Narrative Warfare: Investigating What Went Down By 1999

Today Dragon award winner Brian Niemeier followed up his Twitter thread of yesterday with a blog post that put forth the data he used to make his argument regarding the cultural collapse of the 1990s, using the Big Two of American comics--DC and Marvel--to illustrate the pattern. Before I proceed, go over there and read it; what I have to say will be far more useful to you after you do so.

As I said yesterday, this is a global phenonemon. Therefore what specifically happened in Big Two comics is not necessarily what explains the same thing happening in other cultural sectors of American entertainment or in the entertainment industries of alien or foreign countries. However, what I this is applicable is the general pattern, and in the Comments of Brian's blog post we already have an attempt to apply it to the Video Games sector--already a global business by 1999; already global by 1979, really--to good effect.

But does this apply more generally? Does this pattern apply to the Pulps? I think, in part, it does; it doesn't in the least contradict the political elements behind the Pulps' demise that The QuQu put forth a few years ago. As Brian noted previously, SJW Convergence is something that happens after the rot sets in and not a cause of it; the Futurians' push to kill the Romanticism that made the Pulps generally and science fiction in particular applies.

Remember Gigguk's video on the decline of mecha anime? The pattern Brian identified for Big Two comics can be used here, both for mecha anime in general and for the two subgenres--Super and Real--in particular. Both have been in holding patterns, with only the big properties maintaining any public presence, in a zombie-like manner for years now; if not for Super Robot Wars many lesser titles would be completely forgotten.

There are other entertainment sectors where I think this won't work so well, such as Hong Kong cinema and its sea-change after the 1997 handover from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China, but I still think it can be applied; the differences will be in the details. It's not a surprise to see many big stars and institutional players fall off entirely or decline significantly since that moment, with little or nothing coming up behind them.

We've been in a holding pattern for over 20 years now, spinning our collective wheels, and few outside those who benefit from this arrangement have seriously tried to find out what's going on--what's (mal)functioning and therefore how to fix it, but we've got a group here and now doing so with a broader network of contacts and resources than previously been possible. I think Brian's general prescription is just as generally applicable, but if there is specific remedies that need to be had then it's good to find them out before the fact than after.

Because I have the feeling that time's running out, and I don't want to be here when it does.