Daily Archives: February 16, 2024

Theres a strange sort of nihilism in working-class communities that I dont think gets talked about enough.

Im not talking about the obvious sort of nihilism that comes with having limited education and career opportunities, or feeling like youve been abandoned in the middle of a never-ending economic downturn. The sort that leads to high crime rates and mental health crises and halts any sort of social mobility before it can get off the ground. That exists too, but it sort of goes without saying.

I grew up in an extremely deprived part of the UK, and the thing that strikes me most about my estate, and areas similar to it, is just how much that nihilism extends to the way people treat their physical wellbeing. Im not even just talking about the obvious drinking, drug use, destroying their bodies through excessive manual labour but a genuine disregard for ones own life.

I was reminded of that nihilism this week, following the death of BBC radio host Steve Wright, when his brother Laurence spoke about the circumstances surrounding the DJs sudden passing. Laurence, who is a director of a company in the health industry, blamed his brothers death on lifestyle choices.

He was aware that he could have looked after himself better, in his lifestyle choices, said Laurence. Obviously, we all wish he had.

He added: Its like anyone who doesnt look after themselves over an extended period. The normal stuff diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress he was a very stoic kind of guy as well so if he had something wrong with him and he had to go to have some treatment or go to the doctors, he wouldnt talk about it.

I cant speak to the lifestyle choices of a man I dont know Laurence, as his brother and health expert, surely has greater insight than the rest of us could hope for but I was struck by the idea that Steve was too stoic to seek medical assistance when he needed it.

Laurence went on to say: He was the kind of guy who would just carry on, take care of it, not talk about it, not make a big thing, that kind of stoic sort of attitude. Thats just how he was that probably didnt help really, because he wouldnt have help or take advice necessarily.

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Like me, Steve was born into a working-class household, and like most of the men I knew growing up, his attitude towards medical assistance seems, according to his brother, to have been extremely laissez-faire. Im not just talking about the attitudes that lead to the kind of lifestyle choices that Laurence highlights (although when youre poor, you dont have much say in your lifestyle to begin with) but rather the fact that asking for help, even from a doctor, seems to be so taboo.

Its probably a big part of the reason that, according to the Office of National Statistics, life expectancies in the most deprived areas of the UK are nearly 20 years lower than in their wealthy equivalents.

Again, being poor is in itself a comorbidity but Ive lost count of the people in my life who have failed to catch things before theyve become serious sometimes out of a misplaced sense of pride but more often because they simply couldnt afford to take the time off work, or just because they didnt have the money to travel all the way to their GPs office.

Ive been guilty of it myself. Ive had to be talked into getting a cough, a stabbing pain in my side or a recurring headache checked out by concerned loved ones. It isnt necessarily because I dont value my health I do its just a bad habit from a lifetime of missed doctors appointments, not missing work when Im sick, and being told to toughen up by people who really should learn to do the opposite.

All of my grandparents died at 70, or thereabouts its such a common age for people in my community to die that Im always shocked whenever I meet people my age who still have grandads knocking around in their nineties. I cant help but think that at least some of them would have lived another decade or more if theyd gone for a simple check-up every now and then, instead of brushing off every concerned voice in their too-short lives.

For a lot of working-class people, at least in my own experience, it isnt so much that they dont care but that they dont know how to care. Whats the point of going to the doctor? It probably isnt serious, and if it is, well, it was always going to be something eventually.

With another recession, an energy crisis, the rising cost of living, the enduring fallout of Brexit and a million other horrors surely on the way, those attitudes probably arent going to improve any time soon.

But for what its worth, you should book that GP appointment youve been putting off. Even if you dont care, theres somebody in your life who does.

Read the original post:

Voices: Working-class men like Steve Wright don't go to the doctor and that's exactly the problem... - Yahoo News UK

Summary

Everyone knows about Alan Moore's superhero epics like Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke, but one near-forgotten story from 1997 was recently listed by none other than Grant Morrison as one of their favorite obscure comics by the writer with the most impressive beard in comics history.

When answering reader questions in their newsletter Xanaduum, Morrison noted the story The Big Chill as one of their favorite Moore stories. Appearing in 1997s Wildstorm Spotlight #1, the story featured the Wildstorm hero Majestic at the end of the universe.

Comic Title

Wildstorm Spotlight Vol. 1

Story Title

Wildstorm Spotlight Vol 1.: "The Big Chill"

Release Date

February 1997

Writer

Alan Moore

Penciller

Carlos D'Anada

Inker

Richard Friend

Colorists

Steve Oliff, Olyoptics

Letterer

Michael Heisler

Editor

Michael Heisler

Coming from the creative team of Moore, Carlos DAnda, Richard Friend, Olyptics, and Mike Heisler, the story is about the literal end of everything, with Majestic and a few other immortals surviving as the universe approaches absolute zero and needing to find a way to survive this final apocalypse.

Also known as Mr. Majestic, the Wildstorm hero was a thinly veiled Superman copycat who first appeared in 1994s Wild C.A.T.s #11 by H.K. Proger and Jim Lee. The alien warlord Majestros hails from the planet Kera, a veteran of the Kherubim/Daemonite war that formed the basis of the original WildC.A.T.s series.

Wildstorm Productions is the comic book imprint behind the Wildstorm Universe, which includes WildC.A.T.s , Stormwatch , Gen , Wetworks , and The Authority. It was originally an independent company founded by Jim Lee in 1992 before becoming a DC Comics imprint in 1998.

The Big Chill takes place millennia after all of that, as an aged Majestic finds himself one of only a handful of beings who have survived the universe approaching entropy. Faced with the ultimate death of the universe, Majestic leads a handful of survivors out into the frozen universe to find some way to carry on.

After he loses his companions, Majestic is then confronted by his old teammate Hadrian, also known as Spartan from the original WildC.A.T.s team. The android Hadrian has evolved into a godlike being and explains to Majestic that, since the universe is approaching absolute zero, its now become superconductive. Using Majestics energy combined with his own, Hadrian explains that even the weakest impulse will be shot across eternity in an instant all it will take is a single thought to restart everything. Majestic thinks, There really should be light, and thus, a new universe is born.

Its an amazing one-shot coming from Moore, who many consider to be the comics' greatest writer, and Morrison is keen to sing its praises. Superman defeats nihilism! Morrison writes, Moores solution to the end of all existence at the Heat Death of the Universe, where Majestic exploits the properties of superconductivity at absolute zero to restart the Cosmos, is sublime. Moore certainly paints an evocative picture of the end of the universe in his descriptions, whether its black holes healing up into colossal scabs of lightless baryonic matter or nebulae contracted by the cold into snowballs barely larger than a solar system.

Morrison is so taken with the story that the writer once considered remixing it as an official Superman story. I entertained the idea of doing an expanded remix of The Big Chill as the Superman perennial adventure it deserved to be, Morrison writes in their newsletter, hoping for it to be drawn by a superstar artist like Jim Lee or Alex Ross. Morrison shares that the fire of enthusiasm soon faded, and they eventually abandoned the idea after producing a handful of notes and thumbnails for the proposed story. Although Grant Morrisons story never came out, Alan Moores Majestic story is one of the famed writers best little-read comics.

Source: Xanaduum

See the rest here:

"Superman Defeats Nihilism": Grant Morrison Loved an Obscure Alan Moore Story So Much They Almost Remixed It - Screen Rant