I’m sure this strip was mainly just to say “yay” about that news. Â And although this strip was part of the experiment of writing such an opposing foil, I think I played Paul a little too one-dimensional here.
I spent a lot of that summer (while house-sitting) sitting around at the writing desk, shirtless, trying to write.
Oh, and I actually went out and bought a postcard and stamp for reference. :)
I believe I had just read “Confederacy of Dunces” for the first time, which used the word “abortion” by the second definition “an object or undertaking regarded by the speaker as unpleasant or badly made or carried out.” I liked the evocativeness of it, especially in use of humor where it shows both the horror of the specified object as well as the over-the-topness of the character speaking.
And that’s honestly what the box read (of course, it was the San Francisco “treat”). Like lawyers claiming they really care*, and suppository chainsaws claiming they won’t hurt, I just don’t buy the line that they had pride, wanted to share, or that it was special.
*of course, some lawyers do, bless ‘em.
This is one of those strips which is purely playing out my own personal fears, although fortunately most of these fears no longer plague me. But at the time, this is what I would imagine/fear happening if I approached someone in a cafe.
Another strip showing my (then) fears of approaching strangers, that being alone to them only represents time until the “others” show up, whereas aloneness to me meant a lot of frikkin’ time alone.
And to round out my (then) fears of approaching strangers, we have the direct rebuttal. I’m alone because I don’t want to be around people, especially YOU.
Heh.
After writing a week describing my fears of approaching people, I went directly on to show how truly alone and cut off I felt when living in New Orleans. How? By introducing myself.
There are no end to the parts of my feelings, thoughts, and identities which found their ways into the characters and story of “Bruno.” But this is one of the more direct ones. John is my middle name, John looks like me, and John essentially WAS me.
Although, to give myself some credit, it wasn’t ALL that pathetic. It was all tongue in cheek. I got great amusement out of the fact that I ended up sleeping with my own character, and had fun letting Bruno poke fun at my insecurities.
Ah, my twenties. Good times.
One of my favorite places I went was the bar atop the Trade Center in New Orleans. It slowly revolved about once an hour, so you got to see the entire city.
Not much to say on the dialogue. Just that feeling of insignificance. Stars are always good things to have around when illustrating insignificance, they emphasize the point.
This was one of the first real close-ups I did with Bruno. I thought it helped set the intimate tone of the situation.