Cuckoo: "I do a happy handspring into the hole."

Oct. 10th, 2018 02:39 pm
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
One of the multi books I own is the entire run of Madison Clell's Cuckoo, which covers roughly thirteen floppy comic issues, a trade paperback that doesn't contain all the material but is easier to carry, and a screenplay.

This isn't really a post about Cuckoo. I just wanted to share these specific pages, which as far as I know are NOT in the trade paperback, just a couple of the floppy issues. (Which, due to space constraints, sometimes duplicated material.) It's possibly my favorite part.


A comics page, illustrating Portia Nelson's "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters," or, as Clell calls it, "Therapists' Favorite Metaphor For Their Struggling Clients". Chapter/Panel 1: I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Chapter/Panel 2: I walke down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place. But it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Panel/Chapter 3: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in... it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. Panel/Chapter 4: I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. Panel/Chapter 5: I walk down another street. A final caption from Clell reads, "Pretty, but life doesn't work that smoothly..."

This page is all black, with captions illustrating traffic warning signs, all showing a hapless figure falling into hole after hole. The captions read: I walk down a street. I fall in a hole. I walk down the street. I see the same hole. I fall in head first. I fall in butt first. I fall in backwards. I fall in sideways. I'm blown in. I'm thrown in. I try to jump over the hole but fall start. If I crawl over the hole, it's less far to fall. I look down, get vertigo, and fall in. I do a happy handspring into the hole. There's a barrier but those rules don't apply to me.

Another page of traffic signs of Hapless Human Figure falling into endless holes: If I have to fall in a goddamn hole, it might as well be this one. I don't believe in the hole. It must be a "false memory." I stand far away, but there is a ground-shattering earthquake. If I close my eyes, I can't see the hole. Therefore, it does not exist. There's a cute girl/guy in the hole and I'm lonely, so I jump in. I repressed the memory of the hole. No one told me NOT to fall in the hole. I'm hiding in the hole. I'm drunk, now there are three holes. I'm familiar with this hole. It's like an old friend. I wait for a hero to carry me across the hole. I walk down a different street... (This particular sign shows Hapless Person walking away, unaware of the piano hanging over their head.)

As the hip kids put it these days, tag yourself, I'm "I don't believe in the hole; it must be a false memory."
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Date: 2018-10-10 07:23 pm (UTC)
starfallhaven: A white wolf mid-stride on a white background. (Artemis)
From: [personal profile] starfallhaven
"If I close my eyes, I can't see the hole, so therefore it does not exist" and also "If I have to fall in a goddamned hole it might as well be this one"

#relateable
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