DANK MEMES

I walked away knowing that the plumber and I, two complete strangers, had bonded over this Garfield comic. You see life imitates art. It becomes a common ground. I have a feeling that if I see this plumber again we'll be sharing stories like two old friends, because we've been united by art. We have a common love for Jim Davis and his characters, his writings. The humor, the drama, that rascal Garfield the cat. Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering what i was having for lunch that day it was a ham sandwich with an apple and potato chips in a bag. I had a soda as well. I think it's important to view the pipe strip in philosophical terms. We've touched briefly on the subject of existentialism. That theme is very prevalent in this strip. Garfield is in fact a modern existential anti-hero. But if Garfield embodies the bewilderment in a meaningless life, what is Jon? What are the telltale signs that forms Jon's philosophical standpoint? His approach, what style of thinking he represents. Jon is depicted as being grounded in the material world, a world of things. He is surrounded by objects, and he touches these objects. He interacts with them. The newspaper, the end table, the chair, his clothes, all these physical things make up Jon's world. In some sense, even his cat Garfield is an object to him, a thing. The first ideology that comes to mind when thinking about objects in the tangible world is pragmatism. Is Jon Arbuckle a pragmatist? His beliefs stem from a useful, coherent view of his environment. A sort of cause and effect understanding of his world helps him A: deduce that his pipe is missing, and B: catch his cat Garfield using the pipe. This kind of empirical and logical thinking lends credence to the idea that Jon is indeed a pragmatist. Although it is hard to entirely ignore the rest of the Garfield comic canon. While Garfield is consistently anarchic and embraces the chaos and absurdity of life, Jon Arbuckle exhibits an erratic, unpredictable mix of philosophical behaviors. At times he is borderline delusional, an idealist, an almost slap-happy version of Don Quixote. Other moments he is rigid, nearly to the point of being obsessive. Somewhat like a structuralist. And certainly has streaks of sarcasm and negativity that might classify him as a skeptic. But isn't there some universal truth to this approach? How can any one man, how can Jon Arbuckle be just one thing? How can any of us be just one thing? We're an amalgamation of ideas and emotions, conducts and functions, thoughts and feelings. Jon Arbuckle may very well inhabit tenets of nearly every major philosophical track known to man. We all might. Characters are reduced to make them recognizable. Definable. A story needs a good guy. A story needs a bad guy. But rarely is one person defined in such black and white terms. Even Garfield with all his bad behavior, Machiavellian motivations and general ne'er-do-well attitude can be kind and thoughtful. You just have to find that rare strip. Speaking philosophically about the entire Garfield franchise, it's an incredibly accurate depiction of life. it's bold lines and bright colors are merely a facade, a red herring, a lie. This cartoon is not a cartoon at all. It is not caricature. It is not caricature despite adopting caricature as its visual style and tone. But I don't really like to speak in broad, sweeping, generalizations about Garfield. The comic has been running for over 30 years, and trying to boil that all down it's just- well, it's impossible. I think the only way, and any historian worth his salt with agree with me, is to look at individual moments, isolated instances, single comic strips. Can I discuss this one strip in the entire run of Garfield? Yes, I do that, just as a film historian might analyze one movie in relation to the history of all movies, or war enthusiasts might look at a single battle's impact on an entire war. The pipe strip is just an instance in the lives of Jon and Garfield. Perhaps Jon is not a pragmatist at all. Let's look at this again. Maybe Jon is exhibiting the traits of a rationalist thinker. His question, "Now where could my pipe be?", is a clue that his thought process stems from the early rationalist questions posed by Ren\'e9 Descartes. The well known quote "I think therefore I am" attributed to Descartes is applicable. Another close look at the strip and we see that Jim Davis chose to draw Jon thinking his question "Now where could my pipe be?" Jon does not speak this question aloud. So Jim Davis is also exploring the mind body duality. Jon's question operates on the level of a literal question, but it also examines the nature of reality. Jim Davis' epistemological approach tells us something about the human condition. Jon's thoughts remain the focal point of this strip. The comic is quite literally centered around his thought. "Now where could my pipe be?" This is his reality. This is where cognition, and the power and function of the mind take over. As Plato believed, the body is just a shell for Jon Arbuckle. Yes, he can use his physical body to read his paper, or cross his legs, but these inputs of touch, sight, hearing, etc. - these senses are the triggers of the mind. As we see here, the mind is something greater. It is the originator of ideas, and ideas are forever- immortal. Immortality through thought. A major theme in literature and philosophy. And isn't that what Mr. Jim Davis himself has achieved? Will he live forever? The universe will continue to spread, and spread outward, and entropy will chaotic infinity into a homogeneous controlled system. This will take billions of years and in that time humans will push technology to heights we can't imagine. We'll explore and inhabit space, and occupy more and more of the universe just as time allowed our ancestors to multiply in numbers and populate more and more of the Earth. And as the specific people come and go, their physical bodies will be born and grow and die, but their thoughts will remain. And Jim Davis' comics, his glorious Garfield comics, are recorded ideas of his that will still be here. Even when the Earth is no longer inhabitable, and humanity has long since moved away to bigger planets. They'll carry with them a record, a record we all keep, mark my words. And look at what we've started. What is the internet? What is the online world if not a record, a never-ending feed of ideas? Immortal ideas, forever placed in the ether of dualism. What is an idea, and where does it live? How does it manifest itself? Can it live forever? Will it live forever outside these physical husks of ours? Our bodies. And Jon Arbuckle and Garfield started merely as thoughts, and they've become so much more. That old cliche rings true. They've taken on a life of their own. And life may not be what we think. Life brings to mind a beating heart, breathing lungs, blinking eyes, but the real life is in our imaginations. And who better embodies the definition of imagination if not a simple man? A cartoonist who puts his ideas to paper, so they may live on, that our children, and our children's children, and their children's children's children can access the wealth of ideas that have accumulated thus far. They will plug themselves into an information grid and they will have access. They will read every Garfield comic. 80,000 years from now a child will see simple Jon Arbuckle reading a newspaper. He will feel around for something, but that something is not there. He will lift his head and think "Now where could my pipe be?" And Garfield will be smoking the pipe. And Jon will yell "GARFIELD!!" And what then? 80,000 years from now, the child reading this comic will smile, and that smile will transcend space and time, and the physical limitations of this existence, whatever it may be, however many dimensions exist, there will always be Garfield. And there will always be it's creator. Jim Davis.