Right and Wrong Ethics Philosophy

Right and Wrong Ethics PhilosophyIn e very(prenominal)day life, we be always confront with the task of de boundaryining whether certain performs are right or injure. Ethics mickle thus be defined as a branch of ism that addresses issues of honorableity. Ethics is also referred to as moral philosophy. Moral philosophy is the systematic study of the nature of morality (Furrow 1). Questions involving such concepts as good and evil, right and wrong, immorality and virtue are intercommunicate in this systematic study. Such questions include what I ought to do in a certain situation? How I ought to die? Ethics is a coherent discipline in philosophy that strives to answer roughly practical questions that form a basis of establishing the guiding principles and values of an psyche or society.Gensler (3) outlines two major branches of moral philosophy or morals namely Meta moral philosophy is the branch that attempts to study the nature and the methodology of moral judgments. Ques tions to be addressed beneath this branch include what do good and ought mean? Are there moral truths and how can we justify or ration each(prenominal)y defend beliefs about(predicate) right or wrong? A meta honest view of morality has two dowers one part is concerned with the nature of moral judgments which is often the interpretation of good, the other part is about the methodology usually outlining how to select moral principles.Gensler (3) states that normative morals studies principles about how to live. It asks questions similar what are the basic principles of right and wrong? What are the basic human rights? And is abortion right or wrong? Normative moral philosophy is further classified into two levels normative theory which looks for the very general moral principles and applied normative moral philosophy which studies moral questions about specific areas like abortion, lying, euthanasia and surrogacy.Why study ethics?The study of ethics and more specifically the d evelopment of major ethical theories can be traced back to the Ancient Greek philosophy propounded by such philosophers as Aristotle and Socrates. In the modern life, ethics has captured the attention of various philosophers in diverse fields who are progressing in an attempt to answer various questions that are raised by the contemporary moral issues. gum olibanum some of the yards for examine ethics includeThe study of ethics deepens our reflection on the ultimate questions of life. This reflection helps an individualist to witness himself or herself better regarding the principles of some pertinent issues in life. Gensler (4) argues that if you substantiate not wrestled with some of lifes deeper questions, then you are not a well-educated person. Ethics enables an individual to be an all-rounded person in life.The study of moral philosophy can help us to think better about morality. few issues arise especially in the modern world and individuals are faced with ultimate que stions on the moral basis of those issues such as abortion. For instance individuals adopt different approaches in dealing with the issue of abortion, plot of land the proponents maintain that the mother has the principal right to make decisions concerning her body, the opponents argue that the sanctity of life should be maintained at all times and that the growing foetus has a right to life which is a major basic human right. Thus Gensler (4) states that moral philosophy or ethics can improve our perspective, and make it more reflective and better thought out.Another major reason of studying ethics or moral philosophy is to modify our general thinking processes. In philosophy we are able to learn very significant intellectual skills that guide our reasoning and thinking. Thus we can logically reason out concerning fundamental or ultimate questions in real life enchantment critically evaluating the conflicting view points and consequently dip for decision that reflects on our va lues and principles as individuals.Ethics is undoubtedly a very interesting subject to study. Ethics provokes some good or heavy debates with other people, especially if the two or more people intrinsicly have conflicting view points on major issues of life. These interesting debates stimulate and sharpen our thinking and imagination enabling people to re-think our view point giving room for alter or improve our perspectives in future events.History of ethicsThe history of ethics can be traced to three plosive speech sounds of thoughts as outlined by Gensler et al (25) namely the ancient, medieval and the modern power point of thought.Ancient stop of thought philosophers who contributed to the development of ethics in this period include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans and stoics. In the west, philosophical inquiry into ethics began with the ancients Greeks. Greek ethicists inquired into how a person could use reason to achieve the good life but they did not separate ou t a consensus about what the good life is and the nature of the practical reason that can reach it. Socrates and Plato were concerned with act-oriented ethics which is primarily concerned with what we do. Aristotle (384-322BC), a student of Plato, modified a number of his Mentors idealistic and quasi-religious ethical views (Gensler et al 27). Aristotle is said to have rejected Platos ethical views and subsequently developed the aretaic, or virtue ethics. Gensler et al (27) argues that Aristotle proposed that virtue ethics is interested ultimately who we are despite our actions. Aristotle further subtle that virtue does not come course an individual needs to be trained or educated to be virtuous. Virtue if of two types Moral, which deals in part with the irrational part of the soul and the intellectual, which involves nevertheless the rational part of the soul. Gensler et al (28) argues that the highest form of virtue is found not in enjoying friends but in contemplating truth. Du ring the period of Epicureans and stoics, philosophers became concerned with the practicalities of dealing with the political and social instability since in 323 BC, Greece fell into a significant decline leading to numerous battles for parts of the empire.Medieval period of thought prominent philosophers in this period include St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. The political and social instability in the ancient period of thought continued into this period as the philosophers got more interested into gaining a deeper insight into this issue. This led to the analysis of human actions by the philosophers. Augustine proposed that human freedom stemmed from the lack of causal influences while Aquinas believed that human freedom stemmed from the internal deliberation that causes our actions. Gensler et al (31) claims that Aquinas analyzed actions on the basis not only of their conformity to the natural law but also of their specific features the object o f an action defines the action (talking to a person), the circumstances consider the context in which the action takes place (in a lecture hall during a lecture), and the end is the acts purpose (to ask the person a question about the lecture). All these three aspects of action must be proper for the act to be considered good. Both Scotus and Ockham maintained that the matters of moral judgement were settled ultimately not by reason but by faith. Thus Gensler et al ( 31) claims that their views reinforced a stronger sense of individual autonomy both in moral and political matters. Hence the medieval view on ethics was the belief in the existence of immortal and that eternal salvation should be the principal motivation for the ethical behaviour.Modern period of thought philosophers use the term modern to denote the enlightenment period which is approximately the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Modern is contrasted with the contemporary that roughly covers the last hundred year s, the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. Philosophers who do immense contributions in ethics during this period include Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill. Gensler et al (32) states that ethics in the modern age began with a movement from the other-worldly center on that dominated medieval ethics. Although these prominent philosophers of the time did not reject the existence of God, a medieval idea, they rejected the view that humans should look up to God as a guide to their actions. They equally disputed the medieval idea that eternal salvation should be the motivation for ethical behavior. To the modern philosophers, the purpose of ethics is not to instruct humans how best to love God, but, rather, to show humans how best to live together in this world (Gensler et al 32).Major ethical theoriesSome of the major ethical theories that have influenced modern thinking in the United States include utilitarianism, Kantian ethics and Aristotelian ethic s.Utilitarianism also known as the consequentialist theory states that the consequences of an action of a given individual make an action moral or immoral. Hence, an action that contributes to beneficial consequences is considered right or moral while an action that results in subtle or destructive consequences is immoral or wrong. Driver (3) claims that the theory holds that an action or a law is right if only it produces the best outcome only if it brings about the greatest good for the greatest number. To the proponents of this theory, any action is morally justified to the extent that it maximizes gains and minimizes the costs or harms. Some of the philosophers in support of this theory are Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Bentham, an 18th century philosopher usually likened happiness with pleasure thus a good life and unhappiness with pain thus an unhappy life. Mill who was a 19th century philosopher, used his theory of utilitarianism to criticize laws that he felt were p ointless and even harmful to society such as womens suffrage (Driver 3). Hence it is clear that utilitarianism ethical theory maintains that an action is moral or right when the consequences are beneficial to the volume of the parties involved and not only the person doing that action. In addition, the consequences of such an action must be evaluated, not only the immediate consequences but also the short-term and long-term consequences.Kantian ethics this is a theory that stresses on the duties and rights in the moral evaluation of any human action. The proponent of this theory, Immanuel Kant has rejected the consequentialist proposition of considering the consequences of an action to determine whether it is moral or immoral. Kant argues that the motivation behind any human action is what matters in the moral evaluation of such actions and not the consequences. Thus actions that are moral or right are those done out of a sense of duty, which means that an individual does it since one recognizes that it is the right thing to do. Bennett (75) states that Kant used some illustrious formulations of categorical imperative i.e. the name he gives to the fundamental principle of morality. Kant believed in the respect of persons and thus people should never be treated as a mere means, but only ever at the same time as an end. We are able to know our duty since we are unequivocally rational as human beings, a special nature that we posses that distinguishes us from animals. This theory maintains we should act morally depending on our rights and duties at all times and under all circumstances. Consequently moral actions promote the dignity and worth of other person, not using other persons for own purposes.Aristotelian ethics the most famous proponent of this theory is Aristotle who stressed on a virtuous life. Virtue ethics do not dwell on the principles or the rules governing our actions like the previous ethical theories but seeks a deeper insight in gaining knowle dge on the kind of character that should be possessed by a moral human being. According to Aristotle, a moral virtue is the inclination to do the right thing and avoid doing wrong. This virtuous character does not come naturally but through thorough training and education, thus it is an achievement not a natural predisposition in a human being (Gensler et al 27). Courage, temperance, prudence and justice were considered by Aristotle as the most fundamental moral virtues.In conclusion, the study of ethics is important since it helps us to evaluate our actions based on principles. This critical evaluation of ethical behaviour guides our thinking and action for future events. Ethics is an interesting subject that every person will enjoy studying since it sheds light into how we make decisions concerning the contemporary moral issues.

Aim Of Molecular Gastronomy Media Essay

Aim Of Molecular Gastronomy Media EssayThe ruse of cooking is as honest-to-god as humanity and cooking is such an important reference of our world which obviously needs scientific attention. Although acquisition has contributed to sustenance safety, hygiene and nutritional aspects, little has been done towards innovation and invention of stark naked-make dishes. The ancient Hellenic words, gastro means stomach and nomos means law, collectively termed as gastronomy, which in con fugacious cordial reception persistence means food and culture. It generally refers to the study of relationship surrounded by food and culture with interdisciplinary approaches. This literature attempts to explain molecular(a)(a) gastronomy, its origin and evolution, along with its relevance and contributions to the contemporary hospitality industry.Cooking and gastronomyEven though molecular gastronomy has attracted media attention for quite a while, still there is confusion nearly the true mea ning of the term. To explain this, cooking and gastronomy has to be distinguished first. Cooking is the proviso of raw food into edible, whereas gastronomy is the acquaintance of whatever cin one caserns mans nourishment. Gastronomy is about chemical substance and physical transformation behind the formulation of any food, for example, the reason behind egg discolor puffs up when whipped or whitethornonnaise becomes firm. (This, 2006). According to HerveThis, the acquirement of food is not mod but dates back to second century BC, when preparation of meat stock-the sedimentary solution obtained by thermal processing of animal tissues in water-has been of broad interest. Since then, scientists throw away been interested in food and cooking which gave way to molecular gastronomy.If culinary history is scrutinised, it give be clear that, ab initio food experts studied the culinary science to steer clear of blind assumptions and unscientific ways of cooking. precisely today, the science of food has reached its extreme in the form of molecular gastronomy, which chemically examines the food and cooking in its molecular level to give a new face for cooking and change the total concept of commercial cooking in near future.Molecular gastronomyThe scientific discipline dedicated to culinary industry and to gastronomical phenomena in general has been called molecular gastronomy the late Nicholas Kurti and HerveThis (This, 2005). Molecular gastronomy can as well be defined as a field that attempts to improve the culinary techniques through understanding the composition and chemical transformations occurring in food during the process of cooking (Ankeny, Year Unknown). Gastronomy or molecular gastronomy is the science just homogeneous any other science in the world, which studies the ca engross and effect of anything that happens during cooking including the geomorphologic difference in same(p) cooking ingredients of distinguishable quality, which have an eff ect on the final intersection point. If we can answer the question, we can correct a mistake, use this knowledge to improve the cooking process or even invent new dishes or ways to prep atomic number 18 food. For example, if we know that when an egg is cooked, water evaporates, the proteins denature and polymerize to enclose water, we can even use substitute methods to cook it, a alike adding alcohol to it, which denature the egg proteins and gives the same result.Molecular gastronomy also deals with the study of human senses and perception of taste, aroma, texture and temperature, in short, the sensory science known as chemesthesis (berham et. al, 2010). It studies the perception of senses in molecular level in order to understand how polar dishes atomic number 18 perceived as awful, average, good or delicious, when they are make of similar ingredients. Although chemesthesis of human beings are the same, people of different genre appreciates different types of food. For exampl e westerners cooking style is entirely different from Asians, and while Asians appreciate forcible food, most westerners do not.At a glance, molecular gastronomy can be described as applying the techniques of food scientists to fine eat drying, liquefying, gassing, freezing and generally transforming ingredients into strike new forms and textures while maintaining the flavours. Early converts accommodate French two-star chef Pierre Gagnaire, who added scallops with liquor ice-skating rink milk to his menu in 1991 (Hill. B, 2009).Aim of molecular gastronomyBeing the science of cooking, molecular gastronomy has a a couple of(prenominal) aims in the field of domestic and commercial cooking. It endeavours to remodel and scrutinise animated recipes, introduce new tools, products and methods, invent new dishes from the acquiring knowledge and use the appeal of food to promote food science (This, 2006).Before analysing the aims, a significant question is that, who is actually intere sted in molecular gastronomy? Is it the chefs who are interested in chemical and physical science of food or scientists who are interested in food and cooking? Answer could go twain the ways. Chefs are always interested in innovation in culinary art, which obviously needed scientific help to explain the reasons for transformation that occur in the cooking process. For remodelling a recipe or innovating a new dish they had to understand what actually happens to any food when it undergoes different forms of cooking. For this reason they needed scientific help to explain the reasons behind any cooking process or transformation. But at the same conviction, scientists are interested in the scientific aspects of food rather than innovation and remodelling recipes. Hence, molecular gastronomy can be said to be teamwork of food science and cooking or in other words, chefs and scientists. However, chefs made use of scientific explanation of cooking processes which resulted in innovation in food industry or more apparently molecular gastronomy. But today, with worldwide actualization of molecular gastronomy, it has evolved as a collaboration of chefs, scientists, companies in food industry and culinary schools. In addition, efforts are being made to incorporate the new science into culinary schools to impart knowledge of molecular gastronomy into upcoming industry master keys to provide a new visage to the food and beverage industry.Continuing with the aims of molecular gastronomy, remodelling and scrutinising the existing recipes is one of the primary attempts, initially by educating the professionals about the chances of scientific approach to cooking art. Complex disperse systems formalism (This, 2006) was introduced to describe the microscopic structure of preparations with different phases, to help in this attempt. Consequently, many of the existing recipes has been modernized or modified to correct the mistakes, attain a better product and to better favour the roof of the mouth of the customer. Educational efforts are equally important to standardise these remodelled recipes to achieve consistency. For this reason, several programmes were introduced in culinary schools internationally. In 2001, the experimental workshop on flavour was created in French schools. Universities in various(a) countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Argentina have set up professorships in this discipline. Since then, Canada and France have introduced new syllabus for culinary schools to include knowledge obtained from molecular gastronomy. In 2005, the Institute for Advanced Studies on Flavour, Gastronomy and the culinary Arts was created in Reims, France, to promote gastronomy knowledge, including molecular gastronomy.New or remodelled recipes to a great extent involve new cooking techniques which need new systems and tools. So, quite obviously, molecular gastronomy is introducing or giving way to new cooking tools and techniques, taking the art of c ooking into another level. In terms of new products, with the help of molecular gastronomy, it is now possible to customise the food to the need of different people with different diet requirements, without restricting the taste and palatability of their meals. For example, now a day, caviar can be artificially made (in fact something looks and tastes like caviar) from fruits and chemicals. Similarly, using the secret of food chemistry, different ingredients can be used to make several dishes which look, smells and tastes like original dishes, which have no ingredients of the original dish. Even though the dishes tastes and scent like original, the ingredients can be different, thereof giving us an opportunity to try different dishes with in the diet restrictions or in other words, neutering an un honorable food into healthy one without altering the original taste of the same.Health programmes that promote a balanced diet cannot succeed if people are unable to make intelligent c hoices about food. Traditional cooking is not a guarantee either for healthy food or for a lucid preparation of food. This is where the scientific programme of molecular gastronomy can be useful. Science is the basis for new technology and innovation and it is not different in gastronomy. The achievements of science in the field of gastronomy have won a definite recognition worldwide. However, for chefs, and hopefully scientists as rise up, the main aim is to surprise and delight their guests with exciting, tasty and healthy food.Molecular gastronomy in contemporary hospitality industryWith the development of tourism industry, the science of domestic and commercial cooking has moved from the hands of a a few(prenominal) key players to the dominion of serious scientific venture. In the context of serious competition, every element in the food service industry is striving to strike innovation and novelty using technology, to which molecular gastronomy has given a new face of disti nctiveness. The cooking chemistry or molecular cuisine has helped the modern restaurants to a great extend to enhance cooking speed, service speed and very obviously the food quality along with the ability to keep the food fresh.A few techniques in molecular gastronomyColloidsColloid is a chemical core dispersed in molecular level evenly throughout one another. The particles of the dispersed substance are only suspended in the blend, unlike in a solution in which they are totally dissolved. This takes place because the elements in a colloid are larger than in a liquid. The colloidal system is used for making different types of foam, solid gel, emulsion and solid emulsion.Lecithin (Lecite)Lecithin is phospholipids extracted from soybean, partially water-soluble, and an emulsifier that helps fat and water stopover together. For that reason, it is often added to chocolate, cheese, margarine, and salad dressing. It has health benefits, such as reducing cholesterol intensity. It is oft en added to flavoured liquids and then mixed to generate foams that are topped onto dishes to offer added appearance and texture.Maltodextrin pulverisationMaltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate consisting of dextrose (glucose), maltose, maltotriose and higher polysaccharides. Maltodextrin is used in a wide variety of products, extending from bodybuilders, animal trainers (horses and greyhounds) to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Tapioca maltrodextrin is a popular product used to make powderiseed oil and fat products such as white truffle powder, and olive oil powder.Guar GumGuar is a white free flowing powder, completely soluble in hot or cold water to form a tasteless, odourless, non-toxic solution. Guar gum powder has five to eight times the coagulating power of starch. It is mainly used as a binding agent, mixtures, thickener, and emulsifier in food products, such as cheese spreads, ice cream and other frozen desserts.MethylcelluloseThis forms a gel when heated, and melts into liq uid when it cools. This is similar to gelatine. This quality can improve a food if it undergoes heating in its preparation and requires stability at cooking temperature (for example preventing a sauce from thinning out). It is used as a binding agent for foods that need to keep their separate collectively. Products such as pasta, vegetable burgers, onion rings, and potato products are improved by its combining strength. This is due to its cohesive nature at low temperatures and the structural integrity at higher temperatures.Implementation and provision of MG in hospitality industryMolecular gastronomy principles, practices and provisions items have captured the intellect of both the chefs and their customers worldwide. Although initially intended to cater for the high purpose of the gourmet market, molecular gastronomy has been welcomed in assorted areas of the hospitality industry. Useful dining restaurants, cafs and bistros, avail venues, specialist bars, esteemed and mainstrea m hotels and all the more establishments that specialise in pastry and desserts are incorporating this style of cuisine to assorted degrees into their operations.As any other fields, molecular gastronomy also attracted such(prenominal) criticism from food writers and chefs around the world. Many established chefs did not accept molecular gastronomy as scientific gastronomic phenomena but labelled it as temporary style of cuisine (Hill, 2009). But in the context of Australian hospitality industry, hampering of successful insertion of molecular gastronomy was a lack of firsthand experience and training, which was accepted both by industry as well as the government. some other barrier facing the Australian industry is the inadequate supply and high prices for specialist food chemicals and equipments to incorporate various techniques of molecular gastronomy. The distribution of these chemicals and equipments are limit to a few suppliers and shops. Even though this is the case, Hill had identified a few restaurants in Victoria such as Fenix, Interlude and Vue de monde that offer limited molecular gastronomic techniques throughout their menus.CompetitionThere is no doubt that hospitality industry is facing increasing competition than ever before. To withstand this pressure of competition, chefs should be able to remain innovative and attract new as well as existing customers by satisfying their demandingly increasing sophisticated expectations. In fact people are always looking for new and preposterous experiences. As a result of this, in recent years there has been a great emphasis on innovation, creativity and importance of innovation competency. In response, many chefs has accepted the concept of molecular gastronomy and working on it to achieve greater innovative competency and occupational competency.In his model of innovative culinary competency, Lei Hu (2010) has positioned molecular gastronomy among new technologies that helps innovation, where other fa ctors being creativity, culture, aesthetics, product, service and management. This underpins the fact that molecular gastronomy is a scientific gastronomic phenomenon as mentioned earlier in this literature, than a temporary style of cooking. In the age of technology dominating every aspect of human life, molecular gastronomy is the new cooking technique dominating mans nourishment.Culinary tourismCulinary tourism is a relatively new industry came into being in 2003. It can be described as a subset of tourism, where tourers also encounter the enjoyment of interesting and traditional or novel and innovative food and drink, while people travel. This subset of tourism promotes every gastronomic experience, with every tourist pursuit for unique and memorable eating and drinking experience. Tourists always tend to consider the local cuisine of destination or at least consider the available cuisines, as dining out is one of the top most tourist activities and nearly 100% of tourists eat out when they travel. This trend gives a abundant opportunity to restaurants use molecular gastronomy to innovate and attract their patrons. Molecular gastronomy in many parts of the world has revolutionized restaurant dining experience and at the same time, led to new enjoyment and appreciation of food. A few examples include EI Bulli in Spain and the Fat Duck in the United Kingdom (Barham et. al. 2010), two restaurants that since adopting a new scientific approach to cooking have become widely regarded as among the best restaurants in the world. This is noticeable evidence of people accepting or influenced by the new cooking science or molecular gastronomy.When we look into the tourists trends, the opportunity for success of molecular gastronomy is apparently huge. 27 million leisure travellers have participated in culinary related travel in the last 3 years in the US, while spending $12 Billion directly on culinary related activities (Schmantowsky, year unknown). The actual mar ket segment includes more affluent people, who are highly motivated to experience unique and memorable dining experience. Studies prove that on an average, one third of total travel budget goes towards food related activities. The top six culinary tourist destinations include atomic number 20 (14%), Florida (10%), New York (7%), Texas (6%), North Carolina (4%) and Georgia (4%) (Schmantowsky, year unknown). Molecular gastronomy could be a throttle valve to culinary tourism which has a great potential to increase tourism generated revenue and the strategic partnership of culinary schools, hospitality organisations, chefs and scientists is the key to success of it.SWOT analysisStrengthsDemand From the time restaurants started utilizing molecular gastronomy for developing new dishes, existence has widely accepted the uniqueness and newness of the experience. From the chefs point of view, MG is a tool for innovation in the field to attract their customers and stay in business. Without thinking about any downsides of the technique, thus the public as well as the industry has widely accepted molecular gastronomy, while expecting and demanding more from it. This increasing demand has made or will make molecular gastronomy a lot popular worldwide.Hospitality industrys enthusiasm to change from the very early time, hospitality industry is changing every now and then, because of changing trends and tastes of customers, increasing competition, technology adoptation, and varying needs of customers. In fact this is the ever dynamic industry when compared to any other industries. This enthusiasm or eagerness of hospitality industry in general provides a great opportunity to make use of molecular gastronomy in its operations and a catalyst for further changes. Thus the science of food has got great support from the hospitality industry. As technology is slowly imitated now days, due to globalisation, molecular gastronomy techniques could be easily learned by enthusiast c hefs around the world.Supply of raw materials due to the increasing demand for molecular gastronomy, the demand for the ingredients also has raised especially various thickeners, stabilizers and emulsifiers. Since the success of restaurants like EI Bulli and the fat duck, in 2005-06, this demand has further elevated. The supply of these ingredients is only available in large quantities to the food industry, restricting the use of these chemicals by untrained or unprofessional people, which is on a safer side (lersch, 2007). In Australia Suppliers has positive prospects to add value and expand their product range and services to the industry.Ingredients for molecular gastronomyWeaknessesMolecular gastronomy is still gaining popularity, and the knowledge and experience of it are limited in most parts of the world within the industry and culinary training providers. It will take fair amount of time to spread throughout the industry and will take further long period for standardisation of new recipes. excessively there is limited accessibility to special ingredients and equipments such as smoking machine, blow torch and gastro vac which are much needed for cooking techniques, which is a unobtrusiveness for this field at the moment. Due to the scarcity and limited accessibility, most countries working on molecular gastronomy are relying on imported goods and equipments which resulted in increased cost for the same. As most countries are relying on French and Spanish resources, where molecular gastronomy originated from, there is a limitation in independent research and experiment in the field. This situation is also made worst by the language barriers between these countries. In addition, the existing workload in the hospitality industry provides less time to chefs for research and experiment in molecular gastronomy. Also there are limited technical books published in English language making things much more difficult.OpportunitiesHill recognizes a few opportunit ies for molecular gastronomy in the Australian hospitality industry, which is more or less similar to many other countries. Countries with limited access to the resources could gain knowledge and skills from internationally recognised expert chefs and broaden their set of skills by integrating molecular gastronomy into the existing culinary programmes. Apart from this professional networks should be promoted with increasing research and experiments in the field. Acquiring knowledge should be transferred to culinary students and the industry professionals to develop a culture with strong gastronomic foundation.ThreatsWhen focalization on threats to molecular gastronomy, the major barriers parrying the growth are once again the increased costs of commodities and equipments due to increased demand and supply issues. Another threat is the changing trends and demand of todays customers which may lead to decreasing popularity and in turn lead to less interest among chefs and decreased n eed for training in this area.It is contradictory to say that customers has widely accepted and are demanding for molecular gastronomy but at the same time changing customer behaviour can hinder the growth of molecular gastronomy. This is because the popular trend created by new dishes evolved from molecular gastronomy has been widely accepted by the public due to its newness and unique nature. But once it is popular and widely available everywhere, it is not any more new or unique. muchover, people who have tried the molecular style of cuisine may not go for it every time, but stick back to their favourite recipes, unless molecular gastronomy can create captivating recipes every now and then. However, these reasons are not at all a barrier for the growth of this particular discipline till it gains its popularity around the world.There is another aspect of molecular gastronomy which is not accentuate in any of the studies that is about the health. Most of the chemicals which are d irectly harmless to human body often have side effects. So, the intense use of chemicals in the cooking process should be of great concern. For example, most of the allopathic medicines which cures disease, mostly have foreseen negative side effects causing ill health. Just like that extreme use of various chemicals in molecular gastronomy to alter the physical form of foods should be studied in detail before it is commercially popular. More over the technique to change the texture, consistency and taste of food in molecular level could be maltreated in future just like invention of atomic reactions meant for energy are later used to make atom bombs, which is now a threat for human existence.ConclusionMolecular gastronomy is a pathway to innovation in culinary industry for chefs and a wonderful new enjoyment for the customers. Even though this field of science has proved its scientific nature and uniqueness, still there is a second opinion among the chefs in the industry. This may b e due to the fact that major role in this heed is limited to the French and Spanish with limited resources available to the rest of the world. Better translation of the resources and international co-operation among the professionals may help to educate everyone working in the industry, thus creating a holistic awareness about this discipline. But at the same time, while molecular gastronomy gives way to unbelievable innovations, there is a need for preserving the old traditional recipes which remain successful without any alterations for years.Molecular gastronomy is a milestone in the culinary industry, taking it into another level, while correcting the old recipes scientifically and inventing new trendy ones. Hospitality being an ever dynamic industry, and with the evolution of culinary tourism, it became essential for entrepreneurs to exhibit innovation and new trends in customer service, which is enhanced by molecular gastronomy to a great extend.Although this is the case, due to limited awareness and popularity among the public, certain areas of molecular gastronomy is still in distrust. Intense use of chemicals to change the physical and chemical properties of food is giving room for scepticism. This calls for a controlling body in each country and globally for close monitoring the work in molecular gastronomy, as there are organisations to control food hygiene and nutrition. This will provide certain norms for experiments and new recipes using the molecular gastronomic technology, before it reaches the public.

History of Artist Expression in Comic Books

History of Artist Expression in Comic BooksComic moderates, like many an otherwise(prenominal) trick forms, incur been co-opted by a hungry con rack uper capitalist deli truly which makes a Faustian bargain with its delicious meals give me your subversive trickistry forms and ideas, this economy regularizes, and I allow communicate them to a mass reference beyond your wildest dreams how incessantly, in ex lurch, your art forms and ideas ordain often simultaneously be stripped of their lordliness and singularity by becoming products of no little ubiquity and no much(prenominal)(prenominal) value than toothpaste mere tools to sell, sell, sell, and make more, more, more money for gigantic multinational corporations. This phenomenology is the ultimate in post red-brickist recontextualization, the stripping of an objects original meaning and signifi ratce, and its endowment with a new purpose each heretofore considered or deemed ethically, morally, or artisticall y acceptable.We shall explore the unique nature and popularity of gay take holds, and the themes presented in their tales and pillow slips, as a quasi-underground phenomenon whose ever-increasing popularity from the 1940s to the 1980s left them perfectly positioned to be gobb take and turned into movies and intersection by giant corporations eager to both(prenominal)(prenominal) exploit the devotees of jocund arrests and expand their numbers.What has been the big deal, historically, ab forbidden idiotic reserves? Though they argon primarily a postmodern phenomenon localise in the latter half of the twentieth century by to the present, their roots go as far back as the 17th century, when the side construct woodcuts depicting ghastly public executions. Comics first reached mass popularity in the United States in the 1930s in the form of newspaper gays then, the rum parole as a separate, thriving, and sophisticated art form began to evolve from there. The rummy book has been one of our wellhead-nigh familiar, yet least appreciated, popular art forms. As vehemently criticized as it is passionately defended it is a graphically sophisticated and culturally revealing medium. (Sabin, 1996, p.1).After roughly a decade of occupying a comfortable define in the Ameri corporation pop culture mainstream, absurdals, and then risible books, began to take to reflect a less sanguine view of American society. Violent offence comedians began to appear, and the more squeaky-clean comics of the 1930s and during World War II absorbed whatsoever of these same themes. In the so-called Silver Age of Comic Books, the 1950s through the 1970s, just about characters and write ups began to take on a darker and more building complex tone, mostly in response to plummeting gross sales after World War II that reflected an unassured cultural undercurrent brewing in America.In this initial countercultural heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, comic books were some times dismissed, ofttimes like rock-and-roll music, as the juvenile, unsophisticated, and nonwoody fantasies of hormone-addled adolescents. Sometimes, however, comic books were labeled as cultural filth that was an ongoing threat, destructive to teenagedage minds. In 1954, right-wing American psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham published a book called seduction of the Innocent, which was an all- turn out assault on the ostensible delinquency-inducing message of comic books, and which singled out Batman for special criticism, claiming a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism. (Wertham, 1954, p. 189). Werthams criticism of comic book contented led to the establishment of a censor organization kn realizeledge as the Comic Code Authority that same year, whose heavy-handed influence labored comic book writers and artists to go somewhat underground with their subversive themes.However, Batman (and Robin, whatever his relationship with Batman may or may not receive been) has far outlived both Dr. Wertham and the cooling system effect of his book, and in event, the longevity and deceptively complex content of comic books carry proven them to be much more originatorful than anyone ever dreamed. They lay down for decades embodied striking artistic expressions of artists and authors, who in mergeddly spoke for countless billions of teen people who did not quite fit in to the mainstream of society.These millions were given vocalism by comic books much(prenominal) as The X-Men, The Incredible predominate, The Amazing Spider-Man, from the Marvel Comics Company, and Batman and Superman from the DC Comics Company. Each of the aforementioned titles tells an extended set of stories about a character or characters who be misfits of some kind, whether it be physical, psychological, or emotional, and who take on a variety of preternatural and/or superhuman characteristics which allow them to not tho address their own individualised struggles with their differences fro m others in society, but to aid society itself in coming to better accept those who are different or, alternately, the characters are either born with or afflicted by a condition which makes them a misfit and indeed different from others in society, and must adapt to life as such.These comic book stories mainly involve a variety of morality plays, ranging from simple good vs. evil, to the exploration of antiheros, that enable the characters to attempt to effect positive change in the world, and provide both catharsis and inspiration for the readers.The X-Men, for example, were created by legendary comic book author Stan lee and artist Jack Kirby in 1963. They were /are a group of teenagers born with genetic mutations that have endowed them with a variety of superhuman characteristics, not all of which are necessarily constructive. In the leeward/Kirby universe, the X-Men are widely ostracized and discriminated against not scarce because they are different, but because non-mutant humans fear the X-Men are the next logical, superior step in human organic evolution and therefore could render normal humans obsolete.The teenagers stories often involved them attempting to come to harm with their powers and how to fit into the so-called normal human society. The X-Men were comprised of such characters as Iceman, a young man who could freeze objects at will Wolverine, a foul-tempered young man whose skeleton is laced with a nearly indestructible metal alloy, including metal knives which he could extend and retract from his hands at will, albeit with significant pain Storm, a young black female who could control the weather, including the ability to summon storms at will Nightcrawler, a young male born with blue fur who could scram virtually invisible at night and teleport short distances Cyclops, who could spread out beams of native solar energy from his eyes, but not al right smarts control this power Rogue, a young female possessing the hyper-empathic abi lity the feelings, memories, and abilities of other beings she touches unfortunately, however, prolonged touch on with others can weaken or kill them Magneto, an older male survivor of the Nazi death camps who can manipulate magnetic forces, but whose psyche was so deformed by his experience at the hands of the Nazis that he has depart an arch-nemesis of the X-Men and Professor Xavier, an older male paraplegic with amazing telepathic abilities and a first intellect, who has utilize his life to mentoring other mutants and defending them from themselves, unsympathetic humans, and the perennial machinations of Magneto.The X-Men and their stories were unabashedly allegorical and subversive in nature, content, and theme. Professor Xavier was modeled after civil rights activist Martin Luther King, younger and Sir Francis Xavier, Catholic missionary and founder of the Jesuit order. The sense of loneliness and isolation experienced by Rogue was a reflection of the near-universal teena ge experience. The bigotry and fanaticism of homosexuals is another allegorical component have with the X-Men levels, particular propositionly in the necessitate adaptations directed by openly gay Bryan Singer. In X-Men 2, the character of bottle corkby Drake characters comes out of the confine as a mutant to his parents, prompting them to hold if he has tried not being a mutant, parodying the oft-heard question of parents directed their gay children.Anti-Semitism, personal alienation, anti-Communist paranoia, and racialism are excessively allegorical themes that X-Men comic narratives have explored in detail. And like The X-Men, Batman, Spiderman (also a Stan Lee origin), The Incredible Hulk and Superman all were pendant upon and explored the themes of what it meant for a person to be forced to hide or to be ashamed of a component of his or her true self, or to lead a duple existence one private and personal, one public. Superman (created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) , known by millions as a mild-mannered reporter, cordially maladroit nerd, and holder of an unrequited love for Lois Lane, who happens to be a near-omnipotent superhero when called upon in extraordinary circumstances, is the perfect embodiment of both teenage reality and teenage wish fulfillment. The Incredible Hulk (another Stan Lee creation) gets angry like all of us, but has real power scary power, often to do something about it thanks to his green steroidal transformation.Batman (created by Bob Kane and fleshed out by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson) lives a quiet, dark life of solitude contrasted with public works of enviable nobility and good. These feelings of powerlessness and awkwardness, unite with authority fantasies, were and continue to be direct reflections of the collective concerns of millions of young people, and peradventure many adults, as well how to fit into a society that demanded conformity without losing the uniqueness that embodies ones individuality.I ronically, the collective popularity of all of these comic book titles has historically been so striking in terms of sales that it would not be an unfair question to wonderment if it fact the teenage misfits who bought them were in fact the majority, not the minority in society. Comic book sales peaked in 1993 at a dumbfounding $850 million (U.S. dollars) and are still very healthy, though currently, the popularity of comic book characters is as likely to be manifest in movie ticket and videodisk sales of picture adaptations of comic books as it is in comic book purchases. More on this later.The character archetypes and narrative themes of most of these original and ongoing comic book series were shitd in the crucible of the fairly conformist sociocultural pressures of the modernist era in the United States. The teenagers of each successive decade, beginning with the 1950s and chronic to the present, have been characterized by isolation, disaffection, rebellion, disillusionment , all combined with the pressure to adapt without question to the relatively monolithic mores of the generation which preceded them, a generation for whom belonging to a bear-sized social group, for whom the values of unquestioning self-sacrifice and acceptance of authority figures and establishment power structures were the norm.Men were called to duty, whether in World War II or in the burgeoning post-war bodied universe many made the ultimate sacrifice their lives, or worse, their souls. Women, too, had their duty to support their men in discreet, subservient lives of quiet domestic efficiency. only when as American young people began to question the assumptions behind the Cold War, and question the rational and wisdom behind the interminably bloody Vietnam War, their uncertainty on these issues led to a greater wholesale questioning of the mechanisms and assumptions of societys very foundations. (Even Batman, whose creation in 1940 arguably predates postmodernism, eventual ly took on countercultural subject matter and themes, to say zip of the vestige of a taboo homoeroticism in the relationship between Batman and Robin.)This rebellion was met with heavy disapproval and disappointment by parents, representing the previous generation. The ongoing schism between these deuce generations has caused huge cultural, social, and political conflicts that continue to be played out even in 2005. These conflicts have been vividly reflected in the artistic expressions of the times literature, music, and removes.From the pedestal of the older generations, comic books were perhaps never adequately understood, respected, or even recognized for the potent and foreign artistic and cultural forces that they have ever equal certainly as potent as more constituted and commonplace means of artistic expression, high art and unstainedal music, just to cook two ossified examples. (And, incidentally, these generational collisiones were not limited to the United S tates in terms of understanding the rise of the superhero comic books. The country of Japan, tiny as it is, has become its own powerhouse in terms of churning out groundbreaking styles of comics, such as Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame, reflecting generational struggles unique to the Japanese youth culture.)The artistic expressions that arose out of the clash between generations also represented an evolution in classifications and mechanisms of art itself the evolution from modern art forms to postmodern art forms. Modern art, reflective of the cultures from which it sprung, was generally conformist, and adhered to classic rules of form, function, and design, and either explicitly or implicitly supported the symbols of establishment paradigms by exploiting binary oppositions of us vs. them (i.e., Americans vs. Communists). Postmodern art rejected the methodology of modern art on every level, deconstructing it to such an extent as to even question the basic psychological definitions o f symbolism in human art forms.The discarding and junto of genres and forms, the medley of styles, the toying with unorthodox symbolism, and an active interest in subversion and smashing of establishment systems rebellion itself are all manifestations of art evolving to postmodern form. And or else of existing to analyze, but ultimately reinforce the paradigms of patriarchal establishments, postmodern art analyzed and often sought to undermine these establishments and their conventions, if not destroy them altogether. As remark by postmodernism scholar Andreas Huyssen, contemporary postmodernism operates in a field of tension between tradition and innovation, conservation and renewal, mass culture and high art, in which the insurgent terms are no longer automatically privileged over the first. (Huyssen, 1986, p. 267).As such, any art form that has enjoyed longevity has internalized and in collectived this revolutionary and evolutionary process, or been discarded or fossilize d. Comic books are no exception to this rule, and their staying power has manifested itself in the last 20 or so years by their translation to and eventual dominance of the genre of film. In fact, comic books in their Silver Age forms were arguably inheringly post-modern in nature, as they combined complex and slender visual artistry with complex and serialized narratives, an intermixing pastiche of separate genres which had never before been combined in such a unique form.Books had, of course, often featured illustrations in the past, but they were only to provide occasional support and dimensionalization of the narrative, as opposed to being as important a component of the medium as the narrative itself. The fantastical and stylized nature of many of the illustrations featured in comic books were often postmodern artistic explorations in their own right, seeking to propel the boundaries of conventional illustrations. Their explorations of anti-heroes helped deconstruct the fa ntasy of simple constructs of good and evil.American consumer capitalism, which is inherently (though not necessarily benignly) postmodern in its relentless desire to commodify anything and everything, particularly that which can be packaged as new, hip, and edgy and thus desirable has hungrily devoured comic books and the films which come from them. In doing so, the artistic and societal merit of comic books, in particular their subversive characteristics, have become themselves subverted by the deity of consumer capitalist commodification.The ultimate dream, for example, of fans of the X-Men comic books, that their beloved misfit characters would reach movie theatres and therefore a big audience for their collective angst, has come true but that dream has also become a nightmare for some fans, as these same subversive misfit X-Men have also become action figures, clothing lines, cartoons on the side of fast food lunch bags and corneres all mass marketed to mass audiences in order to maximise sugar for corporations that are more interested in shareholder earnings than they are the artistic merit of airing the collective voices of modify teen angst.If the phenomenology of disaffected teen angst can be appropriated to make a get from teenagers, then corporations will be chasing the teens and their money incessantly. However, corporate interest in teenagers as a demographic generally has little to do with sociocultural altruism. In fact, cultural observers should take heed ventilation of genuinely alternative social visions collide right off with the underpinnings of power in the economy at large. (Schiller, 1986, p. 152) The trade-off is as follows as long as such ventilation of alternative social visions makes a profit, it will be tolerated. save in the consumer capitalist corporate universe of today, art for arts sake, particularly if the art does not reinforce the machinery of consumer capitalism, will never stimulate much more than limited ent husiasm, and is more likely to meet with insidious hostility.The primary perpetrators in this arena are the behemoth corporate conglomerates that own the media, and the plundering way in which they manage their film and boob tube divisions. In the 1960s and 1970s, film studios and video recording networks existed as independent business entities whose sole focus was the creation of films and television shows nothing more, nothing less. spot these companies were undisputedly interested in profits, the process was far more artist-centered and quality-driven than they are today.The presumption was that quality films would result in box-office successes, though the expectations of profit were relatively modest compared to todays standards. Then, in 1977, a watershed moment in film explanation arrived in the form of the smash hit star Wars, a comic-bookish story in its own right despite being an original creation of writer/director George Lucas. The film was not only the most fin ancially prospering phenomenon in movie history, but it alerted movie studios to a whole new economic model, centered around the notion of auxiliary profits. intimately notably in the case of Star Wars, the ancillary profits came in the form of merchandising.Inexplicably, before the films release, executives at 20th carbon frustrate, the films distributor, were convinced the film would be a flop, and in contract negotiations with Lucas, acceded to his unusual request to receive 100% of profits derived from sales of merchandise inspired and/or derived from the film, for example action figures and lunchboxes. The Fox executives certainly rued the day they signed over these rights to Mr. Lucas, as Star Wars merchandise generated $1 billion in profits for the shrewd filmmaker.Another lesson learned by Fox, and other studios hungry to recreate the monetary orgy of Star Wars, was that films targeted forthwith at children could be extremely lucrative at the box office, beyond profit margins to which they had become accustomed. Movies were no longer mostly the artistic or escapist purview of an audience comprised largely of adults. Their children came to be seen as a previously under-exploited root of gravy profits.Lastly, movie studios began to rethink their conventional economic model, which was to produce modestly-budgeted films and reliably make modest profits. What Star Wars ignited was a phenomenon known as the blockbuster mentality, a hunger for epic profits from so-called event films, on which the studios became willing to gamble heretofore-unprecedented sums of money in hopes of hitting the proverbial jackpot. George Lucas, who began his career as a subversive filmmaker of eccentric tastes with critically acclaimed films such as THX-1138 and American Graffiti, unwittingly created a perfect storm that turned the film manufacture on its head.Star Wars was no fluke, as it turned out, and it was not long before the greedy capitalistic corporate culture of the 1980s began entertaining, no pun intended, the notion that film studio and television networks could be glamorous cash cows. In short order, huge companies whose inwardness business usually had nothing to do with the pastime industry were battling it out to see who could get into show business the fastest. Coca-Cola acquired movie studio Columbia/Tri-Star, which was later sold to Japanese electronics giant Sony familiar electric acquired the NBC television network Capital Cities acquired the ABC Television network, and News Corporation acquired 20th Century Fox and the Fox Broadcasting Company disconnectedness + westbound acquired Paramount Pictures, etc.The unfortunate side effect of these mergers was the infusion of bottom-line, short-term profit-hungry thinking, as well as corporate models of branding and marketing products. These large corporations viewed films and television shows, and the intellectual properties that underlied them, as products, pure and simple, no different from mouthwash, shoes, soda drinks, or cosmetics. They expected their new acquisitions to transition from being art-focused and letting profits point from quality, to exactly making whatever sold the most tickets and had the most lucrative ancillary market potential.There was no single identifiable point, such a historical date or a press conference, when the critical link between art and commerce was separated, or the historical deference of profit to art was alter (themselves postmodern phenomena, incidentally), but the entre of comic books into the world of film and television, which has become a powerful, dominating presence of comic books in film and television, followed and was directly associate to this paradigm shift in the economics of the entertainment industry.The adaptation of comic books into film and television properties has been an exercise in creative cannibalism in some sense. Increasingly, film and television studios have taken on the risk-averse mentality of their corporate get the hang, and one of the effects of this has been to seek out intellectual property that might procure the fiscal success of a film or television show adaptation of said property. To the extent that a wildly successful book was often equal for films geared towards adults, wildly successful comic book series were seen as a surefire way to guarantee a teen audience and the disposable income acquire power of them and their parents.Movie executives sought to acquire the rights to comic book characters and stories which they could exploit tangible film industry terminology and build into franchises also actual film industry terminology, particularly creepy given the obvious parallels to McDonalds or Gap store franchise business models. For the most part, these franchises have been wildly successful from a financial point of view, though perhaps not from an artistic standpoint.There have been six Batman films made by Warner Brothers movie studio (o wned by corporate behemoth AOL Time Warner, who not coincidentally own DC Comics, the original home of the Batman characters and comic books) 1989s Batman, 1992s Batman Returns, 1995s Batman Forever, 1997s Batman and Robin, 2004s Catwoman, and 2005s Batman Begins. Each film sported star casting of the highest tone however, perhaps with the exception of the first film, were special effects showcases first and artistically ambitious second, if at all. Nor were they particularly true to the time-honored complexities and lingering darkness of the comic books. iconic film critic Roger Ebert (a devoted fan of the Batman comic books), in his review of Batman and Robin, took a forlorn swipe at each of the films to date my witch began to fall out at about the 30-minute mark when it became clear that this new movie, like its predecessors, was not *really* going to explore the bizarre world of its heroes, but would devolve big money safely into a special effects extravaganza. Batman Robi n, like the first three films in the series, is wonderful to look at, and has nothing authentic at its core notice it, I realized why it makes absolutely no difference who plays Batman Theres nobody at home Give the foreground to the characters, not the special effects. And ask the concentrated questions about Bruce Wayne. (Ebert, 1997)Eberts last line refers to the perennial rumors that perennial bachelor Bruce Wayne might actually be a homosexual, or failing that, possess some unusual sexual fetishes that might not comprise the sort of fare that young children should be seeing at the movie theatre or on DVD.But this topic, as well as any serious exploration of Bruce Waynes psyche, was not been considered particularly lucrative by the marketing machines at Warner Brothers until the franchise was on the confines of death after the box office mediocrity of Batman and Robin and the outright box office disaster of Catwoman, which cost $85 million (U.S.) to produce and only made $40 million (U.S.) at the box office. 2005s Batman Begins was an unapologetically dark and complex film. Roger Eberts review may well have spoken for many Batman fans who ached for more nerve and less pure style The character resonates more deeply with me than the other comic superheroes, perhaps because when I discovered him as a child, he seemed darker and more self-aggrandizing-up than the cheerful Superman. He has secrets. As Alfred muses Strange injuries and a nonexistent social life. These things beg the question, what does Bruce Wayne do with his time? (Ebert, 2005)Apparently, the moviegoing audiences agreed with Mr. Ebert, rewarding Warner Brothers with $205 million (U.S.) in box office receipts in the United States alone, and a similar and still increasing tally worldwide. The lesson here is that while an artistically unambitious and modify film like Batman and Robin, which is more childish cartoon and marketing machine than serious filmmaking, can certainly turn a modest profit, it is entirely realistic to be artistically ambitious and make plenty of money at the same time. One wonders why the latter is more often the exception quite a than the rule, to the prejudice of the integrity of comic books and their rich characters.In theory, the adaptation of comic books to the film and television arenas could have been a boon to not only the comic book industry, but a force for cultural good in the sense of spreading the subversive word to a larger audience. While there is no question that American and Western teenagers are far more aware of Batman and The X-Men than they were 30 years ago, the expansion of the audience has come at a price. early of all, the structures of film and television do not generally lend themselves well to the sort of narrative complexity that is a hallmark of comic books ongoing multi-character storylines. While the two X-Men films to date were generally well-received by fans of the comic books, many fans vociferously complai ned that many characters were either simply not included in the storylines, or they were change to suit Hollywood norms in order to maximize audience appeal. While a third X-Men film is in the works, the simple truth is that 20th Century Fox, the movie studio that produced the films, simply cannot make any more than one X-Men film every two to three years and the complicated narrative history of over a dozen characters unspoiled over the course of 40 years of storytelling simply cannot be done adequate justice by a two-hour movies as good as they may be which get released only periodically. Secondly, for many young people, seeing an X-Men or Batman film may be their very first exposure to these universes, and depending on their reaction to the quality of the films and their natural consumer predilections, it is not certain that these teenagers are going to seek out the more dimensionalized, rich, and complex narrative universes to be found within the comic book series.In fact, gi ven the immense popularity of video games among teenagers, who as a general rule overlook as much, if not more time transfixed by their Playstations and Xboxes than they do reading, it is more likely that teenagers who see X-Men films will buy the video game adaptations of the X-Men comic books preferably of investing in the comic books themselves. The statistics bear this out in 2004, sales of comic books in the U.S. totaled $300 million a considerable sum of money, but a far cry from the $850 million sum reached ten years earlier.Comic book money had, for better or for worse, flowed international from the comic books themselves and into the reinventions of the comic books the movies, the video games. It is unfair, perhaps, to dismiss video games as worthless, but also difficult to avoid the conclusion that the X-Men video game, which is simply a raving mad fall upon simulation featuring the various mutant characters, carries more artistic and social worth than the comic boo ks to which the video game owes its digital existence.Lastly, the value of ancillary X-Men merchandise, such as T-shirts, lunchboxes, and plastic soda cups from Burger King adorned with X-Men characters, is fleeting and thus fairly dubious in comparison to the lasting collectors item value of the comic books themselves, to say nothing of the inherent worth of the content of the books, and the visual and narrative artistry contained within them.Ultimately, and sadly, the postmodern machinery of consumer capitalism has appropriated comic book visuals and narratives and separated them from their inherent artistic value in order to make them both more appealing to a mainstream audience, usually children and younger teens, and more exploitable in terms of ancillary markets such as merchandising. The positive side of this equation is that the subversive art and storytelling found in comic books was brought to a larger audience, but may well have been eviscerated of its soul in the process .Films like Batman Begins, with its dark exploration of the recesses of Bruce Waynes psychology, and X-Men 2, with its unapologetic homosexual allegories, do their source material adequate justice and make their corporate masters a lot of money in the process. What can be hoped for the future is that movie studios see fit to release more films such as these and less of the vapid, lowest-common denominator special effects orgies that tend to predominate the box office landscape. Hellraiser and Constantine were met with outright hostility by fans of their comic book source material and performed sickly at the box office. It is no longer enough to simply adapt a comic book to guarantee success. Many audience members have grown more shrewd and sophisticated, and demand quality in storytelling.In the words of Nightcrawler in the film X-Men 2, Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes. If this is true in a world where what is put before the eyes of teenagers is predominated by movies and video games, it is imperative that the content not merely reflect the status quo desired by consumer capitalism, but the thought-provoking stories and characters, daring and subversive thoughts, first brought to us decades ago in the high hat comic books.BIBLIOGRAPHYSabin, Roger. Comics, Comix Graphic Novels A History of Comic Art. Phaidon Press, 1996.Robinson, Jerry. The Comics An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. Putnam Publishers, 1974.Wertham, Fredric. Seduction of the Innocent. Amerion Publishers, 1954 (Reprint 1996).Tuzi, Marino. Individualism and Marginality From Comic Book to Film Marvel Comics Superheroes College Quarterly, overflow 2005 hoi polloi 8 Number 2. Taken from httHistory of Artist Expression in Comic BooksHistory of Artist Expression in Comic BooksComic books, like many art forms, have been co-opted by a hungry consumer capitalist economy which makes a Faustian bargain with its artistic meals give me your subve rsive art forms and ideas, this economy says, and I will communicate them to a mass audience beyond your wildest dreams however, in exchange, your art forms and ideas will often simultaneously be stripped of their dignity and uniqueness by becoming products of no less ubiquity and no more value than toothpaste mere tools to sell, sell, sell, and make more, more, more money for gigantic multinational corporations. This phenomenology is the ultimate in postmodern recontextualization, the stripping of an objects original meaning and significance, and its endowment with a new purpose either heretofore considered or deemed ethically, morally, or artistically acceptable.We shall explore the unique nature and popularity of comic books, and the themes presented in their narratives and characters, as a quasi-underground phenomenon whose ever-increasing popularity from the 1940s to the 1980s left them perfectly positioned to be gobbled and turned into movies and merchandise by giant corporat ions eager to both exploit the devotees of comic books and expand their numbers.What has been the big deal, historically, about comic books? Though they are primarily a postmodern phenomenon localized in the latter half of the 20th century through to the present, their roots go as far back as the 17th century, when the English mass-produced woodcuts depicting ghastly public executions. Comics first reached mass popularity in the United States in the 1930s in the form of newspaper comics then, the comic book as a separate, thriving, and sophisticated art form began to evolve from there. The comic book has been one of our most familiar, yet least appreciated, popular art forms. As vehemently criticized as it is passionately defended it is a graphically sophisticated and culturally revealing medium. (Sabin, 1996, p.1).After roughly a decade of occupying a comfortable place in the American pop culture mainstream, comics, and then comic books, began to take to reflect a less sanguine vie w of American society. Violent crime comics began to appear, and the more squeaky-clean comics of the 1930s and during World War II absorbed some of these same themes. In the so-called Silver Age of Comic Books, the 1950s through the 1970s, most characters and narratives began to take on a darker and more complex tone, mostly in response to plummeting sales after World War II that reflected an unsettled cultural undercurrent brewing in America.In this initial countercultural heyday of the 1950s and 1960s, comic books were sometimes dismissed, much like rock-and-roll music, as the juvenile, unsophisticated, and pulpy fantasies of hormone-addled adolescents. Sometimes, however, comic books were labeled as cultural filth that was an ongoing threat, destructive to teenage minds. In 1954, right-wing American psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent, which was an all-out assault on the ostensible delinquency-inducing content of comic books, and w hich singled out Batman for special criticism, claiming a subtle atmosphere of homoeroticism. (Wertham, 1954, p. 189). Werthams criticism of comic book content led to the establishment of a censor organization known as the Comic Code Authority that same year, whose heavy-handed influence forced comic book writers and artists to go somewhat underground with their subversive themes.However, Batman (and Robin, whatever his relationship with Batman may or may not have been) has far outlived both Dr. Wertham and the chilling effect of his book, and in fact, the longevity and deceptively complex content of comic books have proven them to be much more powerful than anyone ever dreamed. They have for decades embodied striking artistic expressions of artists and authors, who collectively spoke for countless millions of young people who did not quite fit in to the mainstream of society.These millions were given voice by comic books such as The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Ma n, from the Marvel Comics Company, and Batman and Superman from the DC Comics Company. Each of the aforementioned titles tells an extended set of stories about a character or characters who are misfits of some kind, whether it be physical, psychological, or emotional, and who take on a variety of preternatural and/or superhuman characteristics which allow them to not only address their own personal struggles with their differences from others in society, but to aid society itself in coming to better accept those who are different or, alternately, the characters are either born with or afflicted by a condition which makes them a misfit and therefore different from others in society, and must adapt to life as such.These comic book stories generally involve a variety of morality plays, ranging from simple good vs. evil, to the exploration of antiheros, that enable the characters to attempt to effect positive change in the world, and provide both catharsis and inspiration for the reader s.The X-Men, for example, were created by legendary comic book author Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby in 1963. They were /are a group of teenagers born with genetic mutations that have endowed them with a variety of superhuman characteristics, not all of which are necessarily constructive. In the Lee/Kirby universe, the X-Men are widely ostracized and discriminated against not only because they are different, but because non-mutant humans fear the X-Men are the next logical, superior step in human evolution and therefore could render normal humans obsolete.The teenagers stories often involved them attempting to come to terms with their powers and how to fit into the so-called normal human society. The X-Men were comprised of such characters as Iceman, a young man who could freeze objects at will Wolverine, a foul-tempered young man whose skeleton is laced with a nearly indestructible metal alloy, including metal knives which he could extend and retract from his hands at will, albeit with considerable pain Storm, a young black female who could control the weather, including the ability to summon storms at will Nightcrawler, a young male born with blue fur who could become virtually invisible at night and teleport short distances Cyclops, who could shoot beams of pure solar energy from his eyes, but not always control this power Rogue, a young female possessing the hyper-empathic ability the feelings, memories, and abilities of other beings she touches unfortunately, however, prolonged contact with others can weaken or kill them Magneto, an older male survivor of the Nazi death camps who can manipulate magnetic forces, but whose psyche was so twisted by his experience at the hands of the Nazis that he has become an arch-nemesis of the X-Men and Professor Xavier, an older male paraplegic with amazing telepathic abilities and a world-class intellect, who has dedicated his life to mentoring other mutants and defending them from themselves, unsympathetic humans, and the perennial machinations of Magneto.The X-Men and their stories were unabashedly allegorical and subversive in nature, content, and theme. Professor Xavier was modeled after civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sir Francis Xavier, Catholic missionary and founder of the Jesuit order. The sense of loneliness and isolation experienced by Rogue was a reflection of the near-universal teenage experience. The bigotry and intolerance of homosexuals is another allegorical component featured with the X-Men narratives, particularly in the film adaptations directed by openly gay Bryan Singer. In X-Men 2, the character of Bobby Drake characters comes out of the closet as a mutant to his parents, prompting them to ask if he has tried not being a mutant, parodying the oft-heard question of parents directed their gay children.Anti-Semitism, personal alienation, anti-Communist paranoia, and racism are also allegorical themes that X-Men comic narratives have explored in detail. And lik e The X-Men, Batman, Spiderman (also a Stan Lee creation), The Incredible Hulk and Superman all were dependent upon and explored the themes of what it meant for a person to be forced to hide or to be ashamed of a component of his or her true self, or to lead a dual existence one private and personal, one public. Superman (created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster), known by millions as a mild-mannered reporter, socially maladroit nerd, and bearer of an unrequited love for Lois Lane, who happens to be a near-omnipotent superhero when called upon in extraordinary circumstances, is the perfect embodiment of both teenage reality and teenage wish fulfillment. The Incredible Hulk (another Stan Lee creation) gets angry like all of us, but has real power scary power, often to do something about it thanks to his green steroidal transformation.Batman (created by Bob Kane and fleshed out by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson) lives a quiet, dark life of solitude contrasted with public works of en viable nobility and good. These feelings of powerlessness and awkwardness, combined with empowerment fantasies, were and continue to be direct reflections of the collective concerns of millions of young people, and perhaps many adults, as well how to fit into a society that demanded conformity without losing the uniqueness that embodies ones individuality.Ironically, the collective popularity of all of these comic book titles has historically been so striking in terms of sales that it would not be an unfair question to wonder if it fact the teenage misfits who bought them were in fact the majority, not the minority in society. Comic book sales peaked in 1993 at a staggering $850 million (U.S. dollars) and are still very healthy, though currently, the popularity of comic book characters is as likely to be manifest in movie ticket and DVD sales of film adaptations of comic books as it is in comic book purchases. More on this later.The character archetypes and narrative themes of most of these original and ongoing comic book series were produced in the crucible of the fairly conformist sociocultural pressures of the modernist era in the United States. The teenagers of each successive decade, beginning with the 1950s and continuing to the present, have been characterized by isolation, disaffection, rebellion, disillusionment, all combined with the pressure to adapt without question to the relatively monolithic mores of the generation which preceded them, a generation for whom belonging to a larger social group, for whom the values of unquestioning self-sacrifice and acceptance of authority figures and establishment power structures were the norm.Men were called to duty, whether in World War II or in the burgeoning post-war corporate universe many made the ultimate sacrifice their lives, or worse, their souls. Women, too, had their duty to support their men in discreet, subservient lives of quiet domestic efficiency. But as American young people began to questio n the assumptions behind the Cold War, and question the rational and wisdom behind the interminably bloody Vietnam War, their uncertainty on these issues led to a greater wholesale questioning of the mechanisms and assumptions of societys very foundations. (Even Batman, whose creation in 1940 arguably predates postmodernism, eventually took on countercultural subject matter and themes, to say nothing of the suggestion of a taboo homoeroticism in the relationship between Batman and Robin.)This rebellion was met with heavy disapproval and disappointment by parents, representing the previous generation. The ongoing schism between these two generations has caused huge cultural, social, and political conflicts that continue to be played out even in 2005. These conflicts have been vividly reflected in the artistic expressions of the times literature, music, and films.From the standpoint of the older generations, comic books were perhaps never adequately understood, respected, or even rec ognized for the potent and unusual artistic and cultural forces that they have always represented certainly as potent as more conventional and commonplace means of artistic expression, high art and classical music, just to name two ossified examples. (And, incidentally, these generational clashes were not limited to the United States in terms of understanding the rise of the superhero comic books. The country of Japan, tiny as it is, has become its own powerhouse in terms of churning out groundbreaking styles of comics, such as Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame, reflecting generational struggles unique to the Japanese youth culture.)The artistic expressions that arose out of the clash between generations also represented an evolution in classifications and mechanisms of art itself the evolution from modern art forms to postmodern art forms. Modern art, reflective of the cultures from which it sprung, was generally conformist, and adhered to classic rules of form, function, and design, and either explicitly or implicitly supported the symbols of establishment paradigms by exploiting binary oppositions of us vs. them (i.e., Americans vs. Communists). Postmodern art rejected the methodology of modern art on every level, deconstructing it to such an extent as to even question the basic psychological definitions of symbolism in human art forms.The discarding and combination of genres and forms, the pastiche of styles, the toying with unorthodox symbolism, and an active interest in subversion and smashing of establishment systems rebellion itself are all manifestations of art evolving to postmodern form. And instead of existing to analyze, but ultimately reinforce the paradigms of patriarchal establishments, postmodern art analyzed and often sought to undermine these establishments and their conventions, if not destroy them altogether. As noted by postmodernism scholar Andreas Huyssen, contemporary postmodernism operates in a field of tension between tradition and i nnovation, conservation and renewal, mass culture and high art, in which the second terms are no longer automatically privileged over the first. (Huyssen, 1986, p. 267).As such, any art form that has enjoyed longevity has internalized and incorporated this revolutionary and evolutionary process, or been discarded or fossilized. Comic books are no exception to this rule, and their staying power has manifested itself in the last 20 or so years by their translation to and eventual dominance of the genre of film. In fact, comic books in their Silver Age forms were arguably inherently post-modern in nature, as they combined complex and detailed visual artistry with complex and serialized narratives, an intermixing pastiche of separate genres which had never before been combined in such a unique form.Books had, of course, often featured illustrations in the past, but they were only to provide occasional support and dimensionalization of the narrative, as opposed to being as important a co mponent of the medium as the narrative itself. The fantastical and stylized nature of many of the illustrations featured in comic books were often postmodern artistic explorations in their own right, seeking to push the boundaries of conventional illustrations. Their explorations of anti-heroes helped deconstruct the notion of simple constructs of good and evil.American consumer capitalism, which is inherently (though not necessarily benignly) postmodern in its relentless desire to commodify anything and everything, particularly that which can be packaged as new, hip, and edgy and thus desirable has hungrily devoured comic books and the films which come from them. In doing so, the artistic and societal merit of comic books, in particular their subversive characteristics, have become themselves subverted by the deity of consumer capitalist commodification.The ultimate dream, for example, of fans of the X-Men comic books, that their beloved misfit characters would reach movie theatr es and therefore a larger audience for their collective angst, has come true but that dream has also become a nightmare for some fans, as these same subversive misfit X-Men have also become action figures, clothing lines, cartoons on the side of fast food lunch bags and boxes all mass marketed to mass audiences in order to maximize profits for corporations that are more interested in shareholder earnings than they are the artistic merit of airing the collective voices of disaffected teen angst.If the phenomenology of disaffected teen angst can be appropriated to make a profit from teenagers, then corporations will be chasing the teens and their money incessantly. However, corporate interest in teenagers as a demographic generally has little to do with sociocultural altruism. In fact, cultural observers should take heed ventilation of genuinely alternative social visions collide directly with the underpinnings of power in the economy at large. (Schiller, 1986, p. 152) The trade-of f is as follows as long as such ventilation of alternative social visions makes a profit, it will be tolerated. But in the consumer capitalist corporate universe of today, art for arts sake, particularly if the art does not reinforce the machinery of consumer capitalism, will never generate much more than limited enthusiasm, and is more likely to meet with insidious hostility.The primary perpetrators in this arena are the behemoth corporate conglomerates that own the media, and the acquisitive way in which they manage their film and television divisions. In the 1960s and 1970s, film studios and television networks existed as independent business entities whose sole focus was the creation of films and television shows nothing more, nothing less. While these companies were undisputedly interested in profits, the process was far more artist-centered and quality-driven than they are today.The presumption was that quality films would result in box-office successes, though the expectatio ns of profit were relatively modest compared to todays standards. Then, in 1977, a watershed moment in film history arrived in the form of the blockbuster Star Wars, a comic-bookish story in its own right despite being an original creation of writer/director George Lucas. The film was not only the most financially successful phenomenon in movie history, but it alerted movie studios to a whole new economic model, centered around the notion of ancillary profits. Most notably in the case of Star Wars, the ancillary profits came in the form of merchandising.Inexplicably, before the films release, executives at 20th Century Fox, the films distributor, were convinced the film would be a flop, and in contract negotiations with Lucas, acceded to his unusual request to receive 100% of profits derived from sales of merchandise inspired and/or derived from the film, for example action figures and lunchboxes. The Fox executives surely rued the day they signed over these rights to Mr. Lucas, as Star Wars merchandise generated $1 billion in profits for the shrewd filmmaker.Another lesson learned by Fox, and other studios hungry to recreate the fiscal orgy of Star Wars, was that films targeted directly at children could be extremely lucrative at the box office, beyond profit margins to which they had become accustomed. Movies were no longer mostly the artistic or escapist purview of an audience comprised largely of adults. Their children came to be seen as a previously under-exploited source of bonanza profits.Lastly, movie studios began to rethink their conventional economic model, which was to produce modestly-budgeted films and reliably make modest profits. What Star Wars ignited was a phenomenon known as the blockbuster mentality, a hunger for epic profits from so-called event films, on which the studios became willing to gamble heretofore-unprecedented sums of money in hopes of hitting the proverbial jackpot. George Lucas, who began his career as a subversive filmmaker of eccentric tastes with critically acclaimed films such as THX-1138 and American Graffiti, unwittingly created a perfect storm that turned the film industry on its head.Star Wars was no fluke, as it turned out, and it was not long before the greedy capitalistic corporate culture of the 1980s began entertaining, no pun intended, the notion that film studio and television networks could be glamorous cash cows. In short order, huge companies whose core business usually had nothing to do with the entertainment industry were battling it out to see who could get into show business the fastest. Coca-Cola acquired movie studio Columbia/Tri-Star, which was later sold to Japanese electronics giant Sony General Electric acquired the NBC television network Capital Cities acquired the ABC Television network, and News Corporation acquired 20th Century Fox and the Fox Broadcasting Company Gulf + Western acquired Paramount Pictures, etc.The unfortunate side effect of these mergers was the infusion of bottom-line, short-term profit-hungry thinking, as well as corporate models of branding and marketing products. These large corporations viewed films and television shows, and the intellectual properties that underlied them, as products, pure and simple, no different from mouthwash, shoes, soda drinks, or cosmetics. They expected their new acquisitions to transition from being art-focused and letting profits flow from quality, to simply making whatever sold the most tickets and had the most lucrative ancillary market potential.There was no single identifiable point, such a historical date or a press conference, when the critical link between art and commerce was separated, or the historical deference of profit to art was inverted (themselves postmodern phenomena, incidentally), but the entre of comic books into the world of film and television, which has become a powerful, dominating presence of comic books in film and television, followed and was directly related to this paradi gm shift in the economics of the entertainment industry.The adaptation of comic books into film and television properties has been an exercise in creative cannibalism in some sense. Increasingly, film and television studios have taken on the risk-averse mentality of their corporate masters, and one of the effects of this has been to seek out intellectual property that might guarantee the fiscal success of a film or television show adaptation of said property. To the extent that a wildly successful book was often adapted for films geared towards adults, wildly successful comic book series were seen as a surefire way to guarantee a teen audience and the disposable income purchasing power of them and their parents.Movie executives sought to acquire the rights to comic book characters and stories which they could exploit actual film industry terminology and build into franchises also actual film industry terminology, particularly creepy given the obvious parallels to McDonalds or Gap store franchise business models. For the most part, these franchises have been wildly successful from a financial point of view, though perhaps not from an artistic standpoint.There have been six Batman films made by Warner Brothers movie studio (owned by corporate behemoth AOL Time Warner, who not coincidentally own DC Comics, the original home of the Batman characters and comic books) 1989s Batman, 1992s Batman Returns, 1995s Batman Forever, 1997s Batman and Robin, 2004s Catwoman, and 2005s Batman Begins. Each film sported star casting of the highest caliber however, perhaps with the exception of the first film, were special effects showcases first and artistically ambitious second, if at all. Nor were they particularly true to the time-honored complexities and lingering darkness of the comic books. Iconic film critic Roger Ebert (a devoted fan of the Batman comic books), in his review of Batman and Robin, took a forlorn swipe at each of the films to date my delight began to fade at about the 30-minute mark when it became clear that this new movie, like its predecessors, was not *really* going to explore the bizarre world of its heroes, but would settle down safely into a special effects extravaganza. Batman Robin, like the first three films in the series, is wonderful to look at, and has nothing authentic at its core Watching it, I realized why it makes absolutely no difference who plays Batman Theres nobody at home Give the foreground to the characters, not the special effects. And ask the hard questions about Bruce Wayne. (Ebert, 1997)Eberts last line refers to the perennial rumors that perennial bachelor Bruce Wayne might actually be a homosexual, or failing that, possess some unusual sexual fetishes that might not comprise the sort of fare that young children should be seeing at the movie theatre or on DVD.But this topic, as well as any serious exploration of Bruce Waynes psyche, was not been considered particularly lucrative by the marketing machines at Warner Brothers until the franchise was on the verge of death after the box office mediocrity of Batman and Robin and the outright box office disaster of Catwoman, which cost $85 million (U.S.) to produce and only made $40 million (U.S.) at the box office. 2005s Batman Begins was an unapologetically dark and complex film. Roger Eberts review may well have spoken for many Batman fans who ached for more substance and less pure style The character resonates more deeply with me than the other comic superheroes, perhaps because when I discovered him as a child, he seemed darker and more grown-up than the cheerful Superman. He has secrets. As Alfred muses Strange injuries and a nonexistent social life. These things beg the question, what does Bruce Wayne do with his time? (Ebert, 2005)Apparently, the moviegoing audiences agreed with Mr. Ebert, rewarding Warner Brothers with $205 million (U.S.) in box office receipts in the United States alone, and a similar and still increasing tall y worldwide. The lesson here is that while an artistically unambitious and shallow film like Batman and Robin, which is more childish cartoon and marketing machine than serious filmmaking, can certainly turn a modest profit, it is entirely possible to be artistically ambitious and make plenty of money at the same time. One wonders why the latter is more often the exception rather than the rule, to the detriment of the integrity of comic books and their rich characters.In theory, the adaptation of comic books to the film and television arenas could have been a boon to not only the comic book industry, but a force for cultural good in the sense of spreading the subversive word to a larger audience. While there is no question that American and Western teenagers are far more aware of Batman and The X-Men than they were 30 years ago, the expansion of the audience has come at a price.First of all, the structures of film and television do not generally lend themselves well to the sort of n arrative complexity that is a hallmark of comic books ongoing multi-character storylines. While the two X-Men films to date were generally well-received by fans of the comic books, many fans vociferously complained that many characters were either simply not included in the storylines, or they were altered to suit Hollywood norms in order to maximize audience appeal. While a third X-Men film is in the works, the simple truth is that 20th Century Fox, the movie studio that produced the films, simply cannot make any more than one X-Men film every two to three years and the complicated narrative history of over a dozen characters unspoiled over the course of 40 years of storytelling simply cannot be done adequate justice by a two-hour movies as good as they may be which get released only periodically. Secondly, for many young people, seeing an X-Men or Batman film may be their very first exposure to these universes, and depending on their reaction to the quality of the films and thei r natural consumer predilections, it is not certain that these teenagers are going to seek out the more dimensionalized, rich, and complex narrative universes to be found within the comic book series.In fact, given the immense popularity of video games among teenagers, who as a general rule spend as much, if not more time transfixed by their Playstations and Xboxes than they do reading, it is more likely that teenagers who see X-Men films will buy the video game adaptations of the X-Men comic books instead of investing in the comic books themselves. The statistics bear this out in 2004, sales of comic books in the U.S. totaled $300 million a considerable sum of money, but a far cry from the $850 million sum reached ten years earlier.Comic book money had, for better or for worse, flowed away from the comic books themselves and into the reinventions of the comic books the movies, the video games. It is unfair, perhaps, to dismiss video games as worthless, but also difficult to avoid the conclusion that the X-Men video game, which is simply a violent combat simulation featuring the various mutant characters, carries more artistic and social worth than the comic books to which the video game owes its digital existence.Lastly, the value of ancillary X-Men merchandise, such as T-shirts, lunchboxes, and plastic soda cups from Burger King adorned with X-Men characters, is fleeting and thus fairly dubious in comparison to the lasting collectors item value of the comic books themselves, to say nothing of the inherent worth of the content of the books, and the visual and narrative artistry contained within them.Ultimately, and sadly, the postmodern machinery of consumer capitalism has appropriated comic book visuals and narratives and separated them from their inherent artistic value in order to make them both more appealing to a mainstream audience, usually children and younger teens, and more exploitable in terms of ancillary markets such as merchandising. The positi ve side of this equation is that the subversive art and storytelling found in comic books was brought to a larger audience, but may well have been eviscerated of its soul in the process.Films like Batman Begins, with its dark exploration of the recesses of Bruce Waynes psychology, and X-Men 2, with its unapologetic homosexual allegories, do their source material adequate justice and make their corporate masters a lot of money in the process. What can be hoped for the future is that movie studios see fit to release more films such as these and less of the vapid, lowest-common denominator special effects orgies that tend to predominate the box office landscape. Hellraiser and Constantine were met with outright hostility by fans of their comic book source material and performed poorly at the box office. It is no longer enough to simply adapt a comic book to guarantee success. Many audience members have grown more shrewd and sophisticated, and demand quality in storytelling.In the words of Nightcrawler in the film X-Men 2, Most people will never know anything beyond what they see with their own two eyes. If this is true in a world where what is put before the eyes of teenagers is predominated by movies and video games, it is imperative that the content not merely reflect the status quo desired by consumer capitalism, but the thought-provoking stories and characters, daring and subversive thoughts, first brought to us decades ago in the best comic books.BIBLIOGRAPHYSabin, Roger. Comics, Comix Graphic Novels A History of Comic Art. Phaidon Press, 1996.Robinson, Jerry. The Comics An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. Putnam Publishers, 1974.Wertham, Fredric. Seduction of the Innocent. Amerion Publishers, 1954 (Reprint 1996).Tuzi, Marino. Individualism and Marginality From Comic Book to Film Marvel Comics Superheroes College Quarterly, Spring 2005 Volume 8 Number 2. Taken from htt

History and Effectiveness of Victim Rights Legislation and Programs Ess

Victims Rights PolicyAll the components of the criminal justice have the same goal in psyche preventing and fighting crime. Preventing and fighting crime also includes providing services for the victims of the crimes. Although the main focus on the criminal justice system is to arrest, prosecute and rehabilitate the criminal, many lay to rest to focus on the victim. The National Organization for Victims help was found in 1975 and is the oldest field of study group providing assistance to victims of crime and crisis. The Law enforcement community needs to check out the safety of the victim before, during, and after a conviction. Many times the victims of crimes are forgotten or left out of the notification process when the criminal has been apprehended, prosecutes, sentenced, or released from the system. By examining the history and effectiveness of victim rights legislation and programs, the goals of victims rights will become clearer. History of Victims RightsThe concept of vi ctims rights is relatively new idea. Linda R S v. Richard D (1972) was the case that opened the door for victims rights. The Supreme Court ruled in Linda V. Richard that a private citizen lacks a judicially cognizable interest in the prosecution or nonprosecution of another (Lewis, 2010, para 5). From that case, the idea of victims rights would explode and the next 10 years would be one of immense expansion for victims. Before the national government would recognize victims need for legal rights, small organizations would start to make minor changes in their respective areas. In 1972, Summit County in Ohio created the Victim Assistance Program. Seeing that the county offered 35 free services for the offenders and nothing for victims infuriated local... ...tim Law Institute. Retrieved on November 6, 2010 from www.lclark.edu/law/centers/national_crime_victim_law_institute/about_ncli/history_of_victims_rights/National Organization for Victim Assistance. Crime Victims and Witness Righ ts. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from www.trynova.org/Victims/cwrights.html. prison Fellowship International Centre for Justice and Reconciliation (n.d.) Restorative justice online definitions of restorative justice by victims and their advocates, retrieved on November 5, 2010, from http//www.restorativejustice.org/victim-support/definitions-of-restorative-justice-by-victims-and-their-advocates VALOR. (2005). History of VALOR. Retrieved on November 6, 2010 from www.valor_national.org/hisotory.html. Victims Assistance Program. (2010). virtually us. Retrieved on November 6, 2010 from www.victimassistanceprogram.org/about_history.html.

The Crucible: John Procter is the Ideal Tragic Hero Essay -- Essay on

The extension of John Procter in Arthur Millers The Crucible was a spacious example of a truly tragic hero. He measured up to every one of Aristotles requirements. He was not a accurate individual because he had many faults and was not completely good or bad. Best of all, he knew that he was not perfect and he recognized and regretted the errors that he make throughout his life. Then, after the reader stays with Procter while he confessed all of his horrible sins for the whole town to hear, he had was a massive downfall as the result. Coincidentally enough, that downfall came from his trying to do something about his errors and sticking up for himself and his beliefs. He did something broad, which anyone with a heart would pity him for. Being a real and relatable character is another one of Aristotles tragic hero requirements and John Procter was most definitely one of those types of characters.The faults and imperfections of John Procter were clear. He was definitely not a per fect character. He cheated on his wife by having an affair with a teenager. He only went to church when he felt like it. Almost worst of all, he had the chance early in the play to put a stop to the girls accusations, but his desire to keep his good reputation kept him from testifying against Abigail and the others. Whats great about John Procters character is that he realized all of his faults. Knowing that he was a bad person and that he had made mistakes, he tried to do ...