Monstress: Issue 35

While reading this installment of the Monstress series, I came across a snippet of dialog that resonated with me.

“Life is very strange, isn’t it?”

“… Stranger … than I … could have dreamed …”

Life is truly strange, and it keeps getting stranger. Thirty years ago, I could not have imagined an existence like the one we have today. What was it Hunter S. Thompson said: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”? I guess that can be applied to our strange lives.

Anyway, hope you are safely navigating these strange waters. Thanks for stopping by.

Impermanence

Winter, after all, does not last forever. Nor does hardship, or injustice.

Marjorie Liu. Monstress: Issue 33

Change

“When a situation changes, the wise change too.”

Marjorie Liu. Monstress: Issue 33

Monstress: Issue 28

I have been reading this comic since its inception and enjoy the stunning artwork and superb writing. Anyway, this installment has a great quote which I want to share.

The Goddess decides how long we live, sister. Maybe I have a minute, maybe a hundred years, but I’m going to enjoy this carrot and being alive with all my devotion.

There is a lot to say about these two short sentences. Firstly, there is the truth that none of us know how long we will live. So many of us plod through life either in denial of our mortality or in fear of death. But the fact is, we will die, and we know not when. But keeping that in mind, we can begin to appreciate each day.

I love the image of eating and enjoying the carrot. It is a beautiful representation of living in the present moment, of practicing mindfulness. I am going to paraphrase something that Don Juan told Carlos Castaneda in one of his books, that you should engage in each act as if it is the last thing you will do. If you are eating a carrot, take your time and enjoy that carrot, because it may be the last thing you eat.

Finally, we come to living life with devotion. I often wonder what the world would be like if the majority of us lived our lives honoring the divine spark that exists within us all, instead of focusing on ourselves and our own personal gains regardless of the effects on others and the world. It seems like a utopian vision, I know, but everything was just a vision at one point, until it was actualized. I try to maintain a sense of reverence to the divine and a focus on spiritual values. Often I fall short, but I try, and that is all I can do.

Anyway, I hope you found this quote as inspiring as I found it. Have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by.

Quote from “Monstress: Issue 26”

I’ve been reading this comic from its inception, and it is magnificent, both the visual artwork and the word craft. While I don’t post on each installment, this issue includes a quote I feel is important to share.

You have heard me say this before, but it bears repeating: always be aware, kits, of the silences in history… of those stories that even the poets do not tell.

In our digital age, facts and history are subject to suspicion, and even outright denial. As such, we run the risk of inserting silences into our histories, of losing critical information which could help future generations navigate difficulties which they must inevitably face. Additionally, there are some stories that are painful to tell, but the telling of those stories is important. If we let the stories die out, because we are complacent or afraid, then we are complicit in the decimation of history.

Monstress: Issue 24

There are few things as satisfying as reading and coming across a quote that resonates with simple truth. I found a great one while reading the latest issue of Monstress:

“We don’t have to be friends. We just have to remember that if this world dies, we all die.”

There is nothing I need to say about this. The wisdom here is self-evident.

There will not be another issue of Monstress until after the New Year. I suppose I’ll have to be patient.

Monstress: Issue 22

I really love this series. The artwork is consistently stunning, and the writing is always superb. I cannot praise this enough. There is a reason why it has won so many awards.

I’ve had this issue for a while, but with the move and all, it was in a box and I only recently uncovered it and read it. As always, it was excellent. Rather than try to give a summary of a snippet in a long and complex story arc, I’ll just share a few quotes that resonated with me.

Violence is the first impulse of the wounded and uninspired.

This is so true. I could not have expressed this truth in a more succinct and clear manner.

In my experience, the almost-good are nearly always as malign as the all-evil.

I had to think about this for a few minutes, but then the veracity of the words came through. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or, to coin another phrase I’ve heard, half measures avail us nothing. Trying to do good is not the same as doing good. As Yoda would say: “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

And finally:

As the poets say: It is the curse of the young to squander what their elders died to possess.

How many of us have rolled their eyes when hearing our parents talk about their hardships? I confess, I did it as a kid, when my dad lectured me about how he had to dig potatoes in the field after WWII just so they could have something to eat. In hindsight, I see I was a typical teenager, scoffing at the wisdom of those who were older than I. A mistake I earnestly try not to repeat.

Thanks for stopping by, and have an inspired day.

Monstress: Issue 20

Since yesterday was International Women’s Day, it seemed apropos to read the latest issue of Monstress this morning. I’ve been reading this comic since its inception, and it is one of my all-time favorite graphic stories. Written and illustrated by two women—Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, respectively—the comic recently won an impressive five Eisner Awards, including Best Writer for Liu, the first time this award has gone to a woman.

I cannot sing the praises of this comic enough. The artwork is visually stunning, and the writing evocative and thought-provoking. If you are even slightly interested in the graphic novel genre, I highly recommend reading these books.

The cover artwork for this installment, and a couple quotes from the issue, should suffice to support my claims regarding the magnificence of this work.

“When two people are one in their innermost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron. When two people ally with each other in their innermost hearts, their vows are stronger than poems.”

 

“Short-lived beings… and their inventions. I will never understand that desire… to defy and overcome… the limits of flesh. Such a primitive need for power.”

Monstress: Issue 15

Ah, the Old Gods.

We’ve discussed them before – their immense power, their destructive natures – how they are the very opposite of divine. Invaders, some Poets claim. Demonic entities from another world, whose unending hunger was an abomination.

…

Humans were the logical fools to fall prey to the Old Gods – having never battled them, as the Ancients had – and afflicted by a poverty of spirit unmatched by even the most crude animal. How easily fooled they were by such otherworldly magnificence, whispering empty prayers, making blood sacrifices to demons that would consume them in a heartbeat if they were able.

I’ve been behind on my reading and writing, mainly because I was on vacation and drove across the United States. So this particular installment of the Monstress series has been on my desk for a while, and I finally got around to it the other day. As with all previous installments, this issue brims with stunning artwork and exquisite writing; but it was the postscript section, which I shared just a short excerpt of here, that floored me.

In our current age, there is a romantic vision of the “old gods.” Neo-pagans rejecting the monotheistic faiths scour the past for remnants of gods and religions that have long passed. These old gods are resurrected, often outside the context of when and where they existed. As such, we do not really know much about the old gods. Only the few myths and stories that survived the ages. And that is what this passage symbolizes for me—the recognition that deities long dead may not be the glorious beings we imagine them to be. It is something to consider.

I’d like to close with a quote from the short-lived TV show “Witchblade”:

“Gods come and go… It’s the myth that’s eternal.”

And that is all we truly have of the old gods, their enduring myths.

Monstress: Issue #14

Yet another stunningly beautiful and eloquently composed installment in this series. I know I have written before about the quality of the writing and artwork that graces these pages, so for this post, I just want to share a couple passages that I found particularly inspiring.

“The ancients, using their magic — and their sway over humans — constructed cities of such magnificence that they have never been equaled. Magic allowed them to control the elements, to defy death, and to peer into the labyrinths of time. Infinitely brilliant — and just as decadent. But the ancients, for all the blessings bestowed upon them, were as deeply flawed as the humans they enslaved — and the same ambitions that elevated them to Olympian heights ended up tearing them apart.”

“What happened once, will happen again… but in a different form. To become a fortune-teller, one needs only to study history.”