Talking to Ourselves
what we talk about what we talk about when we talk about ourselves or: how we learned to stop worrying and talk to ourselves about worrying about talking... to ourselves
Hey, it’s Jason! Here is a Rodney Dangerfield-style joke I just made up: I get no respect! I walked into an echo chamber and it disagreed with me! Is it weird that I’m making up jokes in the voice of a comedian whose work I am barely familiar with? Yeah. Am I just emerging from covid isolation, coming back out into this great world having forgotten how to interact with humans? Duh.
Here’s the thing about being alone: you can have a great interlocutor. In my case, my dog Winston. But also I can hold my own against… myself. That’s right, this week we’re talking to ourselves! We cartoonists are our own first readers — if we aren’t amusing ourselves, the gag’s not about to work on anybody else. Unsurprisingly, I think that cartooning is a career that selects for folks who tend to be quite active in the ole cerebral looping endless internal thoughts/discussions/debates department.
It’s a joy to share these internal monologues with our wonderful readers, without whom this would all be one looping self-reflexive conversation. Thanks for hearing us. <3
Johnny DiNapoli
I love talking with myself, because I make great conversation AND I’m a good listener, especially when listening to someone as naturally charming as myself.
Amy Kurzweil
Let me ask: who do you imagine you are writing to when you post something on social media? Who am I writing to right now? Am I not just… talking to myself? Self conversation always assumes a listener. To quote from my 6 year old diary: “I am so bord I cod scrym, as you all no know.” Who is the “you,” dear reader? Do I contain multitudes, or do you? Is it insane that the internet contains a quadrajillion streams of the multitudinous thoughts of billions of people talking to themselves and the models of each other they contain in their heads, which are a part of themselves? Where do you and I end?? And how many pennies can be made from this ontological confusion?
Jason Adam Katzenstein
Hamlet is the most famous self-talker in the game. He self-talks to the ghost of his father, he self-talks to Yorick’s skull, he self-talks to the audience. Hey Hamlet, try some self-listening to Ophelia. Got him. I K.O.’d Hamlet. Shakespeare: owned.
Asher Perlman
I would fail the marshmallow test every time.
Hilary Campbell
Kids are outrageously good at talking to themselves even when they really don’t mean to. I’m afraid it’s a lost art that is beat out of us by the ripe age of 11 but maybe it’s something we all need to strive to return to. The endless trailing thoughts of 3 year olds might be the cure to loneliness and human suffering.*
*Editor’s note: YOU can talk to Hilary on March 31st in the East Village at ArtsClub starting at 6:30 – wine and snacks INCLUDED!
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ALRIGHT WE’RE DONE HERE SEND IN THE BUTTONS