On The Use and Abuse of Fandom

Nietzsche argued that there are three modes for viewing history. Gene Phillips believes these three modes can be applied to comics fandom through the vehicles of Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego and The Comics Journal.
27 August 2001

"What is Nietzsche doing in the nursery?" - Frederic Wertham, SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT.

With the above comment Dr. Wertham conflates reading-matter he deems appropriate to "the nursery" - that is, comic books - with the beliefs of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, apparently because comic books have often featured stories of superhuman heroes, while some of Nietzsche's writings touch on the concept of an "ubermensch," or "over-man."

As it happens, "Frederic" was almost completely wrong about "Friedrich," for a close reading of Nietzsche's works shows that the philosopher had scant, if any, interest in fantasies about human beings with supernormal physical or mental powers. Indeed, his "ubermensch" is less the sort of "superman" the word conjures up in America than a sort of "super-philosopher;" a logical extension of Nietzsche himself.

Still, the association persisted, which probably led to more than one comics-fan knowing Nietzsche's name better than the names of other philosophers. But one aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy does apply to the comic-book medium, or rather, to its fandom, and this is Nietzsche's view of history, as expounded in his essay "The Use and Abuse of History." (Note: all quotes from this essay are taken from the R.J. Hollingdale translation, published by Cambridge Press, 1997.)

In his essay, Nietzsche identifies three approaches, or modes, that writers of histories use in interpreting the panoply of human history: he calls these three the "monumental," the "antiquarian," and the "critical." Nietzsche believes that each mode tended to dominate a given writer on any historical subject, and that, in turn, each mode had potential for positive societal "use" and for negative "abuse." I have found much the same to be the case in regard to comics-fandom, where considerable activity is devoted to writing the history of comics-characters, companies, professionals, or fandom itself.

To demonstrate this I will (1) define each of Nietzsche's modes in turn, (2) cite a relevant editorial quote from a prominent comics-fanzine whose point of view seems dominated by that mode, and (3) discuss the "use and abuse" of each mode.

I: THE MONUMENTAL.

This mode of history-writing is probably the mode that most dominates early comics fandom, and to which young neo-fans generally gravitate first; the mode in which fans celebrate the professionals and their outstanding works.

Of the tendency to "monumentalise" history Nietzsche writes, "That the great moments in the struggle constitute a chain, that this chain unites mankind across the millennia like a range of human mountain peaks ... that is the fundamental idea of the faith in humanity that finds expression in the demand for a monumental history."

Substitute "comics-fandom" for "mankind" and you have in a nutshell the attitude that monumentalises "great moments" in the medium's history.

The current comics fanzine that most embodies this mode is Jon B. Cooke's Comic Book Artist, from TwoMorrows, a 'zine devoted almost entirely to interviews with comics professionals. Apposite here is Cooke's editorial in CBA #6 (Fall 1999). After noting that he doesn't want to be "reactionary" toward new comics, as are "many graying fans," he continues, "I am finding myself not so much looking forward to our Brave New World as we near Year 2000, but instead looking back fondly on much that has gone by with a sincere wistfulness."

This editorial focus means that most professionals interviewed in CBA discuss past glories more than current or future projects, which I find to be typical of the monumentalising mode. The mere fact that almost everything in CBA is an interview tends to make those profiled stand forth like a roll-call of comic-book immortals, regardless of how great or small their contributions might be.

The positive "use" of this mode, according to Nietzsche, is that it tells present-day man "that the greatness that once existed was in any event possible and may thus be possible again." Its "abuse," however, is that some historians may suggest that "the monumental is never to be repeated, and to make sure it is not, they invoke the authority which the monumental derives from the past."

Thus far Comic Book Artist has not entirely fallen into the negative side of monumentalism, as some issues do feature reviews of current small press comics. But the 'zine's near-total focus on the greats of yesteryear (as the editor defines them) does carry that potential abuse, while its potential positive function might be improved by detailing less about the professional's business-dealings of yesteryear and more about their creative decisions.

II. THE ANTIQUARIAN.

This is the mode of history-writing that belongs, as Nietzsche says, "to him who preserves and reveres". Thus it is closer to the phase of fandom that tries to take in as much as possible about all works in a given spectrum rather than just celebrating the outstanding works. Nietzsche further states that, "The trivial, circumscribed, decaying and obsolete acquire their own dignity and inviolability through the fact that the preserving and revering soul of the antiquarian man has emigrated into them and there made its home." In comics-fandom this is the equivalent of the accumulation of what is termed "trivia" (by advocates and detractors alike).

Roy Thomas' current incarnation of Alter Ego (also from TwoMorrows Press) best exemplifies the antiquarian mode, not least because the title of the magazine is itself antiquarian, a revival of an earlier fanzine Thomas worked on in the 1960s. Alter Ego also features interviews, but there is far less emphasis on the celebration of "great moments" and far more on the minute examination of anything that bears on Thomas' chosen spectrum of comics (particularly superhero comics of the Golden Age, though a certain amount of info on later eras works its way in as well).

"Anything" can include histories of obscure heroes, reproductions of office-correspondence from comics-companies, reprints of original art, and so on. Here is Roy Thomas on his magazine's brand of history-finding in Alter Ego v.2, no. 2 (Summer 1998): "It may be true, as is often quoted, that 'History is a lie agreed upon by historians.' But professional historians don't always come anywhere close to agreeing even on basic facts. And even in cases where the 'facts' are clearly in evidence, there's always the crucial matter of interpretation.

"The most we can do in this magazine is try to compare and contrast as many memories, as many opinions, as many first- and second-hand sources (including internal evidence in the comics themselves), as possible, while being aware of their limitations - and then let the reader know what those sources are, so he/she can decide which to believe."

For me, this is the essence of the antiquarian mode; the emphasis on cobbling together any number of facts from as many sources as possible, for the purpose of gaining a wider and more complete (if never agreed-upon) view of the whole subject.

Nietzsche writes, "This antiquarian sense of veneration of the past is of the greatest value when it spreads a simple feeling of pleasure and contentment over the modest, rude, even wretched conditions in which a man or a nation lives." To that last list one could certainly append "an industry," since the American industry of commercial comic books could be justly described - even by advocates - as "modest, rude, even wretched."

As for this mode's "abuse," Nietzsche further asserts that, "everything old and past that enters one's field of vision at all is in the end blandly taken to be equally worthy of reverence, while everything that does not approach this antiquity with reverence, that is to say everything new and evolving, is rejected and persecuted." "Persecuted" would obviously be too strong to describe Alter Ego's stance toward the "new and evolving," but by its focus on Golden-Age comics the magazine does largely reject the bulk of newer works, even those whose style and/or content is rooted in earlier ages of comics. At the same time, AE does fulfil its chosen role of pursuing detailed history with an assiduousness few fanzines have equalled, which does speak to Nietzsche's positive take on venerating even things "trivial" and "circumscribed."

III. THE CRITICAL.

Lastly, Nietzsche writes, "How necessary it is to mankind to have, beside the monumental and antiquarian modes of regarding the past, a third mode, the critical... If he is to live, man must possess and from time to time employ the strength to break up and dissolve a part of the past: he does this by bringing it before the tribunal, scrupulously examining it and finally condemning it."

This mode of history-writing can best be located in The Comics Journal from Fantagraphics, published by Gary Groth and Kim Thompson, both of whom have edited the Journal at various times, and both of whom espoused a critical mode that survived under successive editorships. Since the earlier years of editorship under Groth and Thompson were crucial in determining the magazine's mode, I have chosen a much older quote than the ones used above.

Here is Kim Thompson from Comics Journal #55 (April 1980), justifying the need for the Journal's well-known abrasive style of criticism: "It is and remains my contention that the true lover of the medium is not the sycophantic fan who adores the good and the bad with equal fervor, but the discriminating, hard-nosed reader who refuses to tolerate the mediocre and banal. If someone sets particularly high standards for a medium, it is a token not of contempt, but of deep and abiding respect for its potential. When these high standards result in the dismissal of most of the work produced in the medium, it takes a perverse logic to infer from this contempt for the general output a contempt for the medium itself."

In Nietzschean terms, then, the Journal is the tribunal before which both worthy and unworthy works are hauled, and the process of using the tribunal's standards to condemn many works liked by the "sycophantic fan" is a process of which Nietzsche would clearly have approved. Even detractors of the Journal can scarcely deny its positive influence on the "new and evolving" in a wide spectrum of comic books, though that spectrum tends to include less of the mainstream subject-matter to which other 'zines, like Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego, are largely devoted. To Nietzsche, the process of consigning certain aspects of the past to the outer darkness was a psychic necessity for the present.

But Nietzsche does add a caveat against the possible righteousness of the tribunal: "Every past ... is worthy to be condemned - for that is the nature of human things: human violence and weakness have always played a mighty role in them." This includes the weakness of "mediocre and banal" works; one can condemn the tastes of those who like such works, but such tastes remain part of the human equation. This leads us to a frequent criticism of the Journal: that its writers come to regard their standards and subjective opinions to be objective truths, almost "laws."

Such standards, which distance the magazine from the mainstream world of pop-culture in which the medium had its beginnings, may be comparable to what Nietzsche calls "an attempt to give oneself, as it were, a posteriori, a past in which one would like to originate in opposition to that in which one did originate - always a dangerous attempt because it is so hard to know the limit to denial of the past." Thus, if monumentalism is wrong to over-glorify past achievements, and antiquarianism is wrong to "blandly" focus on endless minutiae, then the mistake of the critical mode consists of sometimes throwing out the baby with the bathwater; ignoring some products of the mainstream culture that would have value by other critical standards, which start with different hypotheses about "what is good."

I do not expect that pointing out the positives and negatives of each of these modes will make any difference to the convictions of their editors, but they do provide a new way in which to associate Nietzsche with comic books.

Gene Phillips is a critic and fantasy novelist.

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