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[umiman]

http://www.gabbysplayhouse.com/wp-content/sick/sick-1-17.html

I came across this earlier today and I thought others might like it. I'm not really sure what the point of it is other than just lashing out at everything, but it's amusing nonetheless. At least for me anyway, since apparently his life was the complete opposite of mine... in a comical sort of "path not taken" way.

Regardless, I'm curious if you guys can relate to him or like me, find it cathartic.

[Zaerosz]

This is the first post I have ever seen you make and I already hate you.

[Hubris Incalculable]

That was really... angsty and misanthropic, but had some interesting things to say politically.

[Flying Dice]

Pretty damn misanthropic and bitter. Nothing really unique, especially the assumption that "My life is shit." stems solely from problems with society, rather from a combination of factors. I know it sounds pretty banal, but life is what we make of it. Not necessarily in a literal sense, but in the sense that if we choose to see everything through jade-tinted glasses, it is only natural that it looks terrible and depressing. It may just be me, but while wallowing in pain and sorrow can be cathartic to a certain point, it eventually becomes a pointless exercise in emotional masturbation.

[Ochita]

This is the first post I have ever seen you make and I already hate you.

Don't be a douche. He's done nothing wrong what so ever.

And on the comic thing. It was really cathartic, for me. But a couple of the things he said is pretty true, even if the guy was actually really bitter.

[Lectorog]

I stopped what I was doing and walked back to my computer after realizing that I spent 20 minutes reading about how terrible it is to be a middle-class citizen.

It lacks a point beyond "shit's fucked up." I agree that it's just cathartic.
Everyone lives in a world with some universal problems, or at least far-reaching ones. If you understand those problems, it's your job to try to fix them. If not, your job is to play along with the people trying to improve the world. Crying and dying over it won't help anyone.

[SalmonGod]

I was impressed with how effective many of the visuals were.  Even if he wasn't expressing any unique ideas, he was expressing them very deeply and honestly.  He was also relating the experience of being extremely ill for an extended period and feeling near-death and powerless.  Bitter cynicism may just be what that situation brought out of him.  Not going to read any of his other comics right now to find out, though.  That one was damn long.

[kaijyuu]

I find it difficult to sympathize with anyone who expresses irrational self loathing and hated of others in the same breath (unless it's caused by depression or something, and in that case the sympathy's directed toward their mental problems). Cynicism is not a virtue.

If it's just the dude's venting from being sick, then sure whatever. He can vent all he likes; as has been said, it's cathartic. But calling the world shit just brings the value of the word "shit" up, not the value of the world down. If this is shit, shit ain't so bad.

[Heron TSG]

Well, that was terribly melodramatic. The red gaping skulls and whatnot were a bit much.

[Euld]

I liked it.  I've been wondering about some of the same things for a while and glad to see there's at least one other bitter person in the world    It is cathartic but I think only calling it cathartic is ironic at best.  And saying that he only "points out the issues" instead of what, saying how they should be fixed, defeats the purpose of the comic.  It's about a man dragged kicking and screaming to the edge of death and insanity then simply held there while he endures flashbacks of his entire life.  It has no good ending.  In the end, he wants to die but he can't.  There's no meaning at the end or solution to all the madness because the problem he began to see is interwoven into the fabric of life itself.  Our world has made incredible advances in technology and wealth, yet a man can still die a miserable death, alone, suffering without treatment, friends, family, purpose, or anything in one of the richest shining cities in the world.  That for all the work that's been done over the millennia, we're still in the same place: the rich eat cake, the poor eat dirt.

[SalmonGod]

I find it difficult to sympathize with anyone who expresses irrational self loathing and hated of others in the same breath (unless it's caused by depression or something, and in that case the sympathy's directed toward their mental problems). Cynicism is not a virtue.

If it's just the dude's venting from being sick, then sure whatever. He can vent all he likes; as has been said, it's cathartic. But calling the world shit just brings the value of the word "shit" up, not the value of the world down. If this is shit, shit ain't so bad.

You don't need to sympathize, because being an artist isn't about being someone mature, admirable, or agreeable.  It's about communicating.  I totally agree that he didn't have anything to say that was especially unique or valuable... but I felt like the communication was on a very deep and honest level.  It didn't make efforts to be entertaining or even to trick you into sympathizing or agreeing with the character.  All it attempted to do was share an ugly experience.  Personally, I appreciate that.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What.


....



What.

[umiman]

I find it difficult to sympathize with anyone who expresses irrational self loathing and hated of others in the same breath (unless it's caused by depression or something, and in that case the sympathy's directed toward their mental problems). Cynicism is not a virtue.

If it's just the dude's venting from being sick, then sure whatever. He can vent all he likes; as has been said, it's cathartic. But calling the world shit just brings the value of the word "shit" up, not the value of the world down. If this is shit, shit ain't so bad.

You don't need to sympathize, because being an artist isn't about being someone mature, admirable, or agreeable.  It's about communicating.  I totally agree that he didn't have anything to say that was especially unique or valuable... but I felt like the communication was on a very deep and honest level.  It didn't make efforts to be entertaining or even to trick you into sympathizing or agreeing with the character.  All it attempted to do was share an ugly experience.  Personally, I appreciate that.

This is very true.

More often than not it's the art we cannot understand that sticks with us the most.

[IronyOwl]

I think it says something that my contempt for this guy spikes more every time he devolves into being a political cartoonist than it does when he's whining about how he's dying because everything's fucked up and also he can't be assed to call someone for help.

You don't need to sympathize, because being an artist isn't about being someone mature, admirable, or agreeable.  It's about communicating.  I totally agree that he didn't have anything to say that was especially unique or valuable... but I felt like the communication was on a very deep and honest level.  It didn't make efforts to be entertaining or even to trick you into sympathizing or agreeing with the character.  All it attempted to do was share an ugly experience.  Personally, I appreciate that.

I guess I'm forced to agree with the first part of this. Still has that "watch a crazy person have a breakdown" feel to it, though.

[Strife26]

What?





Jesus Christ, but that is one bitter, self-centered, sad sob right there.

There were odd times in the course of several wasted minutes of my lifetime that I could emphasize with him, but never that much or for that long. Here's the thing. Everyone in the world gets dealt bad cards. Everyone. Some of them are Dark Lady fucking with you, sure, but a good number were cards you drew yourself. There's damn few situations where whining about them is a good idea (but hell, if his whiny comic gets him enough attention that he'll find someone to pay him, then he's gone and won, hasn't he? Something to be said about the American Dream, there).


I particularly got pissed off at the way he felt like painting everyone else in America as horrible, especially the religious types. Lord knows that finding something to believe in is so much worse than his seeming brand of whiny, self-centered nihilism. There's not a man in this world who isn't a flaming hypocrite.


There's no situation that can't be made better by our own actions. Honestly, I'd call that the American Dream, that

Anyone, by the sweat of his own brow, if he works hard, can overcome whatever misfortune and make a better life for himself.

If you're dying, either go and get help, learn to find meaning in the time you've got left, do something worthwhile, or if you're dying the way I pray to go, spend your last moments doing your job.

He's afraid of calling someone to get him help? There is not a man in this world who I dislike enough not to drive and haul to the hospital.


In any case, I must say that I find his worldview espoused much much better by an old band named Kansas. Even if you're just a bit of dust in the wind, that doesn't mean that it's not something beautiful.