Content area
Full text
THE AESTHETICS OF COMICS by David Carrier. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000, 139 pp., $29.95 hardcover.
This short book by the Carnegie Mellon University Professor of Philosophy David Carrier is a good example of philosophical reflection on an aspect of what is often called "popular culture." A common viewpoint in aesthetic education is that philosophical reflection or critical thinking about anything that is termed "popular culture" is of no value because popular culture has obvious and simplistic meaning that does not need critical thinking. Harry S. Broudy endorsed the dualism of "Popular Culture" and "Serious Culture" in his book Enlightened Cherishing and argued that aesthetic education should only be devoted to "Serious Culture." However Broudy did acknowledge that there could be defensible scholarship about "Popular Culture." I recall an English professor that I had years ago for a Shakespeare course telling his students that during his lifetime William Shakespeare's works were often regarded as "popular culture" but after his death Shakespeare was recognized as one of the greatest English authors. A similar thing happened to the great American writer Herman Melville whose novel Moby Dick is now widely regarded as a masterpiece and not just popular writing (Sealts). So it may be possible that a day will come in the twenty-first century when a comic strip or a comic book gets recognition as being fine art. Carrier does not argue that there already is a comic strip or a comic book that should be considered fine art but the value of his book is that it provides criteria for critical thinking about comic strips and comic books and I would suggest that the sort of criteria that he advocates might be a basis for concluding that a particular comic strip or comic book might be of both aesthetic value and educational value. However some remarks Carrier makes seem to endorse Broudy's dualism of serious and popular culture. I shall now attempt to make a case for the value of Carrier's book as a framework for critical thinking about comic strips and comic books. Carrier's book supplies some but not all criteria that there may be comics drawn in the past and currently that may have value in both aesthetic education and...