OK, I found this:
"Kent was not Superman's true identity... Clark Kent was the fiction... the put-on... The truth may be that Kent existed not for the purposes of the story but for the reader. He is Superman's opinion of the rest of us, a pointed caricature of what we... were really like. His fake identity was our real one. That's why we loved him so."
- Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes, 1965
a pointed caricature of what we... were really like
He may have been in 1965, but do you really feel he is now?
Well, my point (which I didn't actually state there) is just that, that Bill (who is, as he said, all about the Old School) was expounding a point that is nearly 40 years old.
As for what I think myself, well, I haven't read enough Superman in, like, ever, to really say. The character never really interested me.
Bill (who is, as he said, all about the Old School) was expounding a point that is nearly 40 years old
The earth being flat is also an old point. But we have more data now, so it's not a good one.
It is possible that Bill was trying to make a point that was only valid before the birth of the person he was talking to. That could be a character point, in fact.
I just don't think it's a good one.
Well, my point (which I didn't actually state there) is just that, that Bill (who is, as he said, all about the Old School) was expounding a point that is nearly 40 years old.
Yeah, but forty years ago Batman made jokes to Alfred. It's not a point to be discounted, but it doesn't have the same validity now, I think.
Possibly it just means that Bill hasn't kept up with the recent changes to Superman?
Or that QT lacks a good post-Crisis knowledge base.
Maybe he just doesn't care about the post-reboot universe.
Or he thinks that point is still valid?
I figure either QT thought Bill was making a good point, or a bad one. Either way, we should be learning something -- about Bill, perhaps about Superman.
Obviously, I think the speech itself is incorrect. If QT agrees with it, then he's one of those wrongheaded people Calvin complains about. If he doesn't, what do we now know? That Bill is dumb? Bill is mired in the past? Bill doesn't know how to make a useful point? Bill sees everything through domineering glasses?
It starts getting a bit messy, I think if we assume QT disagrees and is communicating anything about Bill other than domineering or stuck in the past. Even so, it's a lot of work, and I doubt most people did it.