I attended an environmental conference a few weeks back and this continued to be the issue of the day… no wonder environmentalists drink a lot. On another note I can’t figure out why the resolution seems off the last few cartoons. Hopefully it isn’t too hard to read.
I was flipping through a back issue of Philosophy Now the other day, when I was struck by a small piece penned by Ray Cavanaugh. The piece was about the life of Albert Camus. Look what a handsome chap he was –
Now, I don’t know much about Camus, but have read The Stranger and remember coming away from that with a disquieting sense of having learned something about the world I didn’t really want to know. The thing is, Camus seemed to specialize in the utter randomness of things; that abyss of meaninglessness that can cause one to stare morosely into one’s drink and question what the point of anything is.
What struck me about the article wasn’t its tone or tenor, but the simple description of how Camus died. On January 4, 1960, the car he was in left the road at high speed, killing him instantly at the age of 44. In his pocket was found the train ticket he hadn’t used after accepting the lift to Paris. How random this decision, and what a tragic outcome. One can only hope he would lift a glass in appreciation of this final absurdity.
On the bright side, he left us with one of the loveliest quotes ever penned: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
P.S. Ok, ok.. so I realize daylight savings was last week, but maybe this is still in keeping with the theme of it throwing off all life as one knows it. Also, I left the sketch on lined paper, thinking that if Savage Chickens can publish on post-it notes, why not… That said, I won’t be doing that again anytime soon, as the resolution didn’t work out so well. Whoops.
P.S. I had a lot of trouble with the punchline of this one. All I knew is I wanted to do something around the phrase ‘horns of dilemma’. I toyed with the the following phrasing as well…
In retrospect I’m not sure if the triceratops angle was a bit too out there. Oh well. I suppose there is irony in my little dilemma of punchlines.
P.S. Some of you might think this one seems familiar.. and you would be right! I have repurposed an old joke. I should be ashamed.. but, I wanted to use this for something else and improve the punchline and drawing. Hopefully I succeeded. The original one can be seen here in case you’d like to disagree and/or play spot the differences! And, an old oil sands rant that – alas – still holds true can be read here.
P.S. This week’s cartoon was inspired by a visit to the art treasures at the Royal Ontario Museum. A simultaneously inspiring and humbling experience. 🙂
This piece was published in the Camus issue of Philosophy Now.
Bonus for S&F followers! The Easter Egg in the strip (where easter egg refers to the gamer term for a hidden message or joke) is that the song they are singing at the end is the refrain for.. click here to find out! 🙂
This cartoon was published in the August issue of Philosophy Now. This issue focused on how we define the idea of ‘self’, which was an interesting question to think about.
So, how would you define self? 🙂
simonandfinn 