Let Me Entertain You, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise

January 15, 2011 Martha Thomases 5 Comments

Rotten week, anyone?  The news on the television is awful.  The news on my telephone is awful.

I need Superman.

Since I was five years old, no matter how terrible things get, I’ve been able to pull out a Superman comic and, for 20 minutes or so, imagine what it must be like to fly and beat up bad guys.

Cheap, escapist entertainment is a wonderful thing.

Art is good, too.  I like art.  Once, when I was at a convention in Chicago, I was right on the edge of having an anxiety attack.  I went to the museum and looked at the Cornell boxes and felt better immediately.  I have no idea why those particular pieces were so profoundly soothing at that time, but I’m glad that they were.

Conversation, especially with people different from me, is very entertaining.  This week, for example, I was quite diverted with my arguments with R. Maheras over Mike’s column. Thanks, Russ.  I hope it was good for you.

But for now, I mostly want to celebrate cheap escapism, in whatever form.  Superhero comics do it for me.  I also enjoy the occasional vampire book, and, from my Dad, I inherited a love of police procedurals.  Stupid comedies like Get Crazy or Meatballs or Taking Off <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067820/>.

Other people find respite in stuff that doesn’t do it for me, like slasher movies or porn or romance novels.  While those things are not my taste, I am happy they exist so that other people can use them for escape.

Now, excuse me.  Booster Gold is waiting.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases went to see True Grit this week, and thinks nobody does snow like the Coen Brothers.