Clock radio

[frameacloud]

At that sleep-addled time, I thought what they meant was that a profound question was being raised (in what seemed to be remarkably concise terms) about whether true reality can exist in some parts of an entity and not others, rather than being all one thing or the other. It questioned which qualities of a person are ephemeral figments of subjective perception and are essentially fake and with only an superficial suggestion of merit, and which qualities are of a genuine substance and objective experience and are truly part of a person rather than something placed upon them. The question itself was whether we have any way of accurately discerning between the real and artificial, since our ability to perceive is so subjective. The other philosopher on the radio replied (also in remarkably concise terms) that to what extent our existence is entirely real or a product of the imaginations of ourselves or other beings is unknowable within our own mortal scope, because our subjective experiences are exactly what prevent us from communicating with one another to share what those experiences are in order to construct an idea of what objective reality actually is, and so due to that obstacle, it will remain a mystery for as long as we can be concerned. Are her boobs fake or real? What of any person can be said to be assuredly fake or real? It's a question for the ages.

It didn't even strike me how overly-important of stuff I was getting out of that shallow celebrity gossip until after I'd gotten out of bed. I burst out laughing.


This past year, I've tended to devote more of my creative energies into making an illustrated journal, full of rants, sketches, meditations, jokes, attempts at sorting out my spirituality, and anything else about my personal life that needs to be drawn out in the form of a cartoon. That comic-journal is completely private, since I've found that if I don't censor myself and don't have to worry about how other people would see it, don't have to worry about something being too scribbly or arguable or personal, I'm getting farther with discovering my writing-voice. It just seems to work better when I can be as brashly honest as I want, as well as combining illustrations and text together instead of having them separate. It's been a marvelous exercise. When I drew this particular entry in it last morning (which was something that actually happened) I decided this one ought to be shared.

How do you feel about some (but not all) episodes of "Theri There" being a cartoon journal of a real therianthrope's life, and other interjections such as an episode with a joke about (say) Arthurian legends, rather than all the episodes having to deal directly with defining therianthropy in general? Must they all be exclusively, completely on-topic (even more so than most discussion forums about therianthropy or draconity tend to be, which tend to wander in any direction that interests the members, to such an extent that alt.fan.dragons said that nothing was off-topic for them at all)? Or can the idea of "on-topic" be broadened to include other topics that I feel are related to it? I was starting to feel like it was too limiting, even though I do have a lot of material for it, I have all these other comic ideas as well. What do you think, should they all be together in "Theri There," or should it stay strict with what's considered on-topic?

Comments

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I say, it's your strip, you're free to do whatever you want with it :}.

Anyway, I can totally relate to the clock radio thing.

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

IAWTC

[cryptodragon.livejournal.com]

Agreed with this. It looks like it could be quite entertaining to see what you pull from your life. It makes it feel just a little less contrived.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I like digressions; just don't get lost in them.

[lunar-dragoness.livejournal.com]

Well, you describe it as a comic "by, for, and about therianthropes and otherkin," and I think excerpts from the life of an actual therianthrope would certainly fall under that description. So, really, I'd say that it already would be on-topic even as the topic is currently described.

[makuus.livejournal.com]

All of the above firmly seconded... and I unanimous in that.

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

I agree with all that's been said.

[tyrantwurm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what everyone else said.

By definition, anything anything that's happened in your (or any other otherkin's) life is "on topic" for the comic, if nothing else because you woueld be looking at the events through "dragon-colored glasses."

I've said this in other places, but it nbears repeating: there is only so much room for weighty spiritual discussion.

Whatever you end up doing, I'll still read it.

[genmaicha.livejournal.com]

I quite like it. :)

[draci.livejournal.com]

If you're curious enough to ask these questions (and mayhap in doing so, lean away from either extreme), I think you may already have a feeling for what's best. (Cue general agreement with the comments above.)

Personally though, I think it's good to waver. More interesting even, in the end. If you have a surplus of Serious Ideas, you could do several weeks of topical stuff. But in between, I think a lot of people would appreciate the levity. And since (IMHO) the best jokes and stories germinate in truthful soil, some of them will be inspiring for next time. :)

I smiled at the dragon. Zir beautiful pencilling strikes me as an overlooked opportunity of webcomics—and I have basically the same problem. Except I've gotten extremely good at jumping up to switch these things off in a half-sleep daze, especially if loud or offensive. I've even learned to do this with two or three alarms. It's like swatting flies!

[keithsdragons.livejournal.com]

I think it's the honesty we most appreciate, though the beauty of your art must come in close second. *pets affecionately*

And if you wish to avoid "muddling" the strictly philosophical plotline of "Theri There", your other entries could easily be their own comic. I certainly wouldn't expect any objection to your sharings, as we all really appreciate your work.

I'm amazed!

[mbala.livejournal.com]

I have so far seen only one webcomic where the injections of author's personal life and opinions disgusted me to the point that I considered to stop reading the thing whatsoever. It was not because the strips were off-topic, it was because they were so insulting.

Somehow I do not think this can possibly happen to you, so I vote for extending the strip whichever way you please. :)

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I'd rather see whatever strikes your fancy; I think your episodes will come more easily if they're simply about what's on your mind, regardless of whether that's specific to therianthropy. My favorite piece so far is the one about "teacup longevity," which has nothing to do with therianthropy, but it's really cute.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

What They All Said. :) And I'm very glad to read that your private journal project is helping you find your voice, even if it means that I'll never get to read most of it. Wonderful things happen when nobody else is watching...

[howlingsorrows.livejournal.com]

Personally I think that you should go for it- I mean these are your strips. Although I do enjoy the strips are are directly related to the subjects that are being portraid, there is always a right time to go off topic or to play out an issue that doesn't neccisarily stick to the normal subject matter. May it be therians, otherkin, ect. our lives spiritually may be different from others but it doesn't change our lives to the point that we don't deal with daily issues that others do. So I guess what I'm saying is that even if you post something that may be off topic, there will still be people that will relate and talk about what you decide to post.

Speak your mind *smiles*

Oh and sorry about my really bad spelling lol

[v-dragon.livejournal.com]

First off, ditto and what they all say.

(first time poster here)

Second, I just love the pose ! It just so koot :)

[pretender-katt.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the reason I don't have a radio alarm clock lol.

[arethinn]

"How do you feel about some (but not all) episodes of "Theri There" being a cartoon journal of a real therianthrope's life,"

I think that's a really cool idea. Not just "ok", I think it would in fact be an enhancement.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

I think go for it. :)

[kistaro]

I'm glad to hear that the personal journal is working out well for you. I wonder if I should try something similar- a lot of things happen that I want to make LiveJournal posts about, but I never get around to doing it, even though I have some idea what I want to say. I just don't get around to writing it. But I have the feeling that even if I only wrote it for myself, I wouldn't find myself writing any more than I do- it's a matter of available time and procrastination, mostly procrastination.

I wouldn't mind more Theri There like this at all! For pretty much all the reasons everybody else gave, and I always find it interesting to see more perspectives, on almost anything from almost anyone. (I figured it'd be lying without the "almost" in there, although I can't think of many good counterexamples.)

As for the content itself- I've taken a lot of things as much more complicated than they actually are, without the excuse of being more-than-half asleep at the time. Probably the best example I can give of that was the first time I saw the Flash-based music video of "The Terrible Secret of Space". I have since learned that the song and video are just a reference to an AIM prank pulled by Lowtax of SomethingAwful, but lacking that information the first time I saw it, I interpreted it as a clever political sattire in which the Pusher Robot and the Shover Robot represented the Republican and Democratic parties (without any notes as to which is which); the two elements seemed to be in violent and enthusiastic opposition to each other to anybody who asks, but when push comes to shove, they really have the same goals, and they are to nobody's possible benefit except their own- all couched in the most vague of fearmongering excuses.

You took a couple minutes to realize your error. It took me at least a year and a half.

I think the really funny part is that it still seems like a perfectly plausible interpretation, even more so now that I've had a few Philosophy courses. I'm very tempted to write my analysis of the song/video in this light, then get someone to post a link to it on the SomethingAwful forums (and play dumb; I would, for my part, do my best not to let on that I do indeed know better) just to see what happens. Maybe some time I'm in a more tricksterly mood and have enough free time!

[frameacloud]

That kind of thing, finding onesself with a clear understanding of a source that later turns out to have been just an interesting interpretation that hadn't necessarily been intended... it seems to me that's the kind of thing that a lot of (though not all) religious and denominational conflicts are about.

As a child, I was shocked when I first found out there were so many different denominations/sects/religions of Christianity, even though they were all using mostly the same text, when one of the points of having a text is to help keep things constant. Sometimes the variations are thought to have emerged from changes in translation, or from times where people had to rely primarily on oral tradition, but even when people were using the same version of the Bible, they could still get radically different impressions out of the same exact verse, to such an extent that they might use it as justification to split into a different denomination, and maybe even to do drastic things over it.

The same or similar thing happens with most any religion, and with other things as well, such as political and legal matters, and in fandoms, since it probably always happens whenever a group puts a lot of weight on a text. There's only so much that words can do for expressing a specific, unambiguous concept.

The curious thing is that a lot of the differing interpretations are equally interesting, plausible, functional, coherent, and thought-provoking. It's like getting several Bibles out of one, as if words could do the same thing as that optical illusion that can either look like a pair of faces or a cup. For an extreme example, there's the fairly common Christian interpretation where the serpent in Eden represents the devil seeking to cause the fall of humankind (as was beautifully put into poetry in Paradise Lost). Then there's the Gnostic interpretation where the serpent in Eden is the Holy Ghost, seeking to liberate humankind from ignorance, like Prometheus bringing fire to the people, even though it would mean his own tragic sacrifice and torment. The Gnostics got an entirely different story out of it, where the serpent has different motivations, goals, and is basically a different person altogether (villain or hero) but they were reading the same book. It's amazing.

We probably do things like that all the time, even when totally awake and reading carefully, but it only tends to get mentioned and turn out to be different when people are discussing a source together that they find very important, whether it's a religious text or a popular movie. One's interpretation gets taken for granted until it's either reviewed in one's head and checked for plausibility, or until it's mentioned to another person who is familiar with the source and they compare it to their own interpretation.

[valkyriur.livejournal.com]

It didn't even strike me how overly-important of stuff I was getting out of that shallow celebrity gossip until after I'd gotten out of bed. I burst out laughing.

This exact thing has happened to me a few times. Talk radio is on all the stations I listen to in the mornings on Sundays. On the rare occassion I have to work Sundays, I end up getting incredibly "deep" thoughts from what I would normally snark at.

[frameacloud]

Maybe that's part of how perception works when one is in that phase of almost-waking: not only does everything seems profound and meaningful, but judgement is switched off, and that's part of why everything seems so awestriking: because snark mode is disabled.

Then again, I've mumbled some amazingly rude and cynical things in response to things on the clock radio when I was in that very same frame of mind, so maybe judgement doesn't switch off during it after all.

[draco18s.livejournal.com]

*Reads comic backwards accidentally*
*Laughs after reading the bit at the top*
I know that feeling, wish I could remember a particular example, but ussually it comes in the form of my trying to solve some kind of problem and working out this brilliant solution in the dream state or somewhere-between-there-and-here state.
Of course, it never works. }:=3)

More stuff like this would be fine, I'm just glad that there's something to read once in a while.

*Ponders doing something like a comic journal--if anything of note ever happens in his life*

[redskyedragon.livejournal.com]

I dont know about the philosophical stuff, Talk Radio usually serves to send me TO sleep, not wake me, but you are so cute in that picture it is beyond words!

Take the comic in any direction you feel you want to. It all has meaning.

[drakocrowley.livejournal.com]

The comic is yours to do with as you please, but I wouldn't mind seeing other journal-comics.

I used to use a radio-alarm clock, but stopped, because I'd just absorb whatever is on the radio into my dreams. One in particular I remember, the current song that was playing (listen to your heart by roxette) was the theme song for credits from a movie. The movie involved two lion cubs (like Simba and Nala when they were young), where the female was captured, and the other cub had to rescue her. I remember, during the start of the credits, the two cubs were bouding away into the starry sky.

Also, that drawing of you is very cute. ^ ^

[klitaka.livejournal.com]

For good or ill, I've done similar in waking and in sleeping to talk radio.

Such ideas as Therianthropy are, by their very nature, intensely philosophical. To grasp the reasoning and thought behind it is more of the art of philosophy by one individual as it is understood by that individual. As such, it is relatively different for each person in relation to the lens of their experience and philosophy.

You cannot tell of Therianthropy without using your own philosophy as a guide, and as such, even a comic that is generally about the concept will be flavoured with your own ideas; your own identity as a Therian is intensely a part of what you write. And insight into the little thoughts that one has throughout the day is a wonderful way to see the philosophy applied to the small matters of life.

Please, if you enjoy this and find it wort your own while, continue to do this if only as a good way to figure out your own philosophy and voice; I do enjoy brief windows such as this.

[nicked-metal.livejournal.com]

If people want something other than what you feel like producing, they can either do it themselves or offer you something in return. Besides, if 'otherkin are people too' then maybe they don't spend all their time pondering the issues of 'being otherkin'. A balanced portrayal should include the fact that race is often completely irrelevant.

[weirgreif.livejournal.com]

"The babble-on project was the last, best hope for on-topic posts. It failed."

I like...reading basically everything you write, so my opinion is not that of a discerning viewer. }:>

[pumott.livejournal.com]

Heh, well while I can't say as I've ever had an auditory episode such as you've described there, I have on occaision heard people say things they didn't say, or see things that weren't grounded in enoug in this reality.
As far as what you should and shouldn't do with this comic wether it be gag-a-day, or philosphical, a sketch pad, illustrated personal journal, or something of note that one of us said on here. I say, one: Why limit yourself? and two: I don't feel I have enough authority to tell you what to do and not to do.

[solarbird]

I have NPR on, because of the same problem with music, and because I suspect celebrity gossip would give me nightmares in the same way that soap operas did. (Days of our Lives: most horrifying, nightmare-inducing television programme evar. A housemate of mine used to watch it. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.)