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By now a good chunk of folks in the United States are aware of the controversy surrounding our VP-Elect attending a performance of the musical Hamilton, and what happened after. It’s one of many controversies in the wake of Donald Trump winning our presidential election, but truth to tell it’s pretty far down my list compared to stuff like this, or our incoming Attorney General being on record as saying “good people don’t smoke marijuana” (Dawn has a legitimate medical need and our state of California has long recognized that, but the Feds under Jeff Sessions may very well not. I would love to interpret that he’s only against smoking and is okay with edibles, but I doubt he even knows that’s a thing).
Anyhow, I don’t want to turn this blog into “real-world political hour”, but it did ping my radar when someone criticized the Hamilton cast for bringing politics into entertainment. I mean, we’re not talking Garfield here (ironic Presidential name check aside) — Hamilton itself is a production very deliberately making a political statement, starring a cast of politicians, all about American politics past and present. It’s like watching The Passion of the Christ and getting upset that it’s religious.
Now mind you, as far as I know Mel Gibson didn’t stand up in front of the theater after his film to ask, say, Richard Dawkins to please keep mindful of Jesus (also Richard Dawkins wasn’t in line to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency). But I would venture to say that where art is concerned, stuff like Garfield is a rare exception. Even an ostensibly fluffy newspaper strip like B.C. couldn’t help but occasionally bleed through a comic or several expressing creator Johnny Hart’s Christian ideology.
Zombie Ranch hasn’t gone out of its way to avoid the occasional political commentary of its own, whether it’s an arguably premature declaration of victory or some elitist media darling making jokes at the expense of their guests. But it’s also important not to read overly into things. I know many people who retroactively consider Ender’s Game some kind of hardcore Mormon tract after finding out about the political views of Orson Scott Card. I don’t agree. Alan Moore is a self-admitted pagan anarchist in his personal life, and yet V for Vendetta represents for me a surprisingly nuanced take on the subject of order versus chaos, with the title character occasionally shown to be just as topped off on ruthless madness as those he fights. They are both, at heart, excellent stories and commentaries on human nature above all else.
If they seem occasionally muddled in their message, well… that’s what makes them most interesting to me.
That’s not just politics. That’s art.
That’s life.