(no subject)

[learnedax]

Also, after several months gap I read the second half of Mothers and Daughters, bringing me to Cerebus #200.

I conclude that Victor Davis Dave Sim is:
a) A bitter man who could use some therapy
b) Full of provocative ideas
c) Unable to discern a bundle of facts from a line of reasoning
d) Quite good at knowing what will interest his audience
e) Very aware of just how much cookie to give his audience so they read the other stuff he wants to write

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts. In the last few years, A and C have increased, and E has gone down some.

Are you going to be at dance practice (or the after-thing at the student center)? I could bring the next chunk for you. This would bring you up to the last real 'closure' point before 300 which you could squint at and call a happy ending. Which is also just about at the point where Sim's need-of-therapy metastatized into Deep Religious Conviction.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll be at post-dance on Wednesday, and I'm interested in Guys... although there is a certain tidiness to where things stand right now. It seems like you could stop cleanly at 100 or 200 and it would work out alright. I'm unsure from your phrasing whether you think going to 300 brings significant closure, and it is certainly tempting if I get within (just?) a couple of volumes of there to push through... then again maybe not. Another two issues of Reads and I probably would have given up.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that Cerebus dies in issue 300; you don't get much more closure than that.

There are four more (physical) volumes after Guys and Rick's Story, which make up two large story arcs. There is certainly good, fun material present right up to the end -- but the fun/suck ratio goes pretty far down, eventually getting much worse than Reads. I'll certainly loan them to you if you want, but I'm not going to recommend that course of action.

[jducoeur]

but the fun/suck ratio goes pretty far down, eventually getting much worse than Reads.

Just to echo this: yeah. I was mildly fond of parts of the final book or two, but getting to there is kind of painful. And other parts of the final book finally pushed beyond my willingness to actually waste time reading them. When the story gets a tad less coherent than a bottle of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (and is only a quarter as entertaining), I really do have better things to do...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

A has increased? Yikes. It's probably been 20 years since I read Cerebus, and even back then, his bitterness was pretty palpable.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

When he sneeringly describes a representative Cerebus reader as having his brains slowly guzzled up by a harpy and smiling as he proclaims that there *are* a few good women in the world... Well, it's not a good time, but I gather it's the thin end of his bitterness wedge.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Paraphrased summary of his current worldview: "The world is going to Hell (literally), and it's all the fault of the Feminist-Marxist-Homosexualist conspiracy. I'm the only person who understands God's will, but I'm not 100% convinced that even I am Saved."

[cat9.livejournal.com]

Am I the only person who has no idea what this entry is about? I'm okay with that, I'm just wondering...

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Nah, there are plenty of people who don't (didn't) read Cerebus (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0919359086/qid=1127836753/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1716156-2920661?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). It's certainly not everyone's cup of aardvark.