J'accuse!: Toons on Guilt
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines guilt as “feelings of deserving blame, especially for imagined offenses or from a sense of inadequacy.” For example, maybe if someone volunteered to edit a weekly newsletter, and then forgot about that until the very last minute, and had to scramble and pressure and wheedle contributors, thereby making what should have been a peaceful process into a stressful one, and then, rather than crafting a thoughtful, hilarious, and insightful introduction, choked at the prospect of trying to put this week’s newsletter theme, GUILT, into the context of the hell week that just passed re: law and order and rights and violations, and instead regurgitated the dictionary definition of the theme like a boring bridesmaid’s toast, that person might experience something akin to guilt. Hypothetically.
-Sofia, with Merriam Webster
Navied Mahdavian
The word “guilt” comes from the Old English gylt, but is of unknown origin. My guilt is of definite origin–forgetting to call everyone back. So, sorry.
By reading this, the reader acknowledges receipt of the above apology and hereby releases Navied Mahdavian, hereon referred to as The Guilty Cartoonist, from any obligation, moral or otherwise, from future telephonic communication.
Amy Kurzweil
Is this cartoon, in its swirling, Machiavellian way, trying to guilt you into not eating animals? (Perhaps.) Am I guilty of eating undeserving animals sometimes? (Maybe.) Is SNL guilty of stealing the joke in this cartoon, first drawn in 2016, for their Smokery Farms skit with Kate and Aidy? (No, comedians come up with the same jokes all the time.) Did my grandfather, upon immigrating to this country, make a living by starting a meat packing plant? (Yes.) Is it the case that everyone on that side of my family is now a vegetarian? (Yes) Am I a vegetarian? (I’m trying ok! Reality is complicated! We’re all just doing the best we can, including the cow I ate last weekend.)
Ellis Rosen
Brendan Loper and I did this cartoon, and I think it captures the kind of guilt I feel the most: the made-up-in-my-head guilt. It's a special kind of guilt that can take a normal situation and make it a thousand times worse. For instance, recently I was feeling guilty about this innocuous silly thing I said to my neighbor. Later that day I saw him in the elevator again. He gave me a friendly hello, and in the span of seconds I thought of the innocuous thing I said to him, and that I should apologize to him for it, but that would actually be stupid becuase there was nothing to apologize for, and all that came out of my mouth was, “This is stupid.”
So to clarify: he said “Hello” and I responded “This is stupid.” All of this because of a completely unnecessary feeling of guilt deep in my brain. The worst part is that this is nowhere near over and that I'm sure I will say some more stupid crap to him in the hopes of explaining all my earlier stupid crap I said to him. That poor man.
Johnny DiNapoli
I’ve gone fishing only once in my wild and precious life. It was at a campsite pond where you throw the fish back after catching them. I caught my first fish, looked at it and thought: why? What is the point of this? This fish does not look thrilled and probably has places to be. Anyway, I threw it back and have never fished since.
Hilary Campbell
This is a very old cartoon. Seeing their faces right now makes me really want to redraw it, but I’m resisting because that’s clearly the Catholic guilt in me about not being perfect enough every day of my life speaking.
Ali Fitzgerald
I frequently feel a whirring, pinging guilt about my humanness (hashtag we are the virus). This guilt is very unhelpful in my daily life but also completely rational (gestures everywhere, all at once, gets tired, takes a guilt-laced nap). How do I deal with these feelings? Sometimes I doomscroll and give monologues about the ecology of swamps to my partner (she loves it). At other times, I draw zaftig, anthropomorphic animals who also despair at the destruction they wreak.
Sofia Warren
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