The insider perspective

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Clint

Are you self-centered?

Take a moment to think about your answer. Even for the most empathic of us, I would venture to suggest that “feeling someone else’s pain” remains a figure of speech rather than anything literal. We make our best guesses based on the feedback we receive, and react accordingly.

To put it bluntly (so to speak), there is no way I am going to know exactly how it felt for you when you stub your toe in front of me. At best, I will wince in sympathy by equating to that time I stubbed my toe, and recalling that man, that really sucked. I’m coming at your pain from my experience. And if I’ve somehow managed to avoid stubbing my toe for my entire life, then I’m having to find something else that seems to come closest… maybe banging my elbow?

Everyone starts and ends with the self. It’s not the same thing as saying we are all selfish, because selflessness can and does occur — but feeding your children before yourself, or rescuing strangers from a burning building still doesn’t bridge the islands of consciousness. We approach other people and the world from the ultimate insider perspective. Our own.

As Keanu Reeves might say: Whoa.

But seriously, I have this notion that the creative arts are our way of trying to reach out across those gaps that separate us. Anyone can dream, but the greatest artists are the ones who can make the best use of whatever their chosen medium or media might be to share their dreams with others. They can communicate that stubbed toe in such a vivid way that we not only recognize it from our own experience but can’t help but get a pang in our own foot. Or at least our elbow.

The insider perspective, brought out for all to see.

5 thoughts on “The insider perspective”

  1. JanBic

    I am sorry but I am dropping this strip from my reading list.
    While it was very entertaining to read from the beginning, I find it very difficult to maintain any continuity with a once a week update — especially when Wednesday comes and the update is not posted.

    There really is no excuse. Look at Aaron Neathery’s Endtown–full time work, medical problems, and still manages outstanding art and story five days a week.

  2. governorchad

    While I can understand dropping a webcomic from your reading list due to (relatively) infrequent updates, I don’t really understand the impulse to inform the artist about it. Or to start comparing them to other artists, ironically as a comment on a blog post about empathy and self-centeredness.

    Just keep doin’ your thing, Clint!

  3. Clint

    I think JanBic posted it here (and copy-pasted to the previous page) because for whatever reason this blog popped up first once our hosting service stopped being a bum, while I had to manually jink the comic once I got up.

    And now I’m off to work, but isn’t Aaron Neathery’s full-time job as a cartoonist? Or it seems like it used to be, anyhow. Dawn has expressed many times how she would love just being able to draw all day, especially if she was getting paid for it. Not to mention being able to do just black and white, it’s amazing how much time even simple coloring can suck up. I won’t let her stop, though, for I am a harsh mistress.

    Any words I can write are not much solace if you demand a more frequent schedule from your webcomics, though, so all I can express in that case is thank you for being entertained this far, and godspeed in your entertainment future.

  4. Andrew

    Clint and Dawn,
    Thank you for putting in the work and taking the time each week to bring us all an entertaining story and insightful commentary, all free of charge. I, and I’m sure the rest of your readers appreciate the effort. Please keep up the excellent work.

  5. Gillsing

    “There really is no excuse.”

    Nuh uh. There is too!

    Thanks for making the comic every week! 🙂

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