I really loved how music was integrated into this weeks
reading. Both the music and the art styles seemed to twist and flow together in
one moment of nonlinear expression. It’s like you could feel the culture of the
time, dripping out of its conventional constraints through any and every available
crack or gap. The religious experience of Phillip K Dick, was really intense. I've heard a few people talk about his experience before, but had never realized
that it was centered on Christianity. I also really enjoyed some of the
underground stories and art styles in the Mothers Oats Comix. The pinnacle of
this particular reading experience was listening to In-a-gadda-da-vida, while
flipping through “The Dope Dealer”. I also really appreciated the diversity of
style and storytelling, in “Gay Comix”. It was pretty awesome hearing about
different things people had experienced, and seeing the individual ways they wrote
about and expressed those experiences.
It was definitely interesting learning about how far we’ve come as a culture when it comes to the stereotypical representations used in early comics and other forms of media, especially in terms of race, sexuality, gender and ethnicity. To me, despite the current cultural climate of dissatisfaction, I think that we’ve come pretty far as a culture in one lifetime. It actually seems like we’re probably pushing the limit for the amount of change and adjustment that some people can make to their worldview in one lifetime, without completely plunging them and the culture into a state of mass anxiety and hysteria. That being said, I wish we would have acknowledged that in class in a more positive way, and approached this topic in the lecture from a more reassuring perspective - especially in today’s current media-fueled maddening political climate. It would have been refreshing to hear about this topic from the perspective that the changes we need to make as a culture, have already happ...
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