3.5 stars. the thinking man's 5 stars

I thinks folks expressing incredulity at the quality of the writing and composition in Calvin and Hobbes are often missing the context that Bill Watterson is arguably the most influential sequential artist of his generation. Like, this is a guy who once told the editors of nationally syndicated newspapers to go fuck themselves when they wanted to mess with his panel layouts, and not only did he keep his job, he got his way. He could have had literally any gig he wanted, and he chose to be the Sunday funnies guy because that's what made him happy. He's basically the Weird Al of sequential art.

Watterson considers comics to be as true an art form as painting and films and literature, capable of reaching just as high as any other medium. Calvin and Hobbes isn't accidentally high art. Watterson made it what it is on purpose. And when he was done, he stopped. No movie, no spinoff, no reboot. He considers the comic to be its completed form, in exactly the medium it is supposed to be. He believed in comics in a way few others ever have, and he fought tooth and nail for the right to take his own work, jokes and all, seriously.

Let me be the miserable wretch to whom the caring lead the disbelieving, that they might see the wounds and know how much of a human being's humanity three furry boys can take with them.

This is the thing that makes me uneasy about the talk about believing and respecting people's lived experiences. If someone says something happened to them you generally shouldn't say "sounds fake" -- it's rude, if nothing else! -- but what people mean by that is often that you should treat the extrapolations people make from the experiences as flowing naturally from the experiences themselves, and it's like, no! Nothing works that way. It's hard to even understand the way social forces inform our own experiences, let alone to derive an understanding of society from those experiences! I mean you can do it, you almost have to really, but it is, yeah, suspect.

and the other way around too... a good sociological theory will explain some patterns on a large scale by isolating a few causes that act in many cases. But they won't be the most important cause in any particular case. (and most sociological theories aren't good anyway)

32yo man on vr chat being groomed by a 55yo man

Now Die

FedEx: shits on my box, stomps on my box, kicks it, dumps gasoline on it, throws one of my chickens into the back of the van UPS: whispers at my front door “is anyone home” as quietly as possible before leaving a “we missed you!” note, tries to gaslight me into thinking my address doesn’t exist USPS: sets my package down gently where it’s not visible from the road, knocks on the door and kisses me directly on the mouth

Is this…shipping discourse?