Suffering
Original: Suffering on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Woman with red hair: I've been thinking of getting more spiritual.
Man with green hair: What?
Panel 2:
Man with green hair: All religious and philosophical traditions were created to solve the problem of being a self that suffers.
Woman with red hair: Oh cool. Which are you ignoring? Self or suff?
Panel 3:
Man with green hair: You can deny the self, like Hume or Buddha. You can deny the suffering, like Seneca or Sartre. You can deny both like Nagarjuna.
Panel 4:
Woman with red hair: I was thinking more Christian?
Man with green hair: Ah yes. The self is real and the suffering is FANTASTIC!
Votey:
Close-up of a face.
Voice (off-panel): Mostly I want to eat God.
Woman with red hair: I've been thinking of getting more spiritual.
Man with green hair: What?
Panel 2:
Man with green hair: All religious and philosophical traditions were created to solve the problem of being a self that suffers.
Woman with red hair: Oh cool. Which are you ignoring? Self or suff?
Panel 3:
Man with green hair: You can deny the self, like Hume or Buddha. You can deny the suffering, like Seneca or Sartre. You can deny both like Nagarjuna.
Panel 4:
Woman with red hair: I was thinking more Christian?
Man with green hair: Ah yes. The self is real and the suffering is FANTASTIC!
Votey:
Close-up of a face.
Voice (off-panel): Mostly I want to eat God.
Alt text
A four-panel SMBC comic. A red-haired woman and a green-haired man talk while walking. Panel 1: she says she's been thinking of getting more spiritual; he replies "What?" Panel 2: he explains that all religious and philosophical traditions were created to solve the problem of being a self that suffers; she asks "Oh cool. Which are you ignoring? Self or suff?" Panel 3: he lays out the options, gesturing as he lists them: "You can deny the self, like Hume or Buddha. You can deny the suffering, like Seneca or Sartre. You can deny both like Nagarjuna." Panel 4: she says "I was thinking more Christian?" and he, beaming, declares "Ah yes. The self is real and the suffering is FANTASTIC!" The joke maps philosophies onto which half of the self-that-suffers problem they deny, with Christianity comically denying neither. Votey (bonus panel): an extreme close-up of a calm, simply drawn face, with a speech bubble reading "Mostly I want to eat God."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.