Reading as Search for Meaning
Interviewer: Do you ever get comments from people because you read comic books?
Roger: No, not any more. It’s weird because I, at a certain age, I remember in middle school, when I became particularly conscious of the desire to kiss girls, and I want girls in my bedroom, I want girls around my stuff. But, if, you know, they see my comics, they’re going to be out of there, because I realized early on that girls do not like comics. Or at least, American girls do not like superhero comics. Not in the 80s. American girls seem to like manga comics now just fine. So, I, again, I spent whatever years being Batman’s agent in S, promoting Batman. DC never sent me the check for that, go figure, [both laugh] So, then I realized that, wait a minute, I am OK to hang with my neighbor’s kid brother, but the older neighbor wants to start tongue kissing boys and somehow I’m not on that list. Well, that sucks. Maybe this comic thing is Links Of London Jewelry coming between me and the French kissing, so I instructed all my friends, all the little brothers, OK. Any girls ever ask if I collect comics, tell them no. I keep thinking of Jesus being denied, [both laugh] [affects voice] Do you know who Jesus is? No, no. [wavet hands] Do you know who Spider-Man is? No, no. [Waves hands] [Laughs] Um, sc I denied it for a while, and then I realized that I was never going to kiss a girl and I might as well enjoy my comic.
This utterance was full of discursive references, pointing to how much reading was linked into different aspects of Roger’s life. Literate behavior has a number of dimensions here, among them gender roles, consumerism, and maturity. Further, Roger’s utterance contained religious discourses, including a reference to spreading a “gospel” (of Batman) as well as an echo of a Biblical passage. Roger’s dramatized denial of reading Spider-Man comic books echoed the story about the disciple Peter’s denial of Jesus from Matthew 26:70—71. This use was tactical (de Certeau, 1984) in that Roger used a low culture text, a comic book, Co stand in for one of the most culturally central texts in the western world. Spider-Man was used to stand in for Jesus, showing how that comic book was used in as instructive a manner as the Bible. Via joking, Roger subverted typical hierarchies of value to the point where a commonly denigrated text became equivalent to the Text of western civilization.
Religious discourse was also taken up when Roger described the proselytizing role he assumed earlier in his life when he acted as “Batman’s agent” and tried to get anyone who would listen to him to read superhero comic books. He also saw Stan Lee, the creator of The Amazing Spider-Man, as a sort of prophet or instructor. At another point in the interview, he spoke of receiving “kind of instructions” from what he read, is Spider-Man’s adventures held moral messages for him. He cited one particular story where Spider-Man A as trapped under a tremendous wreckage of machinery, and he said that he found inspiration in
Spider-Man willing to, finding the inner strength to lift a massive crushing weight on top of him that technically he is not strong enough to lift, but he finds the inner reserve to do it, because he runs down the list of everyone he’s ever let down and everyone that’s depending on him, and he can’t fail. he scene Roger cited resembled that of the biblical story of Samson, who found great strength Links Of London Bracelets then he had none, although he relied on his faith in hold whereas Spider-Man found his strength from his obligations and from within. This scene was epical of Lee’s writing in The Amazing Spider-Man, which was frequently moral and aphoristic, with state-Lents such as “with great power, comes great reasonability.” Roger was aware of the “secret messages” bedded in texts, his term for ideas or scenes that ere particularly meaningful to him.
Experiencing meaningful sensations was one of .e reasons he gave for reading, and he described be-g critical and reflective about such messages. He tied that “some part of me is still searching for the access that will make the rest of the pieces of my life pork. And, as superstitious as that sounds, that happen.” Like de Certeau’s (1984) poacher, Roger read its looking for usable parts, and comic-book stories as viable an option for him as literary or religious texts. He was searching for existential answers from texts, particularly comic books, but like Spider-Man he also looked within himself to operationalize his found knowledge.
Processing your request, Please wait....
