I met Death today. We are playing Calvinball.
February 18, 2021 12:05 PM Subscribe
What a beautiful little story. I love how Calvin and Hobbes is still inspiring people, and try not to think that Calvin would be in his mid-30s by now.
posted by skullhead at 12:44 PM on February 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by skullhead at 12:44 PM on February 18, 2021 [5 favorites]
That was very sweet and enjoyable.
One point of order, though. Hobbes doesn't purr. He growls friendly-like.
posted by biogeo at 1:28 PM on February 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
One point of order, though. Hobbes doesn't purr. He growls friendly-like.
posted by biogeo at 1:28 PM on February 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
[Useless] Spoiler Warning. Makes you think about The Game.
posted by tiamat at 2:05 PM on February 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by tiamat at 2:05 PM on February 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Wow, that just wrecked me and I have Kleenex lint on my eyelashes now. Thank you for posting it.
posted by Lexica at 2:09 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Lexica at 2:09 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
biogeo - Susie often got Hobbes to do things (like joining a tea party) that he usually didn't do...
posted by birdsquared at 2:10 PM on February 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by birdsquared at 2:10 PM on February 18, 2021 [8 favorites]
I don't think I'd ever heard about The Game. It made me think about Bill and Ted.
Back when Trump and Biden were 'debating', I thought it would be good if they played Twister instead. (or Clue, etc...)
posted by MtDewd at 2:38 PM on February 18, 2021
Back when Trump and Biden were 'debating', I thought it would be good if they played Twister instead. (or Clue, etc...)
posted by MtDewd at 2:38 PM on February 18, 2021
That was...
I guess I needed something like that, without knowing I did. If I hadn’t read it, I’d just move through life never really understanding the little while in my life missing out on this would have left. It’s a feeling a get a lot from reading people’s stories about Calvin and Hobbes, although, like this one, I find there’s so much more that I get out of Susie stories than Calvin stories. Maybe it’s that we get to see more of who Susie is, who she’ll become, but there’s always that little bonus of an throwaway line (what Calvin will say on twitter this week, here) that mentions his ongoing existence. Maybe it’s that, with Calvin so fully formed, our brains can take that tidbit and build it’s own solid picture of him, where there’s still so much to learn about Susie.
This, though, it rings true. It feels like a proper Susie story, she is the intelligent woman we knew she would become, but practical, and willing to call on her experiences with that boy to help her navigate through the world when it requires a little Calvinball.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:07 PM on February 18, 2021 [10 favorites]
I guess I needed something like that, without knowing I did. If I hadn’t read it, I’d just move through life never really understanding the little while in my life missing out on this would have left. It’s a feeling a get a lot from reading people’s stories about Calvin and Hobbes, although, like this one, I find there’s so much more that I get out of Susie stories than Calvin stories. Maybe it’s that we get to see more of who Susie is, who she’ll become, but there’s always that little bonus of an throwaway line (what Calvin will say on twitter this week, here) that mentions his ongoing existence. Maybe it’s that, with Calvin so fully formed, our brains can take that tidbit and build it’s own solid picture of him, where there’s still so much to learn about Susie.
This, though, it rings true. It feels like a proper Susie story, she is the intelligent woman we knew she would become, but practical, and willing to call on her experiences with that boy to help her navigate through the world when it requires a little Calvinball.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:07 PM on February 18, 2021 [10 favorites]
Loved this story. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent quote, too.
Childhood is a country that everyone lives in for a little while, until they get too big for the soil to support them anymore. But maybe you can still visit, if your passport is good and you aren't on a no-fly list for being too grown up and bitter about it.
posted by freethefeet at 3:13 PM on February 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
Excellent quote, too.
Childhood is a country that everyone lives in for a little while, until they get too big for the soil to support them anymore. But maybe you can still visit, if your passport is good and you aren't on a no-fly list for being too grown up and bitter about it.
posted by freethefeet at 3:13 PM on February 18, 2021 [11 favorites]
This was wonderful. Also, a reference to Mao, the greatest card game ever and one I had no idea actually existed in the world outside of the group of people I used to play it with! (it is effectively the Calvinball of card games, though there is enough structure to *just* make it playable)
posted by deadbilly at 4:21 PM on February 18, 2021
posted by deadbilly at 4:21 PM on February 18, 2021
Ugh. The reference to Mao was where I noped out even though the reference itself was dismissive. 'Tis a mean game given mostly to bullying and hazing; much as Calvinball. I have a well of sympathy for Susie and her torture by Calvin at that game. I love that comic but it seemed too accepting of a casual cruelty towards her in the name of imagination, creativity and the whimsy of childhood. At the same time, I trust y'all's taste so I'll push through it.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 8:13 PM on February 18, 2021
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 8:13 PM on February 18, 2021
I think I may live in Monty Python Regurgitation Station.
posted by panglos at 10:11 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by panglos at 10:11 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
My kids did a hard nope on Calvin over his outdated attitudes towards Susie. I was happy to see that they are starting to live in a world where value judgements about other genders are understood to be bad.
posted by benzenedream at 3:17 AM on February 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 3:17 AM on February 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
I don't recall Susie being involved in any Calvinball games in the original comics, it seems like it was always Calvin and Hobbes - with babysitter Rosalyn being the single exception, and she basically "won".
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:51 AM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:51 AM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Having played calvinball as a student in the middle of Amsterdam after a night of drunk not so debauchery, I rather like this.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:49 PM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by MartinWisse at 12:49 PM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
According to the Calvin and Hobbes search engine,
March 31, 1991: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1991/03/31 has Susie loosely participating in Calvinball. Calvin touches the Pernicious Poem Place and asks Susie to dump a bucket of ice water over his head, in rhyme. She gleefully assents.
posted by blob at 3:26 PM on February 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
March 31, 1991: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1991/03/31 has Susie loosely participating in Calvinball. Calvin touches the Pernicious Poem Place and asks Susie to dump a bucket of ice water over his head, in rhyme. She gleefully assents.
posted by blob at 3:26 PM on February 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
I'd call that more "barely" than "loosely"; but regardless that isn't Susie being subjected to "torture by Calvin at that game".
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:37 PM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:37 PM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Even without our having seen Calvin and Suzie playing Calvinball, I have no trouble accepting that it has happened at some point that Calvin challenged Suzie and they played, enough for her to get the idea. I think that, of the people we have seen playing it, the standings are first place, Rosalyn, second place, Hobbes, and third place, Calvin.
That said, I feel like, if you're worried TOO much about who's ahead in a game of Calvinball, you lose.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 5:22 PM on February 19, 2021
That said, I feel like, if you're worried TOO much about who's ahead in a game of Calvinball, you lose.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 5:22 PM on February 19, 2021
My kids did a hard nope on Calvin over his outdated attitudes towards Susie. I was happy to see that they are starting to live in a world where value judgements about other genders are understood to be bad.
I think this would be an excellent opportunity for a lesson in media literacy, given that just because a character in a fictional work holds a certain viewpoint does not mean said work endorses or even condones that viewpoint.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:49 PM on February 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
I think this would be an excellent opportunity for a lesson in media literacy, given that just because a character in a fictional work holds a certain viewpoint does not mean said work endorses or even condones that viewpoint.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:49 PM on February 19, 2021 [8 favorites]
Oh, they get that the comic is not endorsing Calvin's behavior. They just didn't grow up swimming in the water of "boys hate girls / cooties" so they don't think it's normal; they don't get why it needs to be debunked in the first place. I liked C&H growing up but don't think it's some kind of essential canon reading. It's ok that they don't like it.
They read Pogo and L'il Abner and enjoyed both. They did not think the author was endorsing Schmoo genocide.
posted by benzenedream at 5:18 PM on February 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
They read Pogo and L'il Abner and enjoyed both. They did not think the author was endorsing Schmoo genocide.
posted by benzenedream at 5:18 PM on February 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
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