Boy, I’m a verbose motherfucker this week. These last two strips have been just chock-damn-full of dialog, to the point that I don’t see a whole lot of point in explaining this one. You get the point, right?
So, for those of you who didn’t get the way-too-obscure panel 4 reference from Tuesday’s strip, “Barbelith” is the name of a crazy metaphysical something-or-other in Grant Morrison’s beautifully brain-fucked series “The Invisibles.”Of the seven trade paperbacks, six of them are downright magical in their ability to make you really think. It’s the kind of book that, if you read it when you were at that critical turning point age range of around 16-22, it would mean the difference between going to law school and going to art school. It’s that kind of awesome.
So, of course, Morrison fucks the whole thing in the end. Many of his themes carry through, but they’re executed in such a way as to make them entirely unsatisfying to anyone who’s been following the book through the run. He’s so invested in fucking with your head that he forgets to tell a story that’s the least bit palatable in the end. That’s why, despite the fact that it’s absolutely breathtakingly awesome, you don’t hear anyone talking about it, like, ever.
If you liked “Lost,” but weren’t really happy until you found out that the showrunners weren’t going to solve any of the mysteries in the end, then this is the book for you. If you thought the end of Evangelion made too much sense and was too satisfying from a narrative perspective, then this is the book for you. But! If you like shooting heroin directly into your brainstem, then this is most definitely the book for you.
Joe
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So I’m coming to the end of the first week of my two-week stay-cation. And the best part is, I’ve actually had a chance to sit down and watch just a ton of movies. Most of the time, my ever-shrinking attention span has gotten to the point that, not only can I no longer enjoy novels, but setting aside two hours at a clip to watch a flick seems like a monumental commitment. Something that used to be a de rigueur part of my weekly–even daily–schedule has become the sweetest of luxuries.
Adding to that, I recently got a request from a friend to help out with writing a horror movie. He set me up with a short list of flicks to watch as inspiration, which is good, because I’ve never been a student of that particular genre. That makes this an interesting writing exercise, to be certain. So, you’ll see some analysis of these flicks filtered through that lens. SPOILERS AHOY, y’all.
Oh man, am I excited.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m thrilled to pissing to announce that I’ve added a word to the English lexicon. “Cooterscootch”, as coined in this strip, has been officially added to the Urban Dictionary, that most august of scholarly journals.
I’m a simple man with simple needs, and this just tickles me something fierce. Go check out the definition here.
I seem to have touched a nerve on Reddit. The atheists forum has spoken. I took great glee in reading these.
http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/cpubk/comic_god_hates_yaxisinverters_especially_in_red/
