Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 14, 2012

Oh, that gleam in Rick’s eye…

Rick is proud of Jeff now!

 Now Jeff has to choose whether to disembowel the basement dweller in fantasy, or to stay with reality and make a $25 book sale.

Are you sure, Vista Bill, or is it a case of schadenfreude, as I mentioned earlier this week?

 Now that Jeff has strengthened his grip on reality, he’s meeting more weirdos than ever. What’s Trudeau up to?

Things at comic con can get ugly at the drop of a power insult!

I guess their testosterone leaks cos it’s so thin and watered down?

Hey, not that I have anything against actual geeks…. that’s kinda my milieu, I guess.

But these guys all live one step past the edge of reality….

To think Jeff is the most together of these guys!

Is body odor actually considered a power?

Jeff is the sanest person in that room. Scary.

Most fathers would be happy for their kids success. Rick almost seems relieved that he was not outdone by his sons first book.

panel 4 Sloth looks like he’s doing better

Actually we all are nerds, aren’t we? We subscribe to GoComics don’t we!

 In the summer of 2002, after I [journalist Ron Suskind] had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He [Karl Rove] expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency. The aide [Rove] said that guys like me [Suskind] were ‘’in what we call the reality-based community,’’ which he defined as people who ‘’believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ’’That’s not the way the world really works anymore,‘’ he continued. ’’We’re an empire now, and when we act, WE CREATE OUR OWN REALITY. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, CREATING OTHER NEW REALITIES, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." —Ron Suskind (senior national-affairs reporter for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000), “Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush”, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, October 17, 2004.  Reporter Suskind is also author of the book, ‘’The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O’Neill.’ http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html

 Hey, Susan (you know I love ya, but): 

It’s quite possible that Jeff Redfern will become rich (like Trudeau himself) from the royalties that Random House will pay him from the sales of “The Red Rascal” AND A SERIES OF FOLLOWUP BOOKS AND RED RASCAL MOVIES. (Patterned after the “Harry Potter” series of books and movies by J.K. Rowling.)

 It’s quite possible that Jeff will become far wealthier than his parents.  It’s quite possible that Jeff will move into a mansion worth millions of dollars. It’s quite possible that his mother, Joanie, and his father, Rick, will MOVE INTO JEFF’S HOME AND LIVE THERE RENT FREE at Jeff’s pleasure. Question: How will Rick then react? Will he be humiliated by his son’s success? Will Jeff “rub it in” every chance he gets. Hey, all you Jeff haters out there: President John F. Kennedy said it: “Life is unfair”.

boys not only will be boys, but will stay boys in the good old United Corporations of America. Keep them comics coming.

Sadly, not a ‘Princess Leia’ in the bunch.

 It’s quite possible that Garry Trudeau will pattern the subsequent life of Jeff after that of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel THE GREAT GATSBY. Read about it here: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/ 

Basement- and attic-dwellers aren’t the comic target they used to be. Many have moved back home after their houses were foreclosed on.

@Hugh, oh, yes. Ever see a room get cleared just by someone removing his shoes?

Hey, those are my friends you’re talking about! (Of course, I’m nothing like that myself (says the guy wearing the bunny nose…))

 Here’s a quote from Spark Notes’ plot summary of Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY. Read it and weep: “Though Gatsby’s power to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great,” Nick reflects that the era of dreaming—both Gatsby’s dream and the American dream—is over.” Source: Spark Notes @ http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gatsby/summary.html

yeah! there is certainly nothing geeky about reading the comics on the computer

These book signings are going to have to become a bit more secure…as in making attendees come through a scanner.

That is the idea. Creativity and Imagination are for Geeks and Gays only.

That’s funny “leaky basement dwellers”, they’re posting on GoComics costumes and all, when they’re not at the Comic Con. You know it’s only a matter of time before Knowitall Man shows up and tries to match the Rascal, delusion for delusion, then we’ll find out who’s the most neurotic in the land, but then again they say, “it’s all relative”.

The difference between “imagination” and “delusion” is the difference between “artistic” and “psychotic.” It’s one thing to build castles in the sky, and another to live in one.

Besides, how many of these so-called “imaginative” fanboys and fantasists are actually creating their own worlds, as opposed to immersing themselves into scenarios created by others?

Doughfoot: just read an article in a forensics journal about internet stalkers, of various types. Even in ’toon blogs, or newspaper blogs, pretty common to see the “attacker” types, who well, yellow, but certainly not mellow, might apply?

I’ve never seen anything like Blue Ego or Darth Damon at sci-fi cons, but then those were the days before cosplay was called “cosplay.” Maybe someone put something in the Romulan ale..(Geek tip: for Romulan ale, use blue creme soda. I saw someone do that at one of those old cons.).Speaking of Darth Damon, I could make a more awesome and sinister costume than his, and my sewing skills are average. A leather collar over a plain tunic? Loser.

Righto!

and he forgot to mention even more delusional than the “Red Rider”

I was referring to gratuitous name calling, insults, and such. Not differences of opinion. I can vehemently disagree with someone, but I don’t have to impugn his intelligence, question his motives, etc., to do that. In the end, none of our various opposing opinions are going away, we are going to have to live with one another as fellow citizens, etc. I agree with those who have said we forgive injuries before we forgive insults; that there is no reason to gratuitously insult an enemy, we may need him as a friend one day; and to quote Churchill, “when you must kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.” Unfortunately, there are too many around us who think an exchange of accusations and insults is “debate.” Rather than actually deal with issues, we fling words like Racist, Fascist, Communist, Pervert, etc., at one another.

Love this discussion.

More complex minds take longer to develop – that’s a truism of animal intelligence. The classic geek hangs onto things of childhood and adolescence longer than their non-geeky peers, but also tend to be more intelligent. The delay of “adulthood” is also encouraged by the fact that the upper middle class now supports almost all their kids until 25 or longer. Many of the more practical geeks go into engineering or IT. Artists, musicians, and writers often come from the more creative.

Tolkien, a major icon of geekdom, essentially created the fantastic world of Middle Earth (and that’s only part of it; he has written the entire history of that “planet”, from creation to Frodo) as a vehicle for creating the languages of it’s peoples. He created neat, systematic languages that were created by prominent individuals or groups, and less intuitive ones that represented a tongue that evolved over time, and others where two or more mingled together into one. He wrote thousands of words about voiceless stops, aspirated consonants, and other details of linguistics. The amazing creativity lived in the same mind with an intense attention to details that most would find incredibly boring.

Yes, Rick would head home when it gets interesting…

@Doughfoot: What was the context of the Churchill quote? You got me curious.

Thanks

Sharuniboy: (Q1) “How does Rove’s description differ from an illustration/explanation of the beginnings of/in Protestantism …?” (A1) Rove’s description differs by:• coming around half a millennium later: a lot has changed between the time of Luther, Calvin, etc., and the time of Rove.• being supremely arrogant and false. Luther would have vomited at Rove’s “in God’s face” assertion that the Bush administration had the power to “create reality”. In Luther’s mind little if anything could be more blasphemous. God would surely smite America for such arrogance (as I would argue He did, given the sorry state of our national image and policy in the war’s aftermath). (Q2) “How does one “reform” God? Or, perhaps more to the point, how did Luther, et.al. “reform” Him?” (A2) One doesn’t. Nor did Luther. The Protestants reformed the church (or at least the part that broke off), not God.

Ok Jeff, you can afford a place of your own now.

Fantasists???