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Edited extracts from an MSN Messenger conversation:
Flyboy says:
it still bugs me that QQ is both a very, very accurate portrayal of certain activisty types *and* a complete thug.
flux says:
well, it's not as though those are mutually exclusive things.
Flyboy says:
no, but if you portray them in a certain way it suggests that one equals another... I love the 'Magneto Was Right' panel. but that's where he looks most like he's in the Socialist Workers Party or like he runs a queer anarchist website... and it's like, Grant, those people are not all borderline dangerous zealots. I think there's a basic misunderstanding here. it's almost like Grant needs to have the good activist/bad activist dichotomy-as-media-myth explained to him [God, I'm condescending...]. see, if the humans are the ones who offed Jumbo, that does make it a bit different, but don't you think that scene would be more effective if what QQ's gang did was less severe? he could still be dangerous if he just engaged in... let's say property damage, which would actually be hella relevant. I think this could have worked really well as a satire of certain types of people if QQ had done things slightly differently. like, we get that he's a bit smug and I think the way he talks in class is really accurate and plausible.
flux says:
I was thinking that in some ways, Quentin may be Grant's revenge on Barbelith. I think this is Grant saying "this is the kind of activist I hate. the X-Men are the kind I like". we should be more like Xavier, and less like Quire. some of the things Quentin says sound like things some Barbelith posters would write. what was that bit in the previous issue with him repeatedly mentioning "an insane pop art masterpiece"? that's so Barbelith, it hurts!
Flyboy says:
when QQ says "I was just *testing*" - jeez, he is on Barbelith. y'know, that panel we discussed - he looks like people I *know*. and even though I've never met [unnamed poster], that's how I picture [hir] too
Flyboy says:
you know how Grant feels about PC going mad!
flux says:
ha! yes! [x] is definitely the kind of person Quire is meant to mock, I think. the great thing is that it is so very plausible that Grant based Quire in part on Barbelith. see, I think Quentin is just a messed up kid. and he's lashing out. I really hope that Quire survives, and becomes a more positive voice of dissidence later on
Flyboy says:
yeah, and I think the idea that politically radical young people are just messed up kids lashing out is *really* common. especially if you're a 40something Robert Anton Wilson fan with hippy tendencies.
flux says:
yes. Grant is a hippy. and Quire is a punk. hippies vs punks, the eternal struggle.
Flyboy says:
it is! I've always said that. I am that fucking blackbird, Grant.
...
Flyboy says:
remember how in The Invisibles, most opinions and outlooks were presented together with a counter-opinion, and you could sort of take your pick? it's funny, it's like the way that at the end of the Invisibles, some people took away the message that there was a revolution to be had, and some took away the opposite. my theory on this is that Grant thinks it's the opposite, but he can't help making his revolutionaries sexy and appealing and getting wannabe revolutionaries digging it...
flux says:
yes, it's like Grant's talking to two different audiences.
Flyboy says:
see, I think there need to be *more* Quentin Quires on the Lith!
flux says:
me too. |
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