creativity - Batman, comics, storytelling

[hengest]

There has been much talk in comics circles in recent decades of Bill Finger's huge contribution, not only to many classic Batman stories, but also to the creation of the character.

I'm not going to try to say anything special here.

The story below, "Robin Dies at Dawn," had a cover date of June 1963.

Spoilers, I guess, below.

Batman has an extended nightmare experience while on an alien world. Robin dies and it is "Batman's fault" because Robin was trying to protect Batman. Batman feels terribly guilty. He comes to and realizes that the whole thing was a hallucination: he had volunteered for a sensory deprivation experiment. 

In Part 2, Batman has flashbacks. Hallucinations. They reduce his ability to do his work. He plans to retire because he is a danger in this state. Robin's life is actually threatened and Batman saves him. This "cures" him -- the need to save Robin from an actual threat shocks him back to "reality" and out of his recurring hallucinations. 

This is a pretty good story.

I can't help but wonder about its origins. This is speculation, of course. 

The central idea seems to be: the dream threatens to become reality (Batman takes his sensory-deprivation dream for reality, later, having discovered it was only a dream, he is still plagued by its intrusions into his waking life)

The concluding idea seems to be: intense reality defeats the dream-invasion (the threat of Robin's actual death defeats Batman's recurring hallucinations, curing him).

That first idea is the familiar bad fantasy that anyone can sympathize with: I am afraid my worst fears will come true.

The second idea is the "cure" for that fantasy: the reality of the fear helps me prevent its realization.

I am not claiming that this script by Bill Finger is the ultimate expression of something human, but I am saying that it is more than a throwaway novelty story.

The very silliness and artificiality of these characters—no matter how campy you think it is or isn't, everyone knows that these characters are not encountered in everyday life—lets you lower your defenses so that the work can speak to you directly.

I suspect that something like that is what allowed people like Bill Finger to produce these scripts: writing script after script to make an income stream, they are protected from the reality of their own work and how it speaks to people, and can therefore produce it without feeling too exposed. The fact that it was viewed as disposable entertainment was a factor in its artistic success.

I suspect that something like this goes on with many creative endeavors: what the audience craves is something real and universal, but what is real and universal feels private and is difficult for the author to address directly. The fact of the medium "protects" the author from feeling "exposed" and so allows the author to address topics of personal interest to a wide audience. 

I wonder if there is a way to sum this up: the creative process is what allows the author to "handle" topics that are "too hot to handle" in their pure form.

Below: cover of Batman #156 (Writer: Bill Finger, Art: Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris)

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Apr 21, 2022 23:21:13 GMT -5 hengest said:

There has been much talk in comics circles in recent decades of Bill Finger's huge contribution, not only to many classic Batman stories, but also to the creation of the character.

I'm not going to try to say anything special here.

The story below, "Robin Dies at Dawn," had a cover date of June 1963.

Spoilers, I guess, below.

Batman has an extended nightmare experience while on an alien world. Robin dies and it is "Batman's fault" because Robin was trying to protect Batman. Batman feels terribly guilty. He comes to and realizes that the whole thing was a hallucination: he had volunteered for a sensory deprivation experiment. 

In Part 2, Batman has flashbacks. Hallucinations. They reduce his ability to do his work. He plans to retire because he is a danger in this state. Robin's life is actually threatened and Batman saves him. This "cures" him -- the need to save Robin from an actual threat shocks him back to "reality" and out of his recurring hallucinations. 

This is a pretty good story.

I can't help but wonder about its origins. This is speculation, of course. 

The central idea seems to be: the dream threatens to become reality (Batman takes his sensory-deprivation dream for reality, later, having discovered it was only a dream, he is still plagued by its intrusions into his waking life)

The concluding idea seems to be: intense reality defeats the dream-invasion (the threat of Robin's actual death defeats Batman's recurring hallucinations, curing him).

That first idea is the familiar bad fantasy that anyone can sympathize with: I am afraid my worst fears will come true.

The second idea is the "cure" for that fantasy: the reality of the fear helps me prevent its realization.

I am not claiming that this script by Bill Finger is the ultimate expression of something human, but I am saying that it is more than a throwaway novelty story.

The very silliness and artificiality of these characters—no matter how campy you think it is or isn't, everyone knows that these characters are not encountered in everyday life—lets you lower your defenses so that the work can speak to you directly.

I suspect that something like that is what allowed people like Bill Finger to produce these scripts: writing script after script to make an income stream, they are protected from the reality of their own work and how it speaks to people, and can therefore produce it without feeling too exposed. The fact that it was viewed as disposable entertainment was a factor in its artistic success.

I suspect that something like this goes on with many creative endeavors: what the audience craves is something real and universal, but what is real and universal feels private and is difficult for the author to address directly. The fact of the medium "protects" the author from feeling "exposed" and so allows the author to address topics of personal interest to a wide audience. 

I wonder if there is a way to sum this up: the creative process is what allows the author to "handle" topics that are "too hot to handle" in their pure form.

Below: cover of Batman #156 (Writer: Bill Finger, Art: Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris)

I think you have a point when it comes to a lot of authors, but some authors are just out there and lay it all out on paper without hesitation, because they can't not do it.