Category: comics

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Territorial

If that Stephen Hawking supported Breakthrough Listen project was any successful, and we realized there’s indeed alien life nearby, would we then finally all get together as one in-group and share the planet if we found out there was something else we could refer to as “them”?

Via WUMO

While I’m extremely excited about living in a time when life on other planets might officially be confirmed, and witnessing the reaction of the masses, I’m not certain that we have done a particularly great job here, on our own planet. If other intelligence is as mean as we have been by nature, they will be suspicious – and they will want a war. If the scientists confirm that there indeed are aliens – foil hatters, conspiration theorists and power maniacs will implode. Many won’t be able to imagine an intelligent being with more power than man, or the idea that these beings one day might decide to come over for a friendly talk. People will quote obscure randomness from Nostradamus. Churches will ring their bells. Hollywood will go bananas. I’m imagining mass hysteria and chaos.

But hey, maybe they’re not only more intelligent than we are, but also beyond primitive attitudes of violence, racism and sexism.. and will just alien-giggle at us as if we were lost kittens trying to bite our own tail.

Maybe we could learn something new.

I’m thinking of much needed sensitization campaigns:
“This American kitten was found dying, what this friendly alien did next will leave you in tears”
Cat healed. Happy music. Funny cat video. Alien and cat-owner hug. Humanity survives.

Caroline Bach1 Comment

What does the Fox say?

fox

How did I miss this? I’ve seen a million references to this online the past month but it took me until today to actually google “What does the fox say?” and find the original source. It has almost 148 million views which is very impressive as it doesn’t include nudity, violence or, actually, any sort of substance. Anyway, it’s being watched and enjoyed by millions so it’s obviously brilliant in one way or another. Who am I to judge?

No matter how insanely ridiculous and sometimes rude and politically incorrect today’s pop culture is, I love what the Internet does to creativity and humour. Reddit, 9gag and other online never-ending flows of ideas, references and meme spin-offs show that today’s kids really like playing word-games, show off their talents, and come up with hilariousness and well crafted, often inappropriate, sarcasm. Keeping up with the updates is almost impossible with the thousands of references and meme personalities out there – it’s a new culture of humour, a global uncensored forum open for anybody to contribute to, get recognition from and inspire other people at. It’s a different kind of intelligence, requiring innovation, quick ideas, a skill in digging up relevant images, and a broad sense of humour and general knowledge. One can’t just sell anything anymore, as you have to compete with the entire world for the likes and votes. It’s participatory, democratic and inclusive, and these kids are ingenious – a wonderful (and of course time consuming) trend.

One of my favourite memes are the spiderman comics with fake titles. This is what I do between all the seriousness. Laugh at sarcasm and looping references. Once a nerd, always a nerd, and I feel this is for keeping myself in the loop of humour. If that requires me to know what the fox says, I now do.

mustashesspidey swing

spiderman floor is lavaspidey french

mama9gag

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Nuts

Here’s “Town of Cats” which is an excerpt from Murakami’s latest book: 1Q84 from 2009. Published in The New Yorker on September 5th, 2011.

I’m not a huge fan of Murakami and the japanese litterature I have come across, I find the stories too similar and don’t identify enough with the supernatural parts in them – they are pretty, but not engaging. Kobo Abe’s Woman in the Dunes is a wonderfully amazing exception though, also packed with subliminal cultural codes, loneliness, banal simplicity and a touch of surrealism – but brilliantly so.

Comic from always funny Wulff & Morgenthaler.

Caroline BachLeave a comment

Nude text

picture: xkcd.com

Dina läppar söker mina och dina ögon släpper mig inte med blicken och då orden inte räcker fram, intet längre betyder – älskar vi. Du biter mig och kysser mig och håller i mig så hårt att jag ska slippa tänka på något annat. Mina händer är vilda och jag ser på dem som vore de någon annans. Vi älskar varandra till vansinne. Täcket över våra huvuden ska skydda oss mot världen, det tror vi. Våra kyssar ska kväva den sorg vi bär på, det tror vi. Vi tror det. Medan mörkret äter våra kroppar så tror jag det. Jag trodde det. Jag trodde det uppriktigt. Med dig, med dig vet jag inte längre..

Barbara Voors – Älskade du (1990)

It’s been almost 4 years since I last quoted Barbara Voors. I found my old blog which brought me back to moments I had forgotten to love, and lovestories I had chosen to forget the essense of.

There they are, all hidden where nobody can find them, embedded in naked text and poems, cheesy little metaphors and codes that only I know how to decipher completely. I miss the nudity of my writing, the absurd level of self-disclosure that I used to entertain myself with. The part of having an audience makes it all different, much more interesting and more beautiful than just writing a personal diary, it forced me to somehow write in code. Even if it in the end was naked and open enough to be banned from my current public life..

Now I’m here, posting clean little updates, photos and music, and sometimes some heavily coded little line for myself. No nakedness, no vulnerability, no cheesy pretentiousness. It’s still me, but in a more clean version, a covered one. I miss the nakedness but it most probably wont be back for a while. The general audience has no mercy so I am keeping my metaphors and nudity to myself.

Good night