OK. So. I'm 54 next week. I just watched an episode of The Avengers, and even given that Patrick Macnee looked older than he was, I'm so much older than Steed, now. Older than Connery's Bond, Indiana Jones/Han Solo, most of the Drs Who.
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None of these were father figures to me, per se, but they were all 'my dad's age'. If seeing them now as 'all younger than me' doesn't change my perspective, I think I'm probably not engaged enough in what I'm watching.
aug 29, 2025, 7:29 pm • 2 0 • view
ah I see, you're talking about recognition of your place in the lifecourse. don't keep seeing yourself as a child when you are 54. yeah. also don't get super-competitive with an eight-year old at a game.
aug 29, 2025, 7:34 pm • 0 0 • view
My place in the lifecourse, yes, but part of that is 'knowing more', and reading and seeing stories for adults.
aug 29, 2025, 7:37 pm • 0 0 • view
'What scares me' now is not the same answer as it was when I was ten. That's not the complete answer, anyway. Rinse and repeat for the various other motives and emotions.
aug 29, 2025, 7:39 pm • 0 0 • view
This is an example that hopefully doesn't end with me on a register, but ... I am the same age as Jennifer Connelly. I saw Labyrinth when it came out. I found Jennifer Connelly sexy. I still find Jennifer Connelly sexy. I do not, though, now, find Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth sexy.
aug 29, 2025, 7:42 pm • 1 0 • view
yes that stuff for sure has to move as you get older or something has really gone wrong.
aug 29, 2025, 7:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes. That's what I'm getting at. And I think it applies to all the franchises - or facets of franchises - that are 'for kids' but not really, they're for middleaged nerds. And it's an issue because, sure, Andor's 'grown up Star Wars', but I would prefer more Muppets and space battles.
aug 29, 2025, 7:50 pm • 0 0 • view
ah I really loved Andor, and really did not want more muppets and space battles. I don't think there's a totally hard-and-fast rule other than "it works if it's *really really good* and not if it's not good, make things that are good"
aug 29, 2025, 8:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Well, yes, ultimately. I'm certainly not saying that people making Star Wars or DC Comics should stay in their lane, it's only Star Wars and Superman, don't show any ambition. Certainly not saying readers shouldn't read it. I think I'm saying readers shouldn't stay in a lane, either.
aug 29, 2025, 8:18 pm • 0 0 • view
I love so, so many of these characters and stories and so on. I think they can do more than you might think, that they can appeal to adults. I also think there are design limits.
aug 29, 2025, 7:54 pm • 1 0 • view
I think Watchmen is brilliant, one of the great novels. I wrote two books about Alan Moore. It's not a call for 'grown up' superheroes. It's about how they *can't* be middleaged with bills to pay and erectile dysfunction. It's about how *stupid* it would be if superhero stories were 'realistic'.
aug 29, 2025, 7:57 pm • 2 1 • view
I have not written two books about it, but I think it's a book about how terrifyingly fallible all leaders are, how appalling it is to put (let's say) atomic power into the hands of one 'great man', how much humans crave to believe in an infallible Daddy and how much he does not exist.
aug 29, 2025, 8:12 pm • 3 0 • view
When I talk about a balanced diet, I just mean if you want a visceral power fantasy of good v evil ... superheroes. Read superhero stuff. But any story about, god, the Middle East and superheroes is going to be about the limits of the superhero genre, not a way to learn about the Middle East.
aug 29, 2025, 8:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Now I see a film that's *about* how 15/16 year olds are kids but don't think they're kids, specifically there's this liminal thing around 'sexy' where there's a deeply uneasy thing around, well, y'know, David Bowie's right there and he's into you, so ...
aug 29, 2025, 7:45 pm • 1 0 • view
I think it's a movie that speaks differently watching it when you're Jareth's age, not Sarah's. That it would be the textbook definition, for many reasons, of a problem if you watch this when you're Jareth's age but react like you're Sarah's.
aug 29, 2025, 7:48 pm • 0 0 • view