World War I Centenary

Exactly one hundred years ago today, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in a political move aimed at breaking off part of the Austria-Hungarian empire to combine with Yugoslavia. In response, the Austria-Hungarian empire issued an ultimatum which, going unmet, resulted in the start of The Great War, or as we know it today, World War I. 

There are of course many tragedies I could speak of in this post, or statistics, or political alliances whose effects we can still see to this day. But whenever I think of World War I, I can't help but think of the Queen Victoria, one of my favorite historical figures, and what she might have thought about the war had she lived to see it. 

Monarch to the United Kingdom and Empress of India, Queen Victoria married her cousin, Prince Albert, in 1840 and together they had nine children. As they grew older, her children went on to marry into nearly every prominent royal family across the face of Europe, essentially linking them together and earning Victoria the nickname "Grandmother of Europe". 

At the start of 1914, her various grandchildren included King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, consort to Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Thus, these three first cousins led the nations at the heart of the war. 

How strange would it be to declare war on a closely related relative like that? I think of my own cousins, the children I grew up with, shared holidays with. Of course, I'm an inconsequential nobody who leads nothing, let alone an entire nation. But I think it'll always seem strange to me that family members declared war against one another. And I'll probably always wonder what Queen Victoria, famed for her "Close your eyes and think of England" comment, would have had to say about it. 

But for today, one hundred years to the day since the start of the first war set on the global scale, remember Queen Victoria, her many descendants, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, and above all, the many who died from July 28, 1914 to the end of the war in 1918. 

A Remembrance for Lost Souls

October 31st, the day many know as Halloween, is the first night in a three-day celebration honoring the dearly departed. Many people know that Halloween draws its name from the original All Hallows Even (or All Hallows Eve); however, its true origin lies much further back in the Celtic holiday Samhain. Marking the final night of the Celtic calendar, it represents the last night of the harvest and the transition from the light half of the year to the darker half. The Celtic people believed that on this night, a time in which plants began to wither and die and animals were slaughtered to provide food for the coming winter, the veil the separates the living from the dead became thin, allowing those who have passed on to walk among us. Oftentimes people would gather together in the village for a feast, building a great bonfire and celebrating as one. It was customary to leave milk or food out for the returned spirits to appease them, as there was a threat of being abducted by fairies or dark spirits during that evening. People sometimes even dressed up to avoid notice, starting a tradition that we still practice today.

Samhain celebrations began on October 31st and lasted all the way through the following day. This coincides with All Saints Day, celebrated on November 1st, the second day honoring the dead. For Catholics it is a holy day of the Church honoring all saints, known and unknown, who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is also known as All Hallows or Hallowmas, ‘hallows’ meaning to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or venerate. While All Saints Day focuses on the dead that have reached Heaven, the following day, known as All Souls Day, shifts our focus to Purgatory. It is a day to pray for the holy souls in Purgatory undergoing purification of their sins before entering heaven. Either praying for saints or sinners, these first nights in November are set aside to remind us of those who have passed and honor our dead.

Last but not least, November 2nd is known in the Hispanic culture as the Day or the Dead, or El Dia de los Muertos. Despite its focus on those we’ve lost, it’s considered a day of celebration. It is a time for reminiscing about happy memories of those who are no longer with us, and encouraging visits from their departed souls. Alters or shrines are sometimes built, and houses are filled with candles and mountains of food and offerings for the dead. The day is often celebrated with bright colors and sugary treats in the shape of skulls, merrily concluding the three-day celebration of the dead.

This remembrance of the dead is an interesting mixture of the pagan, spiritual, and the religious, an amalgamation which blends different beliefs from across the globe. Whether acting as a reminder to lead a more spiritual life or a way to honor those we’ve lost, October 31st through November 2nd is a special time in which the chasm between the living and the dead fissures and cracks, allowing departed spirits, at least for a short time, to walk among us.

Remember 9/11

Today, September 11, 2011, marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. It is a day we all come together to remember. And mourn.

Moments of silence are being organized around the country. The NFL held several tributes before today’s games. There are countless posts on Facebook dedicated to that fateful day ten years ago. Everyone appears to remember the exact place they were when the planes crashed.

My parents said it’s the same for those alive in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. These kinds of national tragedies create a collective cultural memory. If asked, “Where were you when…” we recall without fail.

I was in second period AP US History when someone told me about the first crash. Our whole class was in an uproar, wanting to know what happened. I’ll never forget that feeling of panic we all experienced:  Was it an accident? Why did the plane crash? Our teacher Ms. Hayley abandoned our lesson for the day and turned on the television so we could watch the news. It was in the upper right hand corner of the room, and we all abandoned our seats (I was in the second row on the left, fourth seat back) to crowd around it. There we watched the footage of the plane crashes, and the collapse of the World Trade Center.

One of the most shocking and violent moments in US history, the reverberations of those terrorist attacks still haunt us today. The long term financial and health effects. The destruction of an architectural landmark and symbol of national economic strength. The heightened fear – something we face every time we step foot into a US airport. A radical shift in foreign policy. War.

It still sometimes shocks me to think of how many victims one single day can yield. The lives of 2,977 innocents were lost, but the number left suffering cannot be calculated. I think of those killed on September 11^th, and their surviving loved ones. And of all the soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in our counter “War on Terror”, many of whom were killed or returned to face PTSD and other anguishes. And as much as it might be overshadowed today while we mourn our own American losses, I cannot forget the deaths of all the innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians either.

September 11, 2001 was a day of terror and sorrow. We've rebuilt and reshaped and redefined. But we will never forget.

The Insightful Ages of Comic Books

Though I always thought comic books were a bit of trivial fun, I’ve since realized that, like all good art and literature, they delve much deeper into human psychology. Comic books are a reflection and response to the political and social times they developed in. As society changes, their content changes. In order to best define and categorize the transformations in comic books over time, critics divide them into FOUR major “ages” (though some would argue it’s really seven). They are:

1.  The Golden Age of Comic Books:

The golden age lasted from 1938, with the first publication of Superman in Action Comics #1, until 1950. During this time writers and artists developed the very first superheroes. DC Comics flourished with publications like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash, while Timely Comics, Marvel's predecessor, responded with the Human Torch and Captain America.   

With World War II, comic books became extremely popular due to their cheap, entertaining tales depicting good triumphing over evil. But more than that, the war shaped the face of comics; they often reflected war-time themes and occasionally acted as war propaganda, with recognizable heroes battling Adolf Hitler or Japanese soldiers. During this time, the concept of the “superhero” became permanently defined and developed as the center of comic book story lines.  Larger than life, they became a symbol of virtue and morality for Americans desperate for something heroic to cling to during turbulent times.

2.  The Silver Age of Comic Books:

After the war finished, comic books suffered a decline in popularity. To stay in business, creators shifted focus from superheroes to tales of horror or romance. However, in 1954, renowned psychologist Dr. Fredric Werthham published Seduction of the Innocent, discussing links between teenage delinquencies and comic books. As a response, comic publishers executed the Comics Code Authority (CCA) to regulate subject matter.

With the creation of the CCA, as well as political movements like McCarthyism and the 1950’s focus on morality and ethics, comic book content altered greatly. During the Silver Age, which lasted from 1956 to 1970, subjects shifted away from the graphic horror scenes they covered post-war back to heroism and noble principles. Creators that remain household names today rose to the forefront, including Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Beginning with The Flash in DC’s Showcase #4 (1956), they modernized and revamped older heroes like Green Lantern, The Flash and Captain America, causing the second resurgence in superhero interest.

3.  The Bronze Age of Comic Books:

The Bronze Age lasted from 1970 to 1985 (though some debate surrounds the end date). During this time, comic books became much darker, beginning in 1971 when Stan Lee published an issue of The Amazing Spider-Man in the direct face of CCA disapproval. Following his lead, other publishers opted to do the same. Plots turned darker and more mature, with heroes facing real-world issues like drug use and alcoholism.  

We can see how the darker comic book trends of the 70’s and 80’s reflect social cynicism following the Vietnam War, Cold War and the Nixon scandals. And with 1973 came the dawn a new type of hero – the ‘anti-hero’. Anti-heroes, like their earlier counterparts, perform valiant deeds and protect the public from dangerous criminals; however, their motives are anything but pure, their actions dangerous and questionable, and often motivated by vengeance rather than justice. Wolverine and The Punisher remain two of the most popular and recognizable anti-heroes.

4.  The Modern Age of Comic Books:

The Modern Age began in the mid-1980s and lasts all the way through present day. Like the Gold Age, it reflects changes in society both internally and externally. For example, on par with war themes from the 40’s, technological advancement makes its way into today’s comic books with both heroes and villains using the newest computers and electronics. But beyond that, just as WWII created a surge in comic book print media because of their cheap, easy production, now advances in computer graphics and technology allow heroes and villains to step off the page and into other media like movies, television, computer games, and digital or webcomics.

As traditional publishers Marvel and DC commercialized, independent publishers, like Dark Horse, rose up. With their boom in the film industry, comic books attracted new celebrity writers like Frank Miller, Joss Whedon, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. Writers realized that comic books and superheroes are an excellent outlet for social commentary. In The Dark Knight, Batman fights corruption in the political systems. In Iron Man, Tony Stark battles corporate greed and experiments with alternative energy sources though his arc reactor. And the X-Men comics and movies show the problems we face with suppression of political rights for minority groups.

Additionally, characters developed even darker and more psychologically complex, with the anti-hero as the standard model. A shift towards emotional realism occurred where, rather than using their extraordinary abilities on a quest for good, heroes fought crime out of a deep psychological need to destroy criminals. Like their Bronze Age counterparts, these anti-heroes reflect a general disillusionment within society.

From the earliest paragons of heroism to modern anti-heroes, comic books reflect and highlight the social and political climates they’re produced in, and remain an excellent lens to view social changes and the American public state of mind. As both a history and English major, I find this a fascinating discovery and resolve to pay more attention to the surfeit of superhero movies releasing in the next two years.