Bookstores, sure. But even Comic Book Stores!
You'd think that comic book stores...which can diversify and sell all kinds of shit ("action" figures, toys, trading cards, costumes)...would not be going under.
They are.
Why? Not only has our dumbed-down culture failed to make even shitty "anime" and "graphic novels" enticing to retarded teenagers...the few who care about this crap can get it all for free via piracy, and they'd rather look at it on an Amazon Kindle.
Amazon, which made Bozo Bezos rich enough to buy an entire city newspaper, has turned around how we shop. That is, when we SHOP and don't just STEAL and call it "sharing." Why go out to a mall, out to a store, actually "shop" for anything...when it's so much easier to sit in a basement type in Batman or Superman or Spiderman, and see an image of a toy, a comic book or a costume? Why bother to hang out with a friendly store owner who knows his stuff and can interact with you for a few minutes...when you can save a few dollars, keep sitting on your ass, and have some drone in an Amazon warehouse put your crap in a box and mail it to you?
Let's add that in the old days, we grew up with Batman, Superman, Spiderman and the rest...now? Who the fuck really cares? In a way, this stuff is hardly worth buying or even reading for free. The shit-for-brains publishers of this garbage constantly screw around with these iconic characters. When people over 40 were kids, these comic book characters were new and interesting. Reading an adventure once a month was just enough, and not overkill. Now? Now these characters are middle-aged and boring! So the writers have to fuck around and louse it all up.
Superman no longer bothered by kryptonite? Will that change THIS month? Green Lantern was straight a year ago. Will he still be a cocksucker NEXT month or, if sales remain lousy, will DC comics declare it was all a bad dream? Can anyone keep up with how often a super hero is re-written for a series of comic books one year, re-drawn two years later, then re-imagined yet again and you're supposed to keep track of every volume? Is Batman going to stay "dark" and depressed a while longer, or will DC bring back his little pedophile shower buddy Robin and try to make that storyline controversial and exciting? No wonder comic book stores aren't doing so well. Who can keep up with the lousy and desperate story lines on characters that are now so familiar and middle-aged?
Sure, times change. 40 years ago, somebody was probably mourning the decline of the 78 rpm record, and the ritual of playing ONE song at a time. And somebody was moaning that there was no more "Gunsmoke" on radio. And somebody was asking how come nobody cared about "Captain America" anymore. The difference is that NOW, the entire economy is fucked. When 78 rpm records died, 45 rpm stepped up and nothing was really lost. When 8 track died, cassettes took over, and when cassettes died, CD-R's were sold. When people got tired of Captain America is was because Superman came along, and when people wanted an anti-hero Marvel brought in Spiderman. There was change, but there was still something to sell. Something of value to collect.
Now? Now not even childlike nerds can support a comic book store. People don't value a "collection" of comic books in plastic sleeves. Just download free shit onto a Kindle. Goodbye, comic book stores!
Amazon ain't hurting. Amazon could care less if they sell you a box of comic books or a box of crisps. In fact, they are now trying to find ways of putting supermarkets and grocery stores out of business by selling mail order food!
No browsing in shops. No way for a bookstore owner to do anything but shut down. We are losing our sense of values. We are losing a lifestyle.
In 1962, Malvina Reynolds sang about people living in little "ticky tacky" boxes. The decline of beautiful architecture. The decline of individuality. Now we are seeing people not only living in boxes, but going to workplaces that are boxes...warehouses like Amazon, hives like Google. And what are they living for? To see images on Kindle boxes? To own cable boxes? To carry around these boxy rectangles they call laptops?
Coffins are boxes, too. What's going on with entertainment is a zombie death march of sameness, no imagination, fakery...even porn has become dull! You have to be a moron to find any excitement in the mommy-porn of "Shades of Grey," and you have to under 20 to think Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are exciting. And even the dweebs, mental defectives and childlike idiots of the world aren't supporting comic book stores! Go ahead, idiot world, invest in Google and Amazon. I might buy stock in a nail company...one that makes spikes. Metal nails. Because those can be used on coffins and that seems to be what's going on with the world...putting the final nails in...and turning the world into an arid warehouse of boxes full of lifeless crap.
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