A Softer World

[osprey_archer]

Does anyone read A Softer World? I've seen it linked around a few places, but I always seemed to hit on the endless zombie entries (lots of zombie entries. I am so tired of zombies. They just won't die), or the peculiar stalking entries, or the nihilist suicide strips.

But yesterday I ended up going through the whole archive (yes, I need to get a life), and there's also some great stuff in there. This one made my giggle: I am the fluffy singularity. Yay cats! And I liked this one very much.

This is my favorite:



Possibly this should be my new motto.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That one is **excellent**.

I have one on my wall--that I bought when amanen and I went to a reading given by Joey Comeau:

It goes:

Judge if you want.
We are all going to die.
I intend to deserve it.

with the rollover text saying, "My last words will be, 'Yeah, I had that coming.'"

I suppose maybe it's among the nihilistic ones, but I see it more as being an encouragement to live life really fully and to take risks and not be constrained, etc.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It is nihilist, but while "We're all going to die" is maybe a little depressing, it's also undeniably true. Sometimes we need memento mori in our lives to get us up off the couch and doing.

It's the "We're all going to die. Suicide just makes it happen faster" strips that strike me, as, well, really a little unhealthy? Not so much on an individual level, but the sheer cumulative weight of so many strips about suicide. Like, if one of my friends started writing that much suicide poetry, even if she was also writing lots of other stuff, I would be concerned about her.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he definitely has a dark streak to him. I prefer the humorous ones, or the ones like the one you've chosen here.

[amanen.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same reaction to A Softer World. For the longest time I just found ones that were depressing or straight out bizarre, but one day I went through the whole archive and I ended up really liking a lot of the strips.

I think maybe he was less happy in the past, because he doesn't really seem to have such dark strips so much anymore. I can't think of my favorites right now because there are lots I liked, but DEFINITELY the ones you linked to and posted. Especially the one you posted hit me. I guess a lot of kids imagine being a hero in a far off magical land, but still.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it's a pretty common fantasy. What I like about the strip is that it suggests that even if I can't be a hero in a fantasy land, I can at least be useful here.

...okay, I guess technically it says that it's too late for that to happen. But really, it's never too late.