CSotD: The Hell-Kite Cartoons
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I'm glad I wrote about "compulsory cartooning" yesterday, because the news that followed a few hours after I posted is an example of an event so large that to not comment on it would seem either callous or clueless. I think I was able to write about the phenomenon more dispassionately without such a stark, immediate example on the table.
But here we are, and, as the Newtown cartoons begin coming in, it's not surprising that most of them aren't very good. And it's not as simple as saying that some cartoonists are hacks, though, of course, some cartoonists are hacks just as some of everybody are incompetent or at least mediocre.
When you think about it, mediocrity is inevitable:
If, in a difficult situation like this, you produce a cartoon that is more or less in the middle, it's forgiveable. The real measure is not whether you are mediocre on a particular day or under particular circumstances. It's whether you are consistently "of middling quality, neither bad nor good" on the days when you have the chance to select your own subject matter and work at your best pace.
I've already seen several cartoons of parents hugging children and that's okay. As the president said (speaking from the James S. Brady Press Room), that's what parents were going to do last night, and so depicting it does draw a picture of the nation's mood.
That's the job, and it provides a valuable service to the community, but that certainly does not mean we shouldn't praise those who step above the norm when the chips are down.
I think Dave Granlund stepped well above the middlin' median with a response that really boils down to a group hug, very nicely depicted:
Sometimes being clever and inventive is not so much a matter of coming up with something unique as it is of rising above the obvious. Granlund rose above the obvious.
Professional wise-ass Bill Maher got some re-tweets and Facebook notice by saying "Sorry but prayers and giving your kids hugs fix nothing; only having the balls to stand up to our insane selfish gun culture will."
But he also got some push-back from people who pointed out that the two actions are not mutually exclusive, and that was my immediate response when I saw his tweet.
MACDUFF: All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?
MALCOLM: Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF: I shall do so,
But I must also feel it as a man.
I cannot but remember such things were
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part?
Dan Wasserman, I think, did a fine job of both disputing it as a man yet feeling it as a man:
While Bill Day chose to step past emotions and go immediately to the dispute.
I like Day's cartoon, but it seems clinical and detached in comparison to Wasserman's, which manages to convey both grief and fury. That's how you step above the median, which, as said, is not mandatory but should still be the goal.
There will be more cartoons on this topic, of course. Some are in newspapers today but not yet posted to the various cartooning sites. And some will be in Sunday papers tomorrow, which is an appropriate lag time, though, had the shootings occurred on a Wednesday or Thursday, the higher status of the Sunday paper would not excuse the delay.
In fact, I think there should be Jeopardy! music playing as soon as the reports come over the wire, because the cartoons that will surface three days or four days or more days from now are not part of today's discussion.
Political cartoonists should be part of the newsroom, and, when there is a sudden, massive event like this, the adrenalin leaps and the measure of a journalist is in how you respond when all hell has broken loose and it is your job to make sense of it, quickly, accurately and in a form your audience will be able to process and understand.
Yankees Relief Pitcher Rich Gossage was asked once about the pressure of coming into the game when it's the bottom of the ninth, you're clinging to a one-run lead, the bases are loaded and nobody's out, and he said that's when he wanted to come into the game. A journalist should feel the same way, and pity the poor milk man who bought a retired firehorse if he's ever ambling by the station house with a wagonload of full glass bottles when that alarm bell goes off.
There will be a time for measured response after more facts have emerged, once we've had a chance to reflect upon things. At that stage, the tears and the adrenalin will have both settled down, if not dried up. At that stage, we will see more clearly and be able to analyze both the event and the possible causes and solutions more thoroughly.
And, at that stage, there will be no excuse for being average except that average is your rightful place.
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