Friday, October 21, 2011

"Dreams"

 When I found myself wanting to blog more, the first thing that I thought about was the comic strip “Dreams” from xkcd. Xkcd is “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language” that I can’t really stand. I would not say that I necessarily hate Randell Munroe’s xkcd, because that would be like hating the local mom and pop record store; they are doing what they want to do with lives in businesses that are profitable against the scaling odds against them. The problem I have with xkcd is that it encourages a sort of child-like, nerdish optimism about life that I just find rubs me the wrong way. I try not to mind other people enjoying it but whenever someone posts it online or quotes from it, I find myself having to suppress an urge to go “WHYYYYYY!”

Perhaps it just says more about me than anything. I just feel that the brand of humor Mr. Monroe shows on xkcd isn’t really funny because it doesn’t really reflect how I see the world or reflect on any sort of truth. The world of xkcd seems to be a world were nerds and smart people can outsmart and be witty about everything around them, to the delight of everyone. In the end, it feels fake to me. Humor without truth to me isn’t really funny. Also, without truth, it fails to be really insightful, or really have any point to me all together. Sometimes it feels like it just wants to be “cool,” and as Patton Oswald said, “The enemy of comedy is cool.”

But, let me show the strip in question


In the strip “Dreams” (note: I have censored it for the sake of work safety, but you can view the original at http://xkcd.com/137/) it starts off with one bumpy headed guy warning the Smooth headed guy to be careful what he writes on the internet because a future employer might read it. The guy at the computer then asks “When did we forget our dreams?” which the bumpy haired one asks “What?” and then the sitting stick figure stands up and launches into a rant about he has been living in loops and doesn’t want to water down his ideas just to fit in. The rant ends with a “F#&K THAT S&%T” in order to contrast to the intellectual sounding speech before it.

It is hard for me to read this comic strip and not think, “Poor bumpy head guy.” As far as I can tell, here is this well meaning guy, concerned about his friend/coworker/whatever so much that he goes out of his way try and make him aware that he should be conscious of everything he writes on the internet because it can be found and can be taken out of context and may hurt future career options. It is one of those things that people are finding out more and more in this digital age. The internet is super convenient, but that convenience comes at a cost. It is almost too easy to write whatever you want, and there is no context, no policing, or whatever to help you figure out what is appropriate and what is not. It is so easy to sound like a complete jerk on the internet, and unlike real life, there can sometimes be a complete lack of signs to tell you that you are making a huge social mistake.

So instead of appreciating this advice and taking it in the vein it was given in, he launches into his whole rant as if the bumpy headed man himself is to blame for the smooth headed guy’s perceived wrong, as if the bumpy head one is the guy forcing him to “fit into the mold.” I assume that the “what?” the bumpy guy asks is supposed to be an inquiry of the meaning behind the Smooth head guy’s words, but I read it as more of a “What did I do to deserve this.” Smooth head guy even goes as far as to assume exactly what the bumpy head guy is thinking (“And no, I don’t know all the answers”) and in the end feels comfortable enough with his position to use expletives. It is the kind of thing that makes me wonder what the next line in that dialog would have been...

Smooth Head Guy: F&%K THAT S&$T
Bumpy Head Guy: Uh...okay. Well, I am just saying that some people might find your thesis on the morals of having relations with dolphins may be misunderstood by most people, and I just thought I might want to give you a heads up. I will leave you alone now.

And in the end, that is really why I don’t like xkcd. Just because you are nerd and might be technically right (he is supported by freedom of speech after all) that doesn’t mean that you should. It is a big distinction that in the real social world has no real easy answers. It is that sort of ambiguity and the struggle to try and figure out what is the right thing to do, if there is a right thing to do, that I feel is a fertile ground for both comedy and insight. The way that xkcd tries to simplify and just not care about those ambiguities by dismissing any urge to censor himself is just sort of boring to me. Sure, limiting yourself for the sake of others is not the way to blossom creatively, but not even going through the process of thinking that what you send out into the world can define you feels very lazy to me.

In the end, every blogger (myself included) has to come to grips that they are writing for an audience and the various limits that someone who writes on the internet has to put themselves through can actually be very helpful. Someone who is creative has to find an audience to listen to them and finding that audience, and finding the balance between defining your audience through your work or your audience defining your work is a very tricky one to navigate sometimes. I find myself being thankful that my parents read my work because while it does not force my subject matter, it does force me to try to write articulately enough that at least the heart of the work can be shown through even if not all the context is understood. It is a big reason why, even though editors are hated by many a writer, it is those same editors that can make a good piece, into a great piece.

Xkcd may not invoke any truth in me, but I am sure that it invokes humor out of somebody out there. Just one thing: if you have to rant about how your work life is watering down your dreams, please leave us socially conscious bumpy headed guys out of it.

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