Dave Answers 6 Questons: June 2006: The Last Day

Q1. Almost four years removed from the grand dream sequence, do you still feel confident in the idea that you have presented a Unified Field Theory given that some critics have said the science is suspect in places (failing to reconcile the actual processes of the strong nuclear force with the weak nuclear force, for example), and that the nature of it being divinely inspired makes empirical testing impossible?

Dave: I’m afraid that I’m really kind of snowed under with work at the moment (finishing up “Hypothetical Cerebus and the Necronomicon Monks” from a T. Casey Brennan script for a benefit comic book for ACTOR that’s due in July among other things) so this is apt to come across as far more blunt than I intend it to be. Please feel free to mentally insert smiley faces, winky eyes, lopsided grins, ho-ho-ho’s and IMHOs as required so as to ameliorate any emotional trauma.

In other words do I agree with you that atheism is the only sensible choice? No, I don’t believe so. I’ve made my case for my viewpoint and if I suddenly come to the crushing overwhelming awareness that the only thing that makes sense is to become like you again I’ll be sure to let you know.

The strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force are irreconcilable, in my view. That’s the whole point of the debate. The weak nuclear force (YHWH, he/she/it, Marxist-feminists, the Feminist-Homosexualist Axis) wants to be the strong nuclear force (God, masculine men) and can’t be and therefore everywhere across time and space is doing what he/she/it has been doing in our own society since 1970. Screwing things up. The science isn’t suspect, I don’t think. The he/she/its don’t like it because if follows the evidence and concludes that he is preferable to he/she/it. Strong instead of weak.

Also, nice try from the he/she/it side of the fence: slipping an accusation of blasphemy against me in under the fence. Obviously I don’t think 289-290 is divinely inspired. If it was divinely inspired that would make me a prophet and the age of prophets ended with the death of Muhammad. In the context of Cerebus it is “divinely inspired” in that I am Cerebus’ creator. But in the larger context as with everything that I write about religion, 289-290 serve as commentaries on Genesis 1, John’s Gospel 1 and the sura ‘Clots of Blood’. “Here is my best guess as to the nature of reality from the evidence we have on hand.”

Yes, I know you didn’t mean to accuse me of blasphemy, but that’s the nature of atheists. You’re empty vessels wide open for demonic possession 24/7.

Q1. Is there anything you have learned since that time, or during the original research period, which you would have liked the chance to add in but were unable to given the time constraints? (i289/290 / TLD pp2-40)

Dave: In other words, is there anything I can add to my case that will help persuade you that I’m right? I suspect not, but I think that isn’t a matter of my theories being flawed as it is your own (that is to say, feminized Marxist-feminist he/she/it) resistance to what it is that I’m saying. I don’t foresee that changing—either the nature of any of you as individuals or any potential audience for the book presently alive (and I might be mistaken; remember I was an atheist until I was forty years old)—which is why I say that Cerebus won’t actually have any true value or cachet until fifty or a hundred years after I’m dead. That having been said let me express my on-going gratitude that, as readers, you have purchased my work and continue to discuss it. I don’t know how many atheistic generations Cerebus will have to be read by before it actually reaches an audience that connects with it in any meaningful way, but of course that’s completely out of my hands.

There were a couple of interesting bits in my interview with Neal Adams coming up in Following Cerebus 9 that confirmed two passages in Genesis 1 for me and I note them in passing in the article and I do see various things that fall into that category in the newspaper and elsewhere but, again, we live in a completely he/she/it context so there’s really no point that I can see in doing anything but making note of it for my own amusement. You’ve got 40 pages of 289-290 which you’ve managed to ignore. To what purpose would I guild my own lily?

Q2. The New Booke of Cerebus is hidden away where it won't be discovered until 2000 years later when the Sanctuary is torn down to build a shopping mall. Since we know Cerebus' ascension took place in 4000BC (because of the Judge's revelation that the moon landing takes place roughly 6000 later (C&S p1202)), this would set the time of discovery at around 2000BC. What is the significance of this date? Are you suggesting that Moses found The NBOC, and correctly interpreted it as the True Word of God? Is there some correlation to the Bell-Beaker culture (2800-1900BC) that overlapped the same area of the real Europe that the fictional Estarcion mimics, and the unspecified cataclysm that sank The God's Fence, split Boreala off the mainland to become England, and raised the land mass of Italy? (i291/TLD p53)

Dave: My assumption is that everywhere in the universe planets roughly the size of YHWH all enact their various tantrums and plodding resistance to the truth and infantile he/she/itisms in roughly the same way (and for all I know bigger planets are no different in the same way that all he/she/its are the same), so Cerebus’ story could probably have been enacted on any of a trillion times a trillion little blue balls that think they’re God just as there are probably a trillion times a trillion of each of you everywhere in the universe all behaving exactly as you do, each of whom has chosen to turn his/her back on God. Or maybe out of the trillion times a trillions versions of you there might be one or two that are actually God-fearing, but that would surprise me if it was true.

Q3. Can you expand on the nature of The Great Schism (circa 132)? We know it had to do with Cerebus' reaction to being lured into a pro-choice rally and music concert organized by Sheshep (and, presumably, New Joanne) and the subsequent beatings that took place, but was there a greater political (and perhaps military) battle that took place? Or is The Great Schism strictly in reference to Cerebus' divorce from New Joanne, and alienation of his son? (i293/TLD p99)

Dave: The Great Schism refers to the tactical use of grief/fear by he/she/its to try and seize control and as far as I can see is a universal societal condition as soon as you give he/she/its even incremental access to power. In the context of Cerebus, it had nothing to do with the beatings per se (you betray your he/she/it loyalties in seeing it that way), it had to do with the use that could be made of the beatings politically by New Joanne and all the he/she/its like her. Drama Queens uber alles. In the same way that Guantanamo Bay doesn’t actually bother Democrats but they do see it as the way back into the White House (mistakenly, in my view). It’s the reason that anger has become the only cardinal sin in our society. As long as he/she/its pretend to be fearful of anger and grief stricken by all violence and assert their political view that the only way to move society forward is if no one is allowed to express anger or commit any act of violence then that means the he/she/its have a free ride in whatever direction they choose to go. Of course this only works if there is no actual threat against which it is only sensible to direct anger and violence—in the case of our own world, Islamist extremism. In order to sustain itself as a political movement, he/she/itism in our society needs to convince people that the proper reaction to killing Islamist Muslims who are plotting violence against civilians is grief at their death and/or fear of the people killing them. The proper reaction isn’t grief and/or fear. The proper reaction is relief coupled with determination to kill as many more as it takes until Freedom is the universal condition of man.

Q4. Why has Sheshep suddenly appeared after all these years? Has he inherited Cerebus' alleged "alarm clock when dad is dying" sense? Or has he simply come to gloat over Cerebus' impending demise? (i295)

Dave: Cerebus, having forgotten everything that had happened, begged God to bring Sheshep back. Since Cerebus had transcribed the Booke which was revealed to him and hidden it he was, at that point, completely useless and bringing Sheshep back was a good a way as any of killing someone who was and had been that useless for that many years and who had let God down that badly.

Q5. Upon realizing that Rick is not among those Cerebus believes to be waiting for him in Heaven, Ham, Jaka and Bear's hands transform into strange two to three fingered appendages. What is the significance of this? (i300/TLD pp236-237)

Dave: Ham, Jaka and Bear were atheists. What I’m suggesting is that atheists are basically host beings which are wide open to being made use of by malignant spirits whose only job is to lure the God-fearing to destruction. It’s a cautionary note struck for the half dozen (that may be optimistic) or so readers I have who believe in God—and for the first generation of Cerebus fans (as opposed to readers) fifty or a hundred years after I’m dead for whom the Next World will be something more than a concept for a Twilight Zone episode. When you die and you go towards the light, look who is there and remember what they were like when they were alive. I don’t think anyone will heed my advice but that doesn’t stop me from giving it. As I told someone in Columbus, my own reaction to seeing dead relatives and “friends” will be to go down on my knees and close my eyes and begin reciting my prayer. I plan to continue reciting my prayer from that point until Judgement Day. The Koran assures us that when we awake on Judgement Day we’ll believe that we have been dead “for a day or part of a day.” Muhammad in his later years used to spend the better part of the night reciting Suras instead of sleeping so I’m going to try to bear that in mind and deal with the Afterlife as one long night that needs to be prayed through until Judgement Day dawns. .

WILDCARD: Was the loss of Cerebus' magic helmet and short sword a deliberate attempt by you to remove some of the more "fantastic" elements from the story, and move it into a more realistic and sophisticated direction focusing more on politics and religion?

Dave: No, not really. I don’t think you can remove the “fantastic” from a story (or from life) without making it the story (or life) two dimensional and irrelevant. “My job sucks and I can’t get laid” comics as an example seem to me to just be reiterations of failure, people who have chosen to Fail and have so immersed their own soul in the depths of failure that that’s all they know how to express and all that they’re aware of. No, the loss of Cerebus’ helmet and sword was more a reminder to myself that anyone can Blow It Big Time. It’s easy to lose sight of because most people don’t even have a sense of purpose in being here, let alone that they might be Blowing It Big Time. However, even when I was an atheist that was always my core awareness. I tried to come up with the best example of Blowing It Big Time in Cerebus’ context that I could and tried to apply it to Cerebus since I think there are more examples of Blowing It Big Time in this world than there are of fulfillment of an intended destiny and people needed to be made aware of that. The fact that even showing that to people had absolutely no effect is probably one of the most terrifying things I saw in the course of doing the story. I mean, there’s ostensible success—money, chicks, material possessions, happy marriage, beautiful children—but I don’t think that’s actual success. It can be, but it isn’t inherent success if you had greater potential which I think most people do. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elvis, John Lennon and JFK all Blew It Big Time, just to cite four examples even though most people would consider them wildly successful in their chosen fields.

I think unconsciously I was documenting the loss of my soul which was pretty much a given until I started reading the Bible. It’s one of the reasons that concepts like “fun” really don’t resonate with me at all anymore. My only interest at this point is Not Blowing It Big Time and making it to the grave and Judgement Day without any serious slip-ups. Like allowing people to accuse me of blasphemy without refuting the charge. I am on high alert 24/7 for exactly those sorts of things.