Diana writes a Book! Part 2

[espanolbot]

Continued from here,
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1945582.html?#cutid1

Issue 197
Back on the publicity trail!


While this is going on, Veronica Cale is a'schemin',



The action then cuts briefly to a public relations company in New York, where they are assembling a fairly large document detailing how Diana's book can be deconstructed to critise her for a group called "Protect Our Children", who believe that Diana's out to corrupt the youth of America.

An empolyee of the PR company that is sympathetic to Diana hands the document to her embassy staff instead, who use the notes in a debate that I will be posting shortly.

Diana is distracted from the campaign trail by a blue bird telling her about a large forest fire in Colorado that the Flash is having difficulty dealing with, so she take a break to go and give him a hand. Unfortunately for her, "giving a hand" means allowing the forest to burn so that the new plants would have a chance to grow, and these supposedly apathetic words are caught by a near by TV crew.

Wonder Woman goes back on the promotion circuit,





Issue 198
Fallout from Diana's comments regarding forest fires reaches her staff as it's used to fuel the furnace of the criticism against her book,




Hm, firing point. Any relation to a certain "debate" show that Jon Stewart got cancelled a couple of years back? Or his equivalent in the DCU, maybe that stand-in they had for him in the 'Public Enemies' DVD movie they made?

Anyway, the debate between Diana's head of staff and Keyes, the head of the protest group that have been campaigning against her book,




And that's pretty much it for the things in the series regarding Diana's book, except her the two group of protesters being turned into a violent mob by Dr Psycho anyways.

Basically both the Amazons and the US government end up with a lot more things to worry about than just someone's book of essays, which I'm sure that Bluefall or someone could explain a lot more coherently than I can.

There are however, a couple of pages from the back of the trade this storyline was collected in, 'Down to Earth', that had opinions and fake articles regarding 'Reflections', Diana and the Amazons, but I'm not sure if I can fit them in under the work count as the trade doesn't specify if they're trade-only things.

If someone let me know if they're in the issues or not it'd be great, as they're interesting and I'd like to post them if the rules permit me to.

Title: wonder woman
creator: greg rucka

Comments

[silverzeo]

Was this before or after that guy who wrote that life changing book when it turned out that it was a piece of fiction?

[eightleggedbeast]

?

[phosfate]

A Million Little Pieces, autobiography that turned out to be largely fabricated. Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club. When it turned out to be a fake, Oprah then had the author return to her show to SHAME HIM BECAUSE HE LIED TO OPRAH!

[equinox216]

Dunno the timeline, but that was "Million Little Pieces".

[halialkers]

But......if the Greek Gods are appearing physically why would Fundamentalism necessarily have the draw it does? On the one hand those who remain in it are the hard-core Al Qaeda types, but on the other hand, not only is atheism flat-out wrong in the DCU but multiple pantheons all co-exist. So wouldn't Westerners end up reviving sacrifices to Zeus Olympios and Jupiter Capitolinus?

[halialkers]

Not only that, but if the Shinto Pantheon proves to have been quite real all along, what would that do to the old custom in Japan of Emperor-worship? I mean, if Amaterasu is literally interacting with the world then that *would* mean the line of Japanese Emperors is descended from the Sun-Goddess. In which case the question becomes what happens to Imperial Japanese-era ideologies......

[halialkers]

And in another sense, it gets into tangled questions about whether or not say, the Merovingians would be descended from the Quinotaur or the Christianized version of same. Or whether or not King Gilgamesh would have had his impossible genetics ruling as a literal-God King. In fact, if in the DCU the pantheons were both real and the myths actually happened it's a fair question how Christianity's rise and claims to monotheism are halfway plausible when it's fairly obvious there's never been just one God.

Last one tonight I promise:

[halialkers]

I mean, it's one thing to claim that in our world where Gods don't physically walk around and intervene in events the way Darkseid does multiple times in the DCU. It's another to claim that in a world like the DCU or the MU where the Gods interact with people all the time. Even if the Presence *is* the Biggest Fish, that's still not monotheism even by the nebulous Tolkien version of same.

In a realistic scenario the rise of monotheism in its Abrahamic or Brahmanic forms should never have happened.....

[sailorlibra]

I object to the accusation that atheism is "flat-out wrong" in the DCU. Just because Gods exist does not mean that people are obliged to worship them. Not to mention that what makes one a god is relative. Superman and Zatanna are not gods, though they are as powerful as some of those who are gods.

I don't think the existence of "real gods" is common knowledge in the world outside of Themyscira either. Hermes has traveled there, as has Hades, but neither did anything sufficiently impressive, IIRC, to establish them as being more powerful than a superhero/supervillain.

[halialkers]

Atheism states flat-out that there are no gods.

Mortals are not required to worship them, but Strong Atheism is definitely wrong as regards the DCU, because not only is there God, but there's umpty-dozen pantheons running around.

I thought that Big Barda, say, was considered a Goddess. As is Darkseid. At least Big Barda does interact with people on a daily basis.

Atheism in the sense that Gods don't exist is completely and utterly wrong in the DCU. That's not the way it is in real-life but in Real-life Darkseid doesn't appear and take over the world in a matter of days, either.

[sailorlibra]

And I don't really think that Christian people have any contact with their god at all--at least while still living. I mean, yes, there is the Spectre, but he could easily be considered an over-powered superhero/supervillain. Other than that, they have no contact with their god or any reason to believe that he exists. Though he does. So why is it "flat-out wrong" for atheists to not believe in him? Most believe have had little contact with gods, other than by word of mouth from those who have--such as Diana. Which makes them not really any different than those in our world who are atheist despite the claims of some that they have felt/seen/smelled a god.

TL;DR - I don't think atheism is any worse in the DCU than it is in the "real world."

[khamelea]

Believing in the existence of a specific god and not worshipping it still excludes atheism, I would say. Atheism isn't synonymous with the absence of religious practice.

As for the thing about recognizing a supernaturally powerful being as a god, well I always thought that was an interesting question. I guess in a universe where these things are established fact, the position "but they're not gods" is the equivalent to atheism... but it's different. I think the question just moves to a different level where the concept of atheism isn't relevant.

The Athar in Planescape had pretty much that position.

[mullon]

Oh my God, its a gay bookstore. I just got that.

[warpedhand]

I was about to point that out.

[q99]

I didn't get that until you brought it up!

So awesome :)

[thanekos]

oh, just cause they have a branch on danny the street doesn't mean they're gay

[warpedhand]

It's called Out With It, and it has a rainbow for it's logo.

[q99]

Nor does that at *least* five of them want to be her girlfriend :)

[lieut_kettch]

A gay bookstore? So it only dates bookstores of the same gender?

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waiter.

[ravenous_raven]

Oh Diana, mingling with your fans in openly gay bookstores and letting loyal coworkers debate for you, all to provoke debate about some of your fundamental ideas.

And this is why she's ten times more interesting than Superman.

[aegof]

Stuff like this is what got me interested in Wonder Woman. I still thing Superman an' Batman are pretty boring.

[halloweenjack]

Incidentally, I went to my LCS and bought this trade directly because of the scans that have been posted here; a little note for anyone who doubts that s_d sells books.

[janegray]

This story was fantastic, but I also love how Diana is actually drawn as a muscular woman :D

[aaron_bourque]

There's just something off about the way Drew Johnson draws Diana. She looks strong and powerful and graceful but . . . also kinda ugly. None of the other women look like that. It's weird.

Like Nicola Scott and George Perez renditions of Diana look like DIANA PRINCESS OF THEMYSCIRA, but Johnson's work looks like someone cosplaying as Wonder Woman.

[karthzon.livejournal.com]

I don't know, she looks fine to me. Like an actually muscular woman should, instead of just putting a pretty supermodel-face on a more muscular body.