JEFF SEILER:
This week’s entry was hand-written and dated 03 SEP 08. Merry Christmas, everybody!
Hi Jeff--
Out of typewriter ribbon so this is going to be brief: The Luke Commentaries have joined the Matthew and Mark Commentaries in safety deposit box #692 at the CIBC corner of King and Queen... Sandeep will be signed up for power of attorney sometime in the next while.
I’ve left a phone message with Claude F. -- who has the so-far finished Mark commentaries on his computer -- to dump them onto the Cerebus Newsgroup message board.
In the unlikely event that the response to them is anything besides “Dave Sim is crazy”, “Dave Sim is an asshole”, “Dave Sim doesn’t know what he’s talking about” (coupled with my so-called supporters standing around with their thumbs up their asses and silly grins on their faces serving to tacitly endorse the vituperation) then I’ll be glad to reconsider what seems to me to be the only sensible course of action: Write off everyone alive today as a complete waste of time and stake everything on some future individual or group long after I’m dead.
I put the odds at about 98:2 in favour of the latter situation.
Dave
8 comments:
"But, in the meantime, please sign up on Patreon and send me some money every month.
Preferably after you've washed your thumb off."
Viewing people as this note indicates deserves vituperation.
Steve
Steve - I've always tried to be honest with people about what the actual situation is. The actual situation is that we all live in a political context that definitely isn't favourably disposed towards me or my work and that hasn't really changed appreciably since 2008. A political context founded on the idea that there's one right way to think and my way of thinking is the diametric opposite of that and so "deserves vituperation" (at the least!).
I think my Patreon supporters, the Kickstarter pledge partners and a marginalized readership here at AMOC recognize that situation but a percentage of them are still supportive of my work, not IN SPITE of my deeply held political views but BECAUSE of those views: most particularly when they don't share my views (which I would guess is 99.9% of the time in most cases). That is, they genuinely believe in diversity of viewpoints, not "pick whichever flavour of political correctness best suits you within these narrow confines or accept the fact that you deserve to be a societal pariah".
I certainly appreciate that a large percentage (40%? 60%?) of the AMOC readership share your view that people need to be shamed into not supporting me: that shaming people into NOT supporting Dave Sim is a virtuous thing to advocate. It seems to be working, which should please you.
But, obviously, I hope it doesn't work TOO well.
Of course, firing a shot off your bow like I did I shouldn't be surprised to have a shot back.
It does not please me that people should be shamed into not supporting you. I would hope that individuals have stronger backbones than that, a stouter sense of self.
But let me ask you: am I a complete waste of time?
Does the God you serve and worship agree with you on that?
If not, should you adjust your beliefs accordingly?
I believe what many of us here respond to is your declaring what we are (politically, for example), or what we believe to be true about you, or what we believe (your above 'which should please you') - as though you can't be incorrect.
I hardly know you and you know less about me.
But as an individual, irrespective of what I value or believe, who is being declared of no value and a waste of time ... I guess it simply continues to flabbergast me that you aren't aware of how unreasonable that is.
For me, Dave, you are not a waste of time.
You were fashioned before the creation of the world, the Lord knew you before you were born.
And the lack of civility grieves me.
Steve
Sample of one speaking here - but I am a Kickstarter supporter not because of or in spite of Dave Sim's personal views on various matters, but because I love the comics art form, and Cerebus is one of the best examples thereof. Simple as that. And as a deeply devout Christian, I hasten to add that I couldn't care less what Mr. Sim has to say about the Gospels. I certainly hope he doesn't care whether I care what he thinks or not! It's just not an area of knowledge for which I tend to look to comics artists, that's all.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
I remember when the Gospel commentaries were being put up on the Yahoo group in little chunks. I would copy and paste them to keep them together, but that's something that's been long lost in a long-ago computer crash. They also inspired me to pick up the Kingdom Interlinear New Testament translation, which, though I'm strictly an amateur, I still enjoy reading from from time to time. Dave, have you ever completed a commentary on John? I think your commentaries were fascinating (including the Torah commentaries in Cerebus) and would love to read them all.
Everyone - All I can do is describe "the view from here" which I try to do.
Steve - I have no idea what God agrees with me on or disagrees with me on. I don't think anyone does. I believe in doing what I think is right and that's what I try to do. I'll find out on Judgement Day if I was too hard on anyone, who I was too hard on and how. If I thought you were a waste of time, I wouldn't have wasted my time answering you. :)
Culpa Direct - There are a lot of scriptural commentaries in the Correspondence files which will be released as they're completed/scanned/Kickstarted. I don't think there's any great demand for them. I think they've done what good they can do for me and (it sounds like) for you. That might be where it rests until long after I'm dead.
It's amazing what turns up on the Internet that's considered completely lost and I assume that will continue to be the case as the years unfold.
I recommend WRITING commentaries on scripture. What do you think it's saying? Why do you think that? What else could it be saying? Don't undervalue your own mind and reasoning faculties.
In hindsight, "couldn't care less" was too harsh. What I should have said is, there are so many people, going back almost 2000 years, whose views of Scripture I put before anyone else's and whose comments I haven't read yet, that I'll never get through them all in this lifetime - so Dave's commentaries aren't in the queue.
I see Scripture is Primary Life Material in itself. That it's designed for you to interact with it, personally. I don't think it's intended to be interpreted and then the interpretation digested as Truth.
Tony makes a good point: if you read 100 pages of commentary a day for the rest of your life, you wouldn't get through a fraction of what's out there: even if you restrict yourself to the most highly thought-of commentaries. So, why not read Scripture instead? That seems the most sensible to me in the same sense that you pray your own prayers. It would defeat the purpose to have a recording of a prayer and to hit play and go, "Here, God, listen to this." And then go and do something else.
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