Reflecting on Reflections

In order to consider or reflect upon WHAT MEN I went into the future to see what the reactions was from anyone who read WHAT MEN and have now returned to the now in order to report the findings

However it is entirely possible that by going into the future and making these observations, what I observed has in fact changed because I was observing it?

The reactions as observed are mostly all Questions

It is a possibility that the future in which these questions may have been asked will be irrevocably changed by reporting on them in the here and now

However I did have 2 questions from people before I went into the future and they appear below you can see which ones they are - it was in fact receiving these questions that prompted the visit into the future in the first place

So the findings of these observations themselves are Questions seeking Answers, seeking the Truth

But What is the truth?

Is it this :-

A truth is truth for all, an absolute! To compromise, to give up any part of a truth is to wipe out justice, to choose some evil over the good, to renounce man’s means, reason and logic which makes his success and happiness possible! Each man must make his own choice! A is A or anything goes!

Or is it This:- ?

The truth finally reached is that there is no objective truth. “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Or both or something else entirely?

The answer to the question of what is the truth is entirely subjective so you will have to forgive me if I say I leave it in your hands

The same does apply to WHAT MEN to some degree given that there could be more than one possible interpretation of what WHAT MEN is

The fact that there could be different possible interpretations is the whole point. It’s not which one you chose that matters – it’s that you have the choice.

Equally you have the choice to disagree and say there is only one interpretation

Either view point is equally valid

But what about those Questions?

Ah in the now unlikely to happen in quite the same way future the reaction was basically one of seeking definition – essentially what does WHAT MEN mean or what did I want it to mean – does for example a drawing on a certain page in relation to another mean something in and of itself and or when combined with others and or the dialog, especially given the way the pages images and dialogue was combined and so on

So in anticipation of you yourself possibly asking or wanting to know the answers to The questions – here they are followed by Answers

As to if these are actually answers again I am afraid that’s another subjective question – it all depends on your point of view

If you are like Evey (or is that IV) Hammond who gives up on the puzzles and just wants to turn the page upside down and read the answers -These answers are not for you

The point is that reading WHAT MEN is hopefully a journey of discovery - you make it, and you inform it, it about your point of view or your perception of what WHAT MEN is - I merely provide the props and scenery which is all illusion

What WHAT MEN is - is whatever you want it to be

This is all after all Reflecting on reflections...

However, fell free to entirely disagree and subscribe to the just one definition point of view, thats fine with me

Please, please bare in mind all of the questions have been asked from someones subjective point of view i.e. their own personal interpretation of WHAT MEN is and not mine - your mileage may vary considerably

• Why did you create WHAT MEN?

Perhaps because of the challenge it represented: the puzzle that was there, a knot that couldn't be untied.

• What was the inspiration for WHAT MEN?

We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from the another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take our breath away

• What is your moral viewpoint?

This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.

• Is WHAT MEN told out of order / sequence ?

Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet.

• Do I have to re read WHAT MEN several times for it to make more sense?

• Is WHAT MEN an example of aleatoricism / inspired by The William S. Burroughs novel Nova Express?

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose

• Why is the art Black and White?

I tried to pretend it looked like a spreading tree, shadows pooled beneath it, but it didn't. It looked more like a dead cat I once found, the fat, glistening grubs writhing blindly, squirming over each other, frantically tunneling away from the light. But even that is avoiding the real horror. The horror is this: In the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else.

• Why Is there not an ending to WHAT MEN?

In the end? Nothing ever ends.

• Why is WHAT MEN “Funny”?  (Ryan C Smith of SF SF fame may have asked a variation on this question)

Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.

• Is WHAT MEN deliberately just nothing more than ironic?

Only in the same sense that the Alanis Morissette song is

• Why did you go into the future to find these questions but answer them now, in what is relatively the past? 

Everything is preordained. Even my responses

• Why did you put someone not particularly clever into the role of “world's smartest man” and are you worried about the consequences?

The world's smartest man poses no more threat to me than does its smartest termite.

• Why did you put "yourself" into the comic ?

The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Robert

• Why did you leave it to now to attempt to explain WHAT MEN / Why was there not any blog text  explaining with the drawings as you went along as with previous projects? (Chris Thompson of Pop Culture Hound fame may have asked a variation on this question)

Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? 
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If you would like to make this possible future a reality then by all means don't provide any feedback

However if you wish to deny this futures existence then please do feedback, particularly if you do feel that there is only one interpretation of WHAT MEN

NEXT WEEK:- Something completely and utterly different