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READS

                                            February 20, 1996                   

About "Reads", an arc of Dave Sim's "Cerebus":

"All stories are true."

And even science is just a collection of stories.

What a boring premise set of premises... nothing
matters, nothing is real, nothing is worth much
of anything... What kind of story would you base
on premises like this?  Why would you want to
read it?

It is certainly difficult to find rational
argument in support of the rational worldview,
but disproving the emotional/esthetic/?
worldview on it's own terms seems quite easy...
                                               
            What is up with Sim?  Arguing for this     
            kind of bullshit in the first half of      
            Reads, and then suddenly switching to      
            being an advocate of Thought and           
            Principle (the "Male light" vs. the        
            "Female void") in the latter half.         
                                                       
            And anyone who disagrees with him has    
            had their brains sucked out by women?    


The question on everyone's mind: is he serious?

It seems that way, but then there a number of nods in the
opposite direction.

While he is making a number of apparently autobiographical
remarks, he is not using his own name, but that of Victor
Davis.

There are a number of remarks prefacing the apparently
autobiographical fragments about how the autobiographical
material does not quite seem true in retrospect.  The
possibility of being able to tell a "true" story, is
repeatedly called into question (though most often in an
indirect way, with the assertion that "all stories are
true").

Early in reads, we begin following the career of "Victor
Reid".  Does "Victor Reid"'s career serve as an object
lesson in support of the ranting of "Victor Davis" about the
Male light/Female void?  The answer is "No", not at all.
Reid has a female companion/collaborator who actually seems
to be very encouraging about doing some work that promises
to be better and deeper than anything he's done before.  He
abandons it because of financial pressure from his
publisher... and he's not under financial pressure so much
because he has an ex-wife and a mistress, but because he's
been partying his advance away.

Also note that Victor Reid is subject to fits where the
"anti-Reid" comes out, and he indulges in some vicious
misogynistic ranting... foreshadowing the end of the book
where Victor Davis indulges in the same sort of ranting?

There are also some silly games where the author claims he's
secretly planning on killing the book by issue 200, and then
goes back to asserting it won't be finished before issue
300.  I think the point here is that (a) the author's
assertions are unreliable (b) the author likes to piss
people off.

And previously, we've seen many characters introduced as the
Voice of Truth who are later undermined by later Voices of
Truth... (The Judge for example).

So the narrator is not exactly reliable.
Difficult as it might seem... never turn
down an absurd premise, I always say.
                   
                   
                   Perhaps a more interesting question:   
                   Will Dave Sim ever get laid ever again?
                                                          
                   I would say "probably".                
          
             
       (Actually, Dave Sims public commentary     
       post-READS seems to indicate he really does       
       believe all the heavy misogynistic stuff.       
       Weird.)                                    
   

     Not all stories are true.
                              
     Some stories are crooked.
                              
     Some stories are twisted.

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