narrative

A seven-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: A red-haired young man stands in a green room; an unseen mother shouts through a door, "BOBBY! BOBBY, ARE YOU IN THERE OVERSIMPLIFYING THE WORLD THROUGH NARRATIVE?!" He replies, "NO MOM!" Panel 2: A dark-haired woman in a red shirt flings the door open, eyes wide, declaring, "I KNEW IT!" Panel 3: She holds up a teal-covered book reading "WHY THE BASTARDS ARE SUCH BASTARDS" and says, "LOOK AT THIS! HUFFING POLEMICS!" Panel 4: Bobby protests with eyes shut, "IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! I ALSO READ THE OTHER SIDE!" Panel 5: The mother looms over the small son, scolding, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, READING EQUALLY SHALLOW COUNTERNARRATIVES ONLY REINFORCES EXISTING BIASES!" He pleads, "BUT MOM!" Panel 6: She hands him a book titled "NORTH and SOUTH" (by Gaskell), ordering, "NO! SIX MONTHS! FOR THE NEXT SIX MONTHS ONLY CONTEMPLATION OF NATURE AND THE TRANSCENDENT HEIGHTS OF LITERATURE!" Panel 7: Bobby sits peacefully under a tree at sunset reading, thinking, "THIS IS SO FULFILLING BUT I WILL STOP THE MOMENT THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE" — the joke being his addiction to outrage/binary media has merely been redirected, not cured. Votey (aftercomic): plain black-bordered panel with handwritten text: "(PANEL FIVE IS MY GREATEST PANEL, EXCEPT FOR THE ONE WHERE THE GUY LIGHTS HIS CHAIR ON FIRE AS AN INVESTMENT)"