For a larger image of this comic strip, click here or here.Questions & issues to consider:
A) What is the cartoonist's point about certainty? What do you think, or make, of his point?
B) Comment on the quality, quantity, and content of the evidence (examples) the three characters provide in support of the boy's declaration, in the second-to-last frame of the strip that "The world's a less silly place without you!"
C) The last two frames of the comic strip present an ironic juxtaposition of ideas regarding certainty -- consider the boy's comment in the second-to-last frame ("The world's a less silly place...") in comparison with his exchange with Opus in the last frame. Comment on the ideas contrasted between the two frames. [e.g. Compare the content of Opus' comment in the last frame with the content of the statements quoted in frames 2 - 7 of the strip. Consider the implications of the boy's declaration in the next-to-last frame when applied to Opus' closing comment. Think about your intial reaction to the boy's statement in the last frame.] What observations, conclusions, and/or implications about knowledge and certainty are sparked by the strip?
D) Why did the cartoonist choose to add the last frame? Why didn't he just draw the headstone in the next-to-last frame and end there? Note: I'm certain ;-) it wasn't just to fill up space.
[Be sure to focus your comments on the knowledge issues raised in the comic strip. This comic strip clearly has a political overtone and slant. However, responding to that political element should not be the primary focus of your comments.]
8 comments:
It seems to me that his point is that many things are not certain. However, I don't think he is saying that there is no certainty anywhere in the world anymore. He's just pointing out that some things seem a bit illogical at the moment. However, without certainty, anything could happen without seeming illogical, and it therefore wouldn't be silly. I think the point of the last frame is to point out something that most people would think is certain: "The sun is going down". However, it depends on what perspective you look at it from. Somewhere else on the planet, the sun is rising.
I think that the comic is showing how we are lacking certainty especially at the end where the little guy goes "the sun is setting" and the boy says "maybe, maybe not." Without certainty we are obviously not sure about anything we don't know if we should stay in iraq or not, if we should have even went there in the first place. I am not sure what they mean by being silly though. How is lacking certainty not silly anymore? Maybe with certainty everyone always thinks they know everything therefore it's funny to people? Not sure.
I like what david said about the whole sun going down, it is all from presepective. I haven't even thought about it going up for some people. there went my own certainty.
victoria tasbaltayeva
Also, the sun isn't going down at all, but rather the position of the earth is changing. So really, there is nothing certain at all about "the sun is going down" because it is merely an illusion.
I wonder how the timing of this comic strip reflects what the author is trying to say. I assume this is a pretty new comic strip, since it alludes to Cheney shooting someone while out hunting. Does the author feel like there was at one point certainty and we've killed it? But then of course, "the sun is going down" example has no relation to a time in history. We've always assumed that the sun went down at night, so that area of certainty didn't just disappear when we went to Iraq or started watching Reality TV.
I think he must be saying that nothing has ever been certain. Though now perhaps everything seems even less certain, we'll always wonder about things like where the sun goes at night.
I think that the idea that the kid s saying that all silliness is gone is interesting. One thing I think of when I read this was all the satirists who use the news and political parties to poke fun of. If there wasn't all of this asserting something was certatian without "knowing" (justified true belief) it was so, then there wouldn't be much to make fun of. This comic wouldn't have much to say if everything either was or if nothing was certain.
I agree with David that the author's point is mostly that things are not certain and that there are things in our world in which lacks certainty, such as the iraq war and the "weapons of mass destruction." However, what determines certainity? Such as the last comic strip with the sun rising .. maybe maybe not. How are sure that the sun rises in the morning? The only way we can be certain is through experience and assumption. Every morning the sun rises, therefore I assume that the sun will rise tommorow. And with the weapons of mass desturction in iraq...this topic is still being debated as many conservatives say that the there are weapons of mass destruction or that they were just hidden, while others claim that there were never weapons of mass destruction. How is anyone supposed to be certain with this. I don't even think that the president will have certainity of this fact...or lack of fact thereof. In this case, who are we, as citizens supposed to be certain of the presence of weapons..? I guess some things we can never be certain with..and we simply have to live with it.
You can argue against the truth in anything. You can also always argue against the certainty in anything. The other's display of lack of certainty showed me that the certainty of an issue really just depends on the person looking at it. Your certainty of something really only matters to you. Your certainty is only valid in your mind. Its very difficult to word the idea.
to me, the author is saying that the world, in line with political correctness, has become a less certain place. what i mean is that a word or phrase that meant one thing not long ago is now taboo. twisting of the news, long considered completely reliable, has been done on rampant scales. not just by the government, but by our own Oregonian.
and when they talk about the sun moving or not moving is in a way a nod towards the "allegory of the cave"
The point of the author is that in our world certainty is a thing that none can be certain of no more. We consider weapons of mass destruction us items that are indispensable to bring piece. The war that america is conducting in Iraq is so uncertain that not even Karl Rove at the head of the white house office of strategic initiatives knows if we are loosing or winning. Terri schiavo looks as if she is only sleeping and drugs can actually make our life healthier. I think the author is almost painfully right. In our society people tent to deny even things that are certain because its just simpler. As in the comic we can’t even be sure anymore of a simple fact such as the sun rising or going down. In fact the sun is not going down but is the earth that goes around and the sun just looks as if it is moving. What is certain anymore?
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