3 ms·
Calvin and Hobbes was cynical, it's main characters are named for a religious brimstoner and cynical philosopher. Part of its appeal to children, beyond the gen
by mimd 3y ago
Calvin and Hobbes was cynical, it's main characters are named for a religious brimstoner and cynical philosopher. Part of its appeal to children, beyond the general creativity of the strip, is, that it was cynical. Children can be very aware and it's often disregarded by most childrens stories. But, that cynicalness can verge from reasonable to depressive. And depressiveness can be a deathknell for continuing.
As I get older, some of the jokes and commentary age to that of coming from a younger person who still is grappling with the world, unaware of the commentary that could be said in ernest against it. The self reflection is mostly done via Hobbes, and sometimes he is not enough, too much in agreement. Luckily, it mostly never verges on insulting, but it's introductory to the issues he attempts to grapple with. As a reflection of a young child it will work forever, but as a reflection of Watterson, it shows a stall in development. Instead of accepting the world or at least challenging his initial revulsion, I worry he retreated and became a hermit out of depression.
- jononomo 3y agoNevertheless, Calvin and Hobbes is indisputably the greatest comic strip of all time.
- mimd 3y agoTrue. But like watching Richard Pryor hold back tears on the sunset strip, or listening to Billie Holiday's voice crack, your reading someone's pain. In that situation, if it helps them in dealing with depression it's okay, otherwise enjoyment of the work can verge on being a peculiar sadism. The cynicism and story of the abrupt end of the comic, leaves an ambiguous hole in the story of Calvin. Those next stages of dialogue, that a child such as he must go through to continue. The author's hermiting, who is Calvin, gives that a possible outcome for Calvin, is to not to succeed but to retreat or worse. If you like Calvin, you don't want that, or for his author. It is a sad backdrop that colors the work, especially near the end of the run. I'd feel better about it if Watterson went on to new pursuits rather than going silent for years. That is was a good time to try something new, rather than a depression induced rage to end it.
- bsder 3y agoIt's particularly sad because Watterson is such an amazing artist. He could still have dropped Calvin and Hobbes, but done anything with visual art and it would have been amazing.
- jononomo 3y agoI think you're taking it too seriously. They're just great comics to curl up with on the couch.
- agrdd 3y ago> Children can be very aware and it's often disregarded Agreed. I like to think the boy who cried wolf is not about a dumb kid but a kid trying to do right thing with the only language a child has and warn about a wolf the adults were too arrogant to believe they’d missed and a child noticed.