As I mentioned on Saturday:
How I may have inadvertently ruined Jaka's Story for myself... possibly forever:
Spoiler Warning: I'm about to talk about the plot and stuff. If you don't want me to ruin Jaka's Story for you, avert your eyes... ('course it's possible I might ruin Jaka's Story for you by talking about how I ruined Jaka's Story for me...)
Okay, so as I prepare to re-read the entirety of Cerebus in 2019 (the first post of which MAY show up next week, depending on how much of Volume 1 I get through before next Monday (since tomorrow is Cerebus & Hobbs, Thursday is Margaret and Dave's notebooks, Friday is the Weekly Update, Saturday is January's "Please Hold For Dave Sim" (if the frickin' video is uploaded, might be a late post folks!), and Sunday is Genesis Question). We'll see.), I've been thinking about various themes and concepts I want to focus on as I re-read.
One of those is: Unreliable Narrators. And the unreliable-est narrator I can think of is Oscar from Jaka's Story (As I've said...)
So, thinking about Jaka's Story, I thought about it as an object in and of itself. A self contained book. Collecting issues 114 through 136. Now, "Like-A-Looks" isn't included. Which means unless you own the issues, or Cerebus 0, you think Lord Julius shows up outside Jaka's place in a dress. Which is kinda how I like to. The idea that to avoid the Cirinists, Julius dresses in drag and gets away. Makes me laugh, and seems like a Julius thing to do. (Which is kinda how Dave intended it.)
But, Julius ACTUALLY being in Jaka's Story makes Jaka's Story make NO sense.
Because if Julius was ACTUALLY outside Jaka's house, then a core plot point of Jaka's Story falls apart...
To recap: (Alright, to OVERTLY and COMPLICATEDLY recap...) (From memory, so if you think my recap is wrong, you might be right!) So, the first twenty-five issues of Cerebus were more or less self contained plots that built on each other. Around issue thirteen, Dave went monthly, and built more long term plots (the Palnu Trilogy, as an example.) With issue twenty-five, Dave embarked on his "Russian Novel," High Society. Twenty-five issues after THAT, Dave decided to go back to self contained stories, but quickly figured out that once you "Go Big or Go Home" it's hard to (apologies to Steve Martin:) "get small," and started Church & State (which ran for FIFTY-NINE issues (technically sixty-one, if you count 112-113 as two issues, or sixty if you're a pedantic turd and don't.) (because, I believe, Dave decided to paraphrase Fight Club (which wasn't even published until 1996!) and decide that, storylines "will go on for as long as they have to".).) After THAT Dave faced:
"...a blank canvas for the first time in over five years. The story came to me pretty much as it appears here; a series of broad and vivid brush strokes which neither demanded nor allowed of much embellishment; a result, no doubt, of suppressing for so long a time those instincts which initiate (as opposed to those which develop and finish) a large creative work." --Dave from the Jaka's Story introductionThe short version of Jaka's Story: Jaka and her husband Rick live on the side of the mountain of demon faces in Iest, in an apartment owned by Jaka's boss, Pud Withers. Pud is the owner/operator of a small grocery/pub. Jaka dances at the pub. Jaka's wages are three copper bits a day. Which is also how much her daily groceries are as well (lucky break that). Pud also rents quarters to Oscar, a parody/pastiche of Oscar Wilde. Into this small set piece comes our "hero," Cerebus the Aardvark. For the majority of the book, Cerebus is a passive observer of the goings on of the other four characters. Interspersed with this are excerpts from Oscar's narrative, also called Jaka's Story, a history of Jaka that Oscar learned (partially) from Rick. (And which was edited by Jaka when she told it to Rick.) Pud spends his days mentally plotting an attempt at hooking up with Jaka. Pud's life savings are almost used up supporting himself, his dancer, and her husband (not to mention her new house guest...) At the end, Cirinists show up, kill Pud and arrest Oscar, Jaka, and Rick (Cerebus having exited the storyline to obtain white paint.) Thereafter, Jaka is confined by the Cirinists, interrogated by a parody/pastiche of Margaret Thatcher, and delivered BACK to Lord Julius in Palnu. Cerebus returns to the grocery/pub and finds Pud dead and assumes Jaka is too, and exits into the next volume: Melmoth.
Okay, now that I've spoiled Jaka's Story, let me SPOIL Jaka's Story.
Now, if the fella in the dress with the painted on mustache IS Jaka's Uncle Julius, then why isn't he supporting his niece? And if it's NOT Julius, but is instead a worm salesman from Parmoc, what's he doing is such close proximity to Julius' niece?
Insane Fan Theory time: So Pud is going broke buying food and clothing for Jaka, but Julius is sending food and supplies at discounted prices to Pud's suppliers to keep Jaka where she is long enough for him to find a way to get her. The worm salesman in the dress is there to make sure she hasn't moved on. I mean it COULD have happened, right?But wait, it gets worse:
So when Cerebus first enters Pud's place, he tries to buy an ale with the gold coin he found after getting back from the Moon. Pud loses his shit, because gold is so scarce and if Pud were to accept it as payment, he'd end up as Cerebus' indentured servant trying to make change.
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| All images courtesy of CerebusDownloads.com |
Pud even gives the coin back to Jaka and she gives it back to Cerebus.
And then everybody forgets about the coin for the rest of the book.
Everybody got that?
Pud is going broke, he's on the verge of destitution. And when he's handed salvation in the form of a gold coin, making him rich beyond his wildest imaginings, he hands the coin back and COMPLETELY FORGETS IT for the rest of his life. Yet he begrudges Jaka taking two paper crowns because he's going broke.
Don't take my word for it, look:
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| See? (Click for bigger, I didn't make it small cause I want to make sure you can read Pud's rant.) |
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| See. Right here. |
He'd still have a fourth of a fortune. (And Jaka DOES owe him. Apples don't just grow on trees. Okay, they do. But there ain't no apples on the side of the mountain. SOMEBODY has to pay for them...)
Also, how is it that in the entire book, NOBODY from the top of the mountain goes down, and NOBODY from the bottom goes up? Are there two roads and Pud lives on the one less traveled? There's a whole enclave at the top of the mountain. It's where Cirin is living. You can't tell me NOBODY except an old veteran and a worm salesman in a dress travel past Pud's place... Oh, and the three women who end up killing Pud...
It just...it just doesn't make sense.
And it ruins my suspension of disbelief.
*sigh*
Still a good yarn though.
Tune in next week to see if reading Volume One has driven me mad!
Next Time: Steve, I got some answers about Hot Wacks...
11 comments:
Because this website does not reward or redeem anyone who makes the slightest entry error, I am abhorred about how my entry that was almost finished, about the second-best concert I have ever seen, got deleted. It was last night. And, then, there was the after party.
And then, meeting, briefly, both of them.
And, then, bringing home the baseball that is signed by both of them.
Yeah. No. Not Dave 'n Ger.
Although, been there, done that. (Shoulda got a baseball, though. Duh!)
i always attributed this to pud not being very practical. i see him as having some form of mental impairment (highly functional yes, but still impaired). not to say that pud is unintelligent, but he certainly only has what he has due to his mother's management and guidance over the years. pud lives a majority of his life in his head and imagination. it is the arrival of jaka and her influence on pud that becomes his primary obsession rather than the reality of the situation. It should also be an issue that pud willingly ignores the danger presented by hosting a dancer in his pub, but that too is secondary to pud's mental state.
> Are there two roads and Pud lives on the one less traveled?
There are three roads. At any given time, one is up, one is down, and the third is closed for renovations.
Really? Ya got nothin' for, like, a month, and then ya hit us with (roughly) two days-worth of readin' and lookin'? (Them are some pretty pitchers, though) And, check out them flowers!
Really, AMOC?!?
COME on, man! I mean, I got things to do!
I definitely don't see it as any kind of plotting oversight. It's reflective of Pud's fear-based character: he can't handle the responsibility of the gold coin AND doesn't want to call the attention of the authorities down on him. The storytelling logic on Jaka's Story is airtight because it's all character driven.
If you really wanted to get deeper into it, there's some question as to what exactly happened with the financial system in Iest when the Cirinists took over - who, all allegories aside, are a foreign occupying power. One would assume they'd do away with the existing monetary system and instead implement their own which would (following what we've seen of their philosophy) place less emphasis on private wealth and debt. But that's not so much of a plot hole as it is an unexplored narrative avenue.
And while Pud may be aware of his dire financial straits, the point of the internal monologues are reflective of his endless obsessing about Jaka. The monologue where he details his debt is him exploring the possibilities of guilting Jaka into 'loving' him - and it's not developed further, since Jaka actually shows some awareness here and pays up in cash on what she acknowledges are her debts.
Ten points for Dave K!
Yup. Good on yer, Dave!
Having said that, "Jaka's Story" is one of the greatest "in-your-face" stories (not just comic-book stories) of all time.
Of course, to understand it completely, you also have to read "Going Home". "Form & Void" helps.
DVS, indeed.
"Also, how is it that in the entire book, NOBODY from the top of the mountain goes down, and NOBODY from the bottom goes up?"
People come and go throughout the story. Oscar is away for the first third, then comes home. Rick is going to "the market" to look for a job wherever that is, but obviously not in the small space where Jaka's Story takes place. Pud obviously gets his fruit from somewhere, either via travelling to a market or by way of travelling merchants. Lord Julius (or the like-a-look) makes an appearance. The veteran shows up towards the end and, of course, the Cirinists obviously show up as well. Not to mention Cerebus himself. For dramatic purposes, the dramatis personae is intentionally limited. It's a storytelling technique. For an isolated patch of nothing on the side of a mountain, it's actually quite busy.
Pud is too stupid to take advantage of the gold coin. He's not as smart as Dino, who knows exactly what to do with it.
The other posters have mostly reflected my own thoughts on this plot point. The only thing I'll add is that Cerebus' thinking had also changed between Pud's and Dino's. At Pud's, all he wanted was to buy an ale - he had no idea of the "power of it" that having a gold piece in his possession represented. At Dino's he had begun to get the "power of it" and was using it to purchase a life of leisure, not just an ale. So yes, Dino's business acumen far surpassed Pud's, but also Cerebus' proposal to the two tavern owners was radically different.
I hope the Legion of Sim Sycophants has "un-ruined" JS for you, Matt.
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