The use of allegory and metaphor in comic book writing: Throwing seeds onto the concrete?

al·le·go·ry  (l-gôr, -gr)
n. pl. al·le·go·ries
1.
a. The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.
b. A story, picture, or play employing such representation. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Herman Melville's Moby Dick are allegories.
2. A symbolic representation: The blindfolded figure with scales is an allegory of justice.

I was having a brief chat with the owner of my local comic book shop today about how the latest Trees book by Warren Ellis read to me like an allegory/metaphor for the current day banking industry. I was trying to explain to him how the image of an alien tree in the middle of a city with it’s roots under everything and periodically dripping poison on the population was not actually about an alien tree, but a commentary on the way that the banking industry has buried itself within the roots of our civilisation and has ended up owning and poisoning everything, including our everyday interactions like the one we were just having. I told him that the banks owned him, and he thought this idea was ludicrous because he didn’t have much money in his account. That was my entire point. That the lack of money in his account defines what power he has in contemporary society. No money equates to having no power, so when you have private banks that make money out of nothing it gives them supreme power. Supreme power over politicians, and the people they tax to control. These people are you and me, and the bloke that owns the comic book shop. My point is that the banking sector now has so much power and control over all of our lives that they might as well be represented by a giant alien tree that is spitting out poison in the middle of our cities. But to the owner of the comic book shop this is a ludicrous suggestion. The book is just about a tree that spits poison, that’s all, and it will be a good book if the narrative flows well, it has interesting characters and it has some exciting twists and turns in the plot as it goes along. These factors are what makes an exciting comic book, to him, and any allegory or metaphor contained within it sails way above his head, and not being too mean about it, that’s the way that he likes it. Comic books are fun, and he doesn’t want to think about the real world around him, even though he’s living in it, and what happens all around him is going to have a huge impact on his (and his families) life, whether he likes it or not.

This attitude of not caring or even wanting to understand the wider world is a common trait amongst comic book fans in 2014. This is a huge generalising statement to make, but since I got back into reading comics and have had some interactions with comic book fans (in their twenties and thirties, sometimes late teens) it appears that this generalisation is largely true. So why are comic book fans living in a strange state of denial where they think that the real world around them has nothing to do with their own lives? Why do they know nothing, and care to know nothing about the most important issues of our times? Seriously, talk to a comic book fan about fractional reserve banking, Edward Snowden or bank complicity in money laundering for Mexican drug cartels. They couldn’t care less about any of these issues, and most of the time they won’t even have an opinion on any of them either. However, if you want to discuss the latest take on Batman’s back story they’ll be hugely informed and will know every detail about the new take, and every other old take since the early 1990’s. Remember that these comic book fans are educated adults who see themselves as intelligent people. They are not stupid people, yet they purposefully make the decision to remain ignorant about all of the important issues of our times, and when a comic book creator tries to bring up these issues by way of allegory or metaphor they couldn’t care less about it, and are surprised when some annoying guy like myself points it out to them.

I remember the old bible story (Matthew 13:1-23) about randomly throwing seeds, with some of them falling on stony ground, and a few finding fertile soil where they would prosper and grow. This is what Jesus was doing when he talked to his followers. He was talking in allegory and metaphor, and most of it sailed over the heads of his followers. He knew this would happen, but he did it anyway. Why? Because some of the seeds land on fertile ground, and the message is understand by those willing to look a bit deeper than hearing a story that on the surface seems a bit ridiculous. What the conversation in the comic book shop taught me today is that humanity hasn’t really changed much in the couple of thousand years since Jesus (maybe) walked the Earth and confused people with his allegorical way of talking. Heck, if you want to go even deeper, the Christ figure himself is an allegory, for Sun worship obviously, that was then taken literally by the Romans and pushed ever since as a control system to enslave the masses. All of the wisdom he talked through allegory and metaphor was thrown onto stony ground and humanity has been in slavery ever since, thanks in large part to the religions that insist on literal interpretations rather than the bloody obvious ones that Jesus was talking about in the first place.

IF YOU CANNOT SEE THE ALLEGORY AND METAPHOR IN THE STORY YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE STORY.

Is this the state of consciousness where humanity is forever doomed to dwell? With people purposefully not wanting to understand what is right in front of them? Reading the story, but not understanding the meaning behind the story, or even wanting to understand when it’s explained (or suggested, in my example of ‘Trees’ by Warren Ellis) to them?

We are surrounded by truth, but how many people really want to see it? How many people have picked a comfortable little corner where they will stay, and live their entire life in ignorance (meaning to purposefully ignore the truth) whilst the world around them burns? How disconnected from reality can humanity get? It seems to me that the vast majority of the people living in the UK today pick a hobby, but never, ever pick the truth.  Truth is all around them, but they are not interested, and when the truth evades their little hobby bubble of non-reality in the form of a metaphor or allegory they still refuse to see it, even when it’s dancing, singing and screaming in their face.

Review: Trees #1- Toxic Alien Trees = Normalcy Bias

Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Jason Howard
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 28th May 2014

You are born into weirdness, but the weirdness is all you have ever known, so it ceases to become weird at all. Support the troops and slave away for the corporate elite’s. Eat your poisons and vote for your oppressors. Never question who is in charge and pay your tributes or end up in cage. It’s normal to put a rope around your neck, cuffs around your collars and support the status quo control system of oppression. You live to work, and when you are too old to work you no longer have any purpose in life. Overwhelmed by shame you age rapidly, deteriorate into a shell of what you once were in your working prime. You have no wisdom, just regret that you are past your working prime and beginning to break down. The young do not value your opinion, and you have nothing to say to them anyway. They look at you in horror, a reminder of what they will soon become. Used up, discarded, as experience is useless, and wisdom non-existence in this corporate land of the forever young, forever enslaved. Generations repeat, repeat, repeat and the slavery of humanity continue forever. This is normalcy bias, where the insane becomes normal. Everything around you is insane, and sometimes it takes a comic book about toxic alien trees to remind you of that fact.

ALL THIS IS NORMAL

 This statement concludes the first issue of ‘Trees’ by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard. The book boasts quality art, quality art and quality writing. It begins with some scene setting detail, some history about the madness that is now viewed as normalcy. It could be talking about private banks with roots in everything that modern society is built upon, toxic roots that are poisoning us all. That is our world, this one is using the clever allegory of trees. You see what Warren Ellis is doing here? Trees are perfect.

‘And now we all act like this is normal.’  

Is private banking, loaning imaginary money to our governments, at interest, normal? No, it’s about as normal as a toxic tree suddenly sprouting in the middle of our cities, but that’s what the banking industry is, isn’t it? A giant toxic tree with roots in our cities.

There are three main characters in the book. An ambitious politician who sees his job as defining normalcy through control of the biggest gang of thugs in the city, that gang of thugs of course being the Police. The second character is a scientist, a story-telling vehicle who will no doubt be used to explain what is going with the trees. The third character is more interesting, an artist who is going into the heart of darkness, and the toxic centre that is the city. Is he going to work for a bank? Perhaps he is writer Warren Ellis himself going to work for Marvel comics?

What do you reckon?

Issue #1 concludes with a single page reminder that normalcy bias makes the insane appear normal. That’s how it works, and if that’s what this book is going to explore then it’s something I’m very interested in following. Warren Ellis might have had his wings clipped on Moon Knight, where issue #3 saw him falling back into the tired and dated tropes and clichés that makes up 90% of the Marvel corporations output, but he appears to be doing something more relevant in this book. It’s a promising start, check it out, and don’t hold up any hopes that Moon Knight #4 will be any good. That book is just paying the pills in the Ellis household; this book is actually trying to say something. Rating 9/10


Notes: I use the term ‘Normalcy bias,’ to describe a phenomenon of putting your head in the sand whilst the world turns to s**t around you, or seeing the insanity as just being a normal part of life, when this is certainly not the case. Think about the people living in Nazi Germany with a concentration camp down the road from them for a recent historical example.  ‘Normalcy bias causes people to act as if life is going on as normal while the world is falling apart around them.’ Check out this blog link for more info- http://geroldblog.com/2013/04/26/beware-your-dangerous-normalcy-bias/