Poliglocia

I am not the first to claim that fantasies of fascist times have become disturbingly contemporary. For most people, it is Orwell's 1984 that represents our current policing of thought, ideological emptiness, lack of dialogue and void fanaticism. From the point of view of the academies, I feel Hesse's Glasperlenspiel is urgently contemporary. Hesse's tale departs as an utopian one, in which human sciences have interconnected and developed to a high point and reached unprecedented prestige in their society. But this cenit is menaced by its downfall. The prestige of the academies leads them to shut themselves in, to become hieratic sects that take years of initiation. Inside them, speaking of the outside world is a form of blasphemy. Yet, outside, the world begins to forget about the work and importance of the masters. Political struggles arise, and nobody dares to consider their historical dimension. The isolation of the academies is leading up to their own destruction. Si...

Alan Moore has described the current trend of superhero films as a "tsunami" that is "not doing our culture any good at all", "power fantasies" that "refuse to take responsibility" for the current and future world. He also uses the, now very trendy, word "infantilization". When an old man tells other people to "grow up", when they are cranky about someone having fun with comics, superheroes, science fiction and toys, of course it sound like he's just missed to go with the times himself. Eco has labeled this tendency to refuse anything new as "apocalyptic" and Debray has identified is as a form of gatekeeping the cannon, practiced since the very moment when Socrates refuses to use the new medium of writing. Moore, however, does not fit the profile of the apocalyptic. He is rather fond of counterculture and is known first and foremost for his own work on superhero comics. His critique of the genre therefore c...