Show within a show (within a show?)

So longtime readers know that occasionally I like to experiment with Zombie Ranch, which I conceived as a fairly straightforward story — except when it isn’t. Media interludes abound, sometimes in a single page and sometimes occupying entire segments of a given episode. Are you seeing real life as it happens? Real-life but edited and pre-recorded? Is it possible that if you pulled out far enough you’d see Suzie & co. on a soundstage and every bit of what you’ve seen would all turn out to be a lie? Nested in a whole nest of lies? A “lieception,” if you will?

I don’t think I’d ever go that far since it would arguably cheapen the whole experience, the way I often get angry at the “It was all a dream!” cliche if I’ve just spent two hours of my life invested in a movie. But “Wild” Will was fair game and not someone I believe I’ve presented in such a way that the reveal his adventures might be at least partly faked would be a huge shocker.

Still, it puts me in mind once again of that infamous art piece called “The Treachery of Images” by surrealist painter René Magritte, as pictured here:

“Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”

“This is not a pipe.”

A thoughtful reminder that no matter how authentic the image of a thing might be, it is not the thing. Yet we hear stories and watch them and read them and our minds and emotions can be swayed into the illusion of reality. I inevitably still get choked up at the ending of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan despite knowing on some level that “Ceci n’est pas une Spock.” Leonard Nimoy has been quoted in interviews as being grateful for his signature role but also mentions at least one tragic occasion where a mother thought he could heal her sick child with his Vulcan touch, and how heartbreaking it was that she had put her hopes in an illusion.

But there you have the matter of degrees. It’s almost an academic distinction for me to declare the “Wild” Will Show fake and the Zombie Ranch show real, because both are technically figments of my (and Dawn’s) imagination. And on the other hand, it makes all the difference because maybe one of those pipes is the one you much more feel you could reach out and grab.