Thursday, October 31, 2013
Superman - From another perspective
I really enjoyed reading Morshed's essay about Geddes's Futurama. I'll admit that I thought it was starting to get a little bit dry at some point, but when he started talking about Superman I thought it was pretty awesome. I had always thought of Superman as a symbol of moral righteousness, created by adults to be a good role model for kids. I never thought to consider the time in which he was created. This was a time when new technology had started leading people to believe that the modern man was evolving into something great, possibly something greater than the average human. There was a new kind of aviator hero who didn't just defy gravity and drop bombs on enemies, but one who "could be seen to resemble the early-twentieth-century modernist planner, seeking to rebuild the world from his high perch of authority." Leading from Social Darwinism, the American man must have been seen as something superhuman. It is no surprise that the concept of Superman caught on and gained popularity. He easily fit the role of an evolved human who held a seat of authority and had the power to set things right in the world. He stopped crime because of his strong moral responsibility, and also seeked to improve the world around him. In one of the comics included, he turned a city slum into modern apartment building. Good job, superman. I thought you just fought bad guys in kid's cartoons, but here you are improving our lives and fixing the wrongs of our society. As the essay says, there was a common "moralistic belief that the view from above would not only broaden human vision for more enlightened living, but also, in one way or another, help remedy all physical as well as social disorder." That's exactly what Superman was doing, delivering a remedy for social disorder and creating a more enlightened lifestyle. Superman embodied the beliefs of the future held by modern thinkers of that time, and this something I had never thought of until reading this essay. Superman wasn't just for kids, he was an ideal image of an evolved man that inspired people of all ages to work towards creating a better future. This was a future where we all had a strong moral responsibility, a view from above and the power to fix things. This vision of the future from an aerial perspective wouldn't have been possible without the contributions from Sherman Fairchild. According to the essay about him, "aerial photography quickly became indispensable for anyone responsible for shaping the built environment." Anyone who wanted to develop a town or part of a town wanted an aerial view of it first. Thanks to the popularity of this technology, it is no surprise that people linked the vision of the future with aerial view so much. Those with aerial view were the visionaries who created the future, whether they were city developers or Superman.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this post, thank you. The author noted Superman's fixing of some of the wrongs of our society, which is a key concept to grasp, especially in relation to his perch looking down from the sky. The idealized image of Superman as a morally righteous and courageous superhero is very significantly psychologically contingent upon his perch from the sky. The mental implications of this are very strong, as were the implications of placing the Futurama spectators in a position to view from above. From the very beginnings of flight, humans have been obsessed with this view, for aesthetic qualities, knowledge, power, liberty, and even this sense of moral strength.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this author's perspective on Superman. Like the author mentions, I too had never thought much about the origins of Superman. I had always assumed that he was created just for fun, or to sell comic books. I never took the time to look further and see the deeper meaning behind it which reflected the time period in which he was created. Superman symbolized the "New Man". He had god-like powers because he was able to see the world from a new perspective: from above. This new man embodied the rapidly changing society, and emphasized the evolution of aeronautics. I found it very interesting how real life pilots, such as Charles Lindbergh, became seen as everyday super heroes. Society was fascinated with flight and seeing things from the air. Flying and birds eye views came to represent power and knowledge, and as Morshed said, allowed the viewer to "transcend sensation and see things in their structure." This new perspective is seen from the media of the time period.
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