio as "the birthplace of aviation," which is sorta true. Orville Wright was born in Dayton, OH, but Wilbur was born in Indiana. North Carolina has the true claim, I believe, especially since Indiana doesn't claim anything about aviation due to Wilbur's birthplace. But there's some museum in Dayton that I went to as a kid about the Wright brothers. And now that I think about it, I suppose Wright State University (very small univ in Dayton) is named after them. I never made that connection until now, and my mom went there for a year!
Enough about the Wright brothers. Buckeyes (tree and mascot) and Ohio State would be the big ones for me. Plus "The Horseshoe" football stadium and script Ohio at halftime where the tuba player dots the eye are things that are big deals in Ohio...I can't imagine outsiders would really care.
And moving on to sports. I consider the Cincinnati Reds to be "the" sports team of Ohio. The original team, the Red Stockings, were the first professional baseball team, like ever. The Reds were the team to win the World Series that the White Sox threw in 1919 (Shoeless Joe and all). And in the 1970s, the "Big Red Machine" was pretty unstoppable. There were some big highlight reel moments as well as some Pete Rose awesomeness. But then again, I grew up listening to stories of the Big Red Machine, so I'm a bit biased.
Lastly, Cedar Point. It's an amusement park in Sandusky, OH right on Lake Erie. Best. Rollercoasters. EVER. It sets all sorts of records for tallest, fastest, and most coasters, which means more are constantly being built to keep up with the rest of the world. Go there. You will not regret it. (If you enjoy roller coasters that is)
Thus ends my ridiculously long comment. In summary, I guess Ohio doesn't have a "thing," but as a native Buckeye, I did my best to defend it!
I'm still not sure if Ohio has a "thing" or not, but I think we all learned a lot of interesting stuff about it. Thanks, Angela!
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