Monday 2 July 2007

calvin and hobbEs

Yeah, this is about the comic strip and neither about the French protestant theologian John Calvin who developed Calvinism nor about the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. after all, speaking and writing about things that people neither understands nor gives a shit about is their work and not mine.
In fact when i chose to write about Calvin & Hobbes, there must be something special in it; oh, you guessed right dumbo, it is my favorite comic strip. in fact i believe that anybody who can read and who doesn't like C&H ought to be shot. i thank ma frnd besilin for introducing me to the wonderful world of c&h. he was not the one who first showed me one, but he made me understand its power and potential. as a matter of fact, now i have all the c&h cartoons ever published and i'm far ahead of ma frnd.

Numero Uno

So for those idiots who haven't heard or read abt c&h, it's a comic series published by Bill Watterson (never bother abt this guy, but give credits to him) abt a six year old kid Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes. In fact Hobbes is not a stuffed tiger as such. acording to watterson, hobbes is just a metaphor for how different people have a different outlook for the world around them. for calvin (& me and besilin) hobbes is a real tiger who is his best pal and for his parents and others, hobbes is just a stuffed tiger.
OK, so whats so special abt this? B'COZ, i beleive calvin is the prototype for every young kid in his age group that we ourselves were some time ago. i will compare my childhood with Calvin personified 99% except with some cultural differences. Without that, kids around the world are the same (its the grown ups who create the fuss). Calvin hates school, teachers and homework,

Calvin's ideology on the educational system

procrastinates, has imaginary alter egos, hates vegetables and girls and is scared of ghosts and monsters. The hatred for girls is only a show-off as with every other young boy(he will kill me if he heard this). But Calvin is also highly intelligent in that he knows the political system (like impeaching his dad from the father position, speaking abt dictatorship, conducts voting on dad's popularity as father ...), asks doubts about relativity, knows styles of painting (and occasionally tries to bring out 'evanescence of life') is proficient in modern warfare systems (in fact he asks for a grenade launcher for x'mas) and is highly destructive (he is often called to school psychologists office for writing things which would now-a-days invite secret-service to ur doors).
His mom and dad are the typical middle-class parents that u find evryday. he admires his father very much (he almost always give stupid answers which seems very logical to calvin => "abstract thinkinbg") and mom seems to be the only person able to control him (its gr8 to see her flames-up in rage).

The great art connoisseur

He has a neighbor named Susie who is the root cause for the formation of the GROSS (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS) club. The only members of this club are, u guessed it, calvin and hobbes. Susie is the prime target of snow ball attacks during winter, but Susie pretty good at identifying calvin and gives him a strong lesson often. but as calvin's motto goes, never learn from anything because u lose the fun in doing so.
The difference with Calvin and such dumbos like Dennis the Menace is that, Calvin is a highly intelligent kid with a high level of logic. Dennis is a total asshole. Maybe if he was 2-3 yrs it wud hav been better.
If I'm to write all about c&h, then this will look like a thesis or such. If i wanted to do that, i wud have already done that and submitted it for my phd. in fact you can never appreciate c&h, if u haven't got that innocence u had in ur childhood. innocence doesn't mean being child-like. it is simply that quality that makes u laugh heartily at every c&h comic.
I really admire bill watterson for the great job he has done. unfortunately he stopped c&h after 10+ long years (1985-1995). I'm really sad at that. anyway as they says, its always better to stop singing when the sound is good. thanx a lot to watterson for giving us c&h; it helped me go back the lane in the memory of my childhood fantasies. even now whenever i feel bad i go thru some of the comics and try to regain myself.

don't take my word for it. try to read c&h. if u find it dull & boring, remember nothing can be done. innocence once lost is lost for ever.

"lose your childishness but never ur innocence."
( Thomas Freidrich Anderson)
N.B:- I don't know who the above fella is. but people will consider it only if it is by some great a%$-hole. So i made up that name.

I always wanted to ask that.

1 comment: