this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024
260 points (100.0% liked)
Comic Strips
17320 readers
1878 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- [email protected]: "I use Arch btw"
- [email protected]: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm on the fence here.
On the one side, I love weird dream-logic fantasy worlds inhabited by strange and interesting characters. It's like taking your frontal lobe to the dayspa.
On the other hand, I don't enjoy searching for deeper meaning when the creator is being deliberately opaque and nonsensical. Absurdist art should come with a warning, "This ain't gone make no damn sense."
Like, imagine if you showed up to work on your first day, and it was a day spa, and your boss was just getting a massage. You don't know what you're supposed to do, so you spend the first day anxious and confused, and still you have no explanation. You ask what is going on, what you're expected to do or learn from the situation, and everyone you meet wordlessly gestures broadly at the situation. "What is wrong withme?" you ponder while the world around you unfolds at its own pace.
Eventually, you might catch on that you're not supposed to do anything, learn anything, or examine anything for allegories or metaphors. But now it's too late, the experience is tainted by feelings of inadequacy and frustration. Instead of enjoying the art for what it is, you resent it for what it isn't.
So yeah, I guess I'm saying don't overthink it. Because I did, and I'm not having any fun.
I don't try to hard to make sense. I mostly just enjoy the vibe. If coherent concepts percolate out, cool. If they don't, also cool.
I enjoy that, when I know that's what I'm supposed to do. But I also enjoy layered meanings and puzzles. It's like one of those magic eye posters, where you squint at it, and nothing appears and you realize it's just a Jackson Pollack painting. Like yes, I appreciate the art for what it is, the totality of the experience and the nuance of the interplay between colors and textures. But also, I just spent ten minutes staring at it cross eyed thinking there was going to be a schooner.
If you really want "the right answer", look here:
But these stories are highly subjective. Like a vision quest, like a mystic hallucination, although there's no right way to feel about them, they might have a message for you personally. Read them and think about what they mean to you: how do YOU feel about each character, and about what happens in the stories? Because that's the real right answer.