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So I've been re-reading Calvin and Hobbes a ton recently. Something I've noticed in a lot of discussion on the strip is how much of a jerk Calvin is. Is this just regular six year old jerkness to people, or him crossing several lines even for a kid and is irredemable?
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Jan 4, 2024 23:47
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he's basically hitler
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Jan 4, 2024 23:54
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Into Ilves  Nancy  Dustin  Mandrake 
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Jan 5, 2024 00:04
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Willo567 posted:So I've been re-reading Calvin and Hobbes a ton recently. Something I've noticed in a lot of discussion on the strip is how much of a jerk Calvin is. Is this just regular six year old jerkness to people, or him crossing several lines even for a kid and is irredemable? It's the result of readers looking at the strip entirely incorrectly. If you try to read C&H as a realistic strip like foob, well you're cracked and shouldn't read things. If you try to read C&H as a "sitcom" like Big Nate or "sitcom, with occasional fantastic elements" like Zits, you're still looking at it wrong. Calvin doesn't need medication or therapy because he's not an actual 6 year old. His parents aren't negligent because they aren't parents. They're a vehicle for Watterson's wit and storytelling and fantasy. If you are asking if Calvin is abusing Susie or whatever you might as well start asking about the effects of CTE in Krazy Kat.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:09
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Yeah, I think viewing C&H through the lens of reality is a doomed proposition; there are some arcs where Calvin sort of feels like a real small child (like the one with the baby raccoon), but for the most part, Watterson isn't attempting psychological reality because that's not his goal. It's like asking why Calvin's school has a six-year-old doing research papers.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:12
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Steeple 20: Extreme Freaks Title Drop... John Allison's Patreon John Allison's Gumroad store Steeple website John Allison posted:Bonus points to anyone who knows the origin of “Funjys” without looking it up.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:21
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Pluggers Eric Clapper telling on himself and his weak fingers.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:23
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Pogo 2/4-6/52   Archie 3/3-5/49    The Virtue of Vera Valiant 10/28-30/76    This is perhaps slightly less amusing post-Terri Schiavo.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:26
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I Don't Like Any Of Where This Contemporary Story Could Be Going        Not The Best Pun To Make Considering How Chat GPT Is 
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Jan 5, 2024 00:58
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Forum accident posted:
Say what you will about Ziggy, he had one of the best Christmas specials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXY-PM2fgog
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Jan 5, 2024 01:19
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Stultus Maximus posted:It's the result of readers looking at the strip entirely incorrectly. If you try to read C&H as a realistic strip like foob, well you're cracked and shouldn't read things. If you try to read C&H as a "sitcom" like Big Nate or "sitcom, with occasional fantastic elements" like Zits, you're still looking at it wrong. Calvin doesn't need medication or therapy because he's not an actual 6 year old. His parents aren't negligent because they aren't parents. They're a vehicle for Watterson's wit and storytelling and fantasy. If you are asking if Calvin is abusing Susie or whatever you might as well start asking about the effects of CTE in Krazy Kat. I guess I just ask because, at least in my mind, Calvin hasn't done anything totally heinous. Yes he's a total jerk to Susie and he's locked Rosalyn out of the house, plus I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but the way I've seen some people react on this forum to the comic he may as well have fed Susie her parents. I know it's just a comic strip, but sometimes I think people forget that Calvin is six and can change. Willo567 fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 01:27
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goons ain't much for nuance
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Jan 5, 2024 01:30
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F_Shit_Fitzgerald posted:Well....I don't especially like talking on the phone either but I don't usually mind taking a call unless it's an unknown number. hexwren posted:goons ain't much for nuance
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Jan 5, 2024 01:34
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The Demons of Baseball     
Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 01:35
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Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon SO dang good.
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Jan 5, 2024 02:12
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Willo567 posted:I guess I just ask because, at least in my mind, Calvin hasn't done anything totally heinous. Yes he's a total jerk to Susie and he's locked Rosalyn out of the house, plus I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but the way I've seen some people react on this forum to the comic he may as well have fed Susie her parents. a few of the ways in which he's a jerk kinda hit different when you're not also a kid/in the modern day/when you can see him as the mouthpiece for Waterson's views, imo but like... it's a comic strip, so basically everything Sultus Maximus said. viewing Calvin through the lens of "a six year old" at all is sort of approaching it from the wrong angle
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Jan 5, 2024 02:22
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someone awful. posted:a few of the ways in which he's a jerk kinda hit different when you're not also a kid/in the modern day/when you can see him as the mouthpiece for Waterson's views, imo I get that, and you're right that in today's world that poo poo wouldn't be tolerated, but maybe to Watterson that's how six year olds acted when he grew up. I remember reading the tenth anniversary book and one of the sections had him recount how he made a club similar to G.R.O.S.S. and how once he and his brother planned to throw nuts at the girls in their neighborhood. The same can be said about Calvin's treatment of Susie being because he doesn't know how to process his crush on her and expresses it by harassing and annoying her. Honestly, Susie as a character was just wasted potential. Watterson has claimed he was worried about the strip getting stale, but rather than have Calvin open up to her more and let her get involved in the fantasy stories, he just decided to keep the dumb shtick going between them. I wish there would have been a story similar to Rosalyn's last appearance where Calvin and Susie could have finally bonded and become friends, even if that would be her last appearance Willo567 fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 02:32
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Hippocrass posted:Gasoline Alley(August 25, 1919) “Someone should write an erudite essay on the moral, physical, and esthetic effect of the Model T Ford on the American nation. Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars. With the Model T, part of the concept of private property disappeared. Pliers ceased to be privately owned and a tire pump belonged to the last man who had picked it up. Most of the babies of the period were conceived in Model T Fords and not a few were born in them. The theory of the Anglo Saxon home became so warped that it never quite recovered.” --John Steinbeck from Cannery Row, which I was just reminded of for some reason. In the "This Is Newspaper-Adjacent Now" Department: While a significant chunk of the Internet this week looked at the Steamboat Willie situation as a perfect opening a slasher movie or a rule 34 incident, Popeye's Randy Milholland looks at it as an invitation to just tell a Mickey Mouse story without having to ask official permission. It's quaint, and a little endearing. With that in mind, here's Mousetrapped.   Our Boarding House teaches us to cover for our family members, in case they ever find it convenient to do the same for us. (February 2-4, 1925)    Out Our Way: Wes Begins (February 3, 1925)  Toonerville Folks (April 17-19, 1922)  NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS: Last Saturday afternoon four of Mickey McGuire's Gang came from across the R.R. tracks and took a stroll through the polite residential district.  THE TOONERVILLE TROLLEY THAT MEETS ALL THE TRAINS: The watchman at Finger Crossing where the car tracks cross the railroad makes life miseralbe for the Skipper in a hundred ways, but once in a while the Skippermanages to get back at him.  Dok's "No Riders" Duck (most of January 25, 1915)  Little Lefty (September 18-20, 1939)   
EasyEW fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 5, 2024 02:45
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Stultus Maximus posted:It's the result of readers looking at the strip entirely incorrectly. If you try to read C&H as a realistic strip like foob, well you're cracked and shouldn't read things. If you try to read C&H as a "sitcom" like Big Nate or "sitcom, with occasional fantastic elements" like Zits, you're still looking at it wrong. Calvin doesn't need medication or therapy because he's not an actual 6 year old. His parents aren't negligent because they aren't parents. They're a vehicle for Watterson's wit and storytelling and fantasy. If you are asking if Calvin is abusing Susie or whatever you might as well start asking about the effects of CTE in Krazy Kat. Really this about sums up my thoughts on it. Some parts of C&H didn't age well but a lot of this stuff is people either regular old overanalyzing or going out of their way to try to find something edgy in the strip.
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Jan 5, 2024 03:10
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wait are we Calvin derailing again because of the same guy as last time???
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Jan 5, 2024 03:16
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Willo567 posted:Yes he's a total jerk to Susie and he's locked Rosalyn out of the house, plus I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but the way I've seen some people react on this forum to the comic he may as well have fed Susie her parents. Speaking as a person who frequently wishes violence on the characters in the comics I post, we like to be dramatic in here.
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Jan 5, 2024 03:28
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Modesty Blaise: With Love From Rufus 
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Jan 5, 2024 03:32
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EasyEW posted:Popeye's Randy Milholland Good thing Popeye's becoming public domain soon, 'cause I sure would like any other writer doing a take on a modern Popeye/Olive story that isn't this person.
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Jan 5, 2024 03:36
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Forum accident posted:First is Frank and Ernest Ziggy I have no particular opinion on but I'm a big fan of one-panels so I'll definitely be reading it. F Minus   Mark Trail  Mary Worth  drat kids with their phones!  The Phantom  Pooch Cafe  Rex Morgan MD  Andertoons  For those who don't know/don't want to look it up, that means painting outside. Apartment 3-G 
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Jan 5, 2024 03:42
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Milholland really likes Popeye but his own voice is too strong so it bleeds over. I still like it but I liked his stuff. It's definitely weird for Popeye.
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Jan 5, 2024 03:42
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Some Guy TT posted:The Demons of Baseball 
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Jan 5, 2024 04:14
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I can't believe Planck Oh is loving dead
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Jan 5, 2024 04:15
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Haifisch posted:Mexikid Stories This didn't even have to grow on me, it's really good! Powered Descent posted:Flash Gordon That's the entire outfit from the movie isn't it?
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Jan 5, 2024 04:18
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Chicken Parmigiana posted:It's extra annoying because I'm sure earlier in this story, the mum was on the phone to Keith like, "Oh, I'll explain all about Jughead tomorrow." And then... didn't, at all. This Mary Worth story is kind of fascinating in that it basically takes the position that wanting an explanation for a person's behavior is aggressive and hurtful. Keith learned from his initial meeting at the restaurant with Kitty that it was wrong of him to want to know why she never told him he had a daughter. So, when she doesn't bother to so much as even explain who this fake vegan guy was or why he's on dinner terms with her family, Keith refuses to follow-up in the belief that this would cause another fight, and just deals with the entire situation himself. The moral arc of the story amounts to saying that aggression is bad, but passion-aggression is good. Or at least, less likely to cause interpersonal drama. It's a bizarre narrative choice but a fairly logical one when you remember that the whole premise is trying to resolve an MRA thought experiment without questioning any of the very broad inherently misogynist assumptions you have to make in order for that thought experiment to make sense in the first place.
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Jan 5, 2024 04:20
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The daughter wearing shoes inside the house and putting them up on the sofa is the first truly upsetting thing she’s done, but dear god is it upsetting.
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Jan 5, 2024 04:26
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Julet Esqu posted:Speaking as a person who frequently wishes violence on the characters in the comics I post, we like to be dramatic in here.
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Jan 5, 2024 04:49
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hexwren posted:wait are we Calvin derailing again because of the same guy as last time??? im starting to think we're research for a term paper, if we get a question about Hobbes being real or not then this is for sure happening
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Jan 5, 2024 05:01
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Hobbes is a fictional character
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Jan 5, 2024 05:07
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Some Guy TT posted:The Demons of Baseball Is this a translation error or a source error or something in the last panel? If Planck Oh's playing first base and Hardy Choi throws home how did Planck get the opportunity to make an error?  I'm not a great baseball-knowing guy but I'm fairly sure the "right" play would be 2B / shortstop, whichever Hardy is, to 1B for the out.
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Jan 5, 2024 05:10
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Hobbes is an alive stuffed animal and lives in the Achewood underground
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Jan 5, 2024 05:11
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Jan 5, 2024 05:14
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And furthermore, we can clearly see that “Bats Aren’t Bugs” is Waterson’s way of critiquing the public education system….
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Jan 5, 2024 05:15
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Is The Mysteries any good?
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Jan 5, 2024 05:18
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Wormwood, an essential ingredient in the hallucinogenic alcoholic libation known as Absinthe, is of particular interest as the source of the name of Calvin's teacher as Calvin himself is prone to behave as though under the influence of hallucinogens which may be driving his teacher to "drink." In this essay I
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Jan 5, 2024 05:20
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csammis posted:Is this a translation error or a source error or something in the last panel? If Planck Oh's playing first base and Hardy Choi throws home how did Planck get the opportunity to make an error? don't know anything about this strip but I watch baseball and based on your post and reading this yeah it does sound odd that it says he throw home
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Jan 5, 2024 05:39
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