Comments on: What is real? A short disquisition.

By: woodstock

woodstock — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:49:14 +0000

You consider Doublespeak a humor failure? I guess I’ve just been living inside the Beltway too long; for me it has the audacity to speak truth in a way that is so shocking your only choice is to laugh otherwise you’ll breakdown crying and eat an entire back of Doublestuf Oreos in 10 minutes. Then again, I’ve been told that my sense of humor is rather arid so I’m probably not the norm.

By: Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 03:17:50 +0000

A conversation that veers from a dildo named Mr. Darcy to the need for more public education about the environmental causes of cancer. Can I just say, I love you guys?

By: mlk

mlk — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 21:26:40 +0000

shadocat, you’re right that Americans don’t pay much attention to the causes of cancer. I believe there’s something of a shell game going on here. we’re told to change the things over which we have some measure of control — eat a healthy diet w/plenty of anti-oxidants, exercise, drink pure water, quit smoking and avoid second hand smoke, abstain from sex or practice safe sex/monogamy to avoid HPV and cervical cancer — but there’s no discussion about WHY filtering water is a health concern. or about how air pollution has done more to damage health than to increase asthma in children. or how the way that our food is grown and processed affects its healthfulness. examining and addressing the causes of cancer will require a stronger commitment to public education and changing the way we do business in the U.S.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:58:01 +0000

A friend of mine has a dildo called Mr Darcy…

By: Chip

Chip — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:53:53 +0000

Wow, a lot of responses.

I just wanted to say that, having been a DC Comics fan in the late ’60s and ’70s when the Superman Family comics would frequently feature “imaginary stories” (sort of a redundancy), I had no trouble wrapping my brain around the concept of this episode, or the others that have momentarily ignored continuity for the sake of political allegory (or whatever).

So, you see, I was effectively trained for this by those fantastical stories in which Superman and Lois Lane actually got married and/or had a child, or whatever — story lines that (in those days) we *knew* could never happen, since nothing was ever allowed to change in the Superman universe. (My, how things have changed since then.)

By: shadocat

shadocat — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:11:46 +0000

Yeah, can’t believe I totally blanked on the kitty diabetes (is it Virginia or Vanessa?)

I do love these “breaks from reality” strips–”Backstage” is one of my favorites (MO polishing her toenails and smoking, bitching someone out over the phone-priceless!) But thinking about past strips has some how made me ponder some real life questios more strongly than I otherwise would have before.

I read the blog about Tee and remebered the strip where Mo and Syd went to “Race For The Cure”. Someone (I think Sydney) wondered why there wasn’t more attention and research being done to find the CAUSE for cancer. I don’t know if Tee ever smoked, but other than that, it seems only curosory (that may be spelled wrong) research has been done to find other causes…everything see geared toward “the cure”. You wouldn’t believe how many people I know, and have known, with cancer. Some never smoked a day in their lives.

One more, and then I promise I’m done. Did anyone see Peter Jennings’ last report, last week on ABC, about the spread of AIDS in the black community? I went home, grabbed my battered “Indelible” book and found a panel (from 1988, for Chrissakes!) that stuck in my memory–Mo was stating “74% of all women with AIDS are women of color!” It is now 2006, and the powers that be are just NOW figuring this out?

Thank you for letting me rant.

By: mlk

mlk — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:32:12 +0000

Mo’s cats are getting older . . . Sydney wasn’t at Mo’s graduation from library school because Mo didn’t trust a cat sitter to give one of the kitties shots. at the end of one of the strips, she’s stuck her hand w/a syringe!

I believe the poor feline is diabetic, but am not sure.

By: Danyell

Danyell — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 05:27:27 +0000

I too think Double-Think is very amusing. The not-so-subtle analogies are great, but it still ties into important character behaviours and story-lines.

Yes, I do think “our mutual friend” IS the best name for an English professor’s dildo.

And I totally appreciate the need for “speculative” episodes, as you call them.

And yes, I guess I did just comment on your post in reverse.

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 23:32:04 +0000

Like anybody’s going to read comment number 47, but I always think of this kind of episode as though the usual characters are actors and this is a special episode where they are doing a farce. And I think sometimes Alison does literally portray the characters as actors, like when they take time out to complain about the story lines, etc.
And I’ve always loved Alison’s use of silhouettes. Jesus, I hope I spelled that right. Could cause another 46 comments.

By: Andrew Ogus

Andrew Ogus — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:45:33 +0000

This sequence of comments made me laugh out loud almost as much as the original strip. I think “Canonical Dykes to Watch OUt For” is a great title!

As i recall Mo’s cats were healthy but Mo was just characteristically EXTREMELY fussy about their feeding (I remember her telling poor Harriet to mix yeast INTO the food etc. as Harriet rolled her eyes). But they must be awfully old. Digger did pass on, after all. (I’m not advocating cat death either, let me hasten to add, but one good thing about the strip is that the characters age and change).