Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
There’s a video up on YouTube by the channel poparena that analyzes the TV Show “Moral Orel.” It opens with two anecdotes from the speaker’s life. The first consists of the young speaker learning about Heaven and, without a hint of depression or malice, suggests that his whole family kill themselves. He questioned, “Why waste time her paying bills, going to school, mowing the lawn, when we could be in Heaven right now?” Given the state of the world as known by a child, he had simply reached the most logical conclusion that we should all escape our miserable lives and go to Heaven and be happy forever. His parents shut the argument down, though without giving any spiritual argument to back it up. The speaker notes that there’s nothing in the bible that directly talks about suicide.
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
The second consists of more pleasant fair: 9/11. At the time, the speaker was in a relationship. Much like his family, she was very religious. Like many people, she was distraught about the events of that day. In particular, of those who decided to jump out of the World Trade Center, as that would mean they wouldn’t go to Heaven. The narrator notes how this attempt at suicide is, on some level, a sympathetic one as it allows those who would either burn to death or slowly suffocate to at the very least die on their own terms.
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
The analysis goes on to look at the nature of suicide through the lens of the way in which the Bible’s Singular Vision doesn’t take into account the various reasons one might want to commit suicide. Whereas Mister Miracle #1 starts Tom King’s run by looking at this motivation of suicide: the world is terrible and I want to escape it.
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
Consider the world of Mister Miracle #1: Oberon, Scott’s manager and best friend, is dead (an assisted suicide that Scott was the executioner of); Darkseid, literally the physical embodiment of the worst, has the Anti-Life Equation, which declares that life is meaningful only if you die for Darkseid; Scott sometimes looks at his wife, Barda, and doesn’t even recognize her;
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
Orion, Scott’s step brother, frequently comes over to Scott’s house to punch him in the face; Highfather, Scott’s father, is dead; Donald Trump is
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
President of the United States (indeed, around the same time the comic came out, Trump threatened to nuke North Korea); and Tom King has just started writing a depressing hyper-formal 9-Panel Grid Tom King Comic about one simple question:
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
Given this, why wouldn’t you try to escape? And, in the opening pages (wonderfully drawn by Mitch Gerads, whose sketchy style fits with the wrongness of the world, especially in its use of tape) Scott decides to say “I should.”
He is then reminded of the answer to the question.
Why shouldn’t I commit suicide?
It’s the same answer Grant Morrison gave the last time a Mister Miracle tried to do it in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #4: because we will always bring him back. We want more stories about Scott Free and how he suffers and dies for us again and again and again and again until we decide to torture him some more. All because we believe there are no other stories, let alone superhero stories, than ones about conflict and eternal pain. Because, in truth, those are the stories that we have to live in without release, save one…
In response to all of this, the series seems to be asking, “Ok, so how do I get out of this?” I look forward to finding out.
“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.”Support the blog on Patreon.
-Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
1 comment:
Two responses; one based on the religious perspective, one not.
(1) I guess if you buy into the existence of heaven, you have to buy into the ten commandments. The first is pretty explicit - 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'. Killing yourself is bit like signing up to compete in a marathon, getting a taxi to the finishing line and then grumbling when you don't get first prize (or indeed any sort of prize) - just disqualification.
(2) From a non-religious perspective, committing suicide always seemed to me a bit like putting a book down when you're only halfway through. Things aren't looking good for the hero and frankly, you've had enough. Now the book may have an unhappy ending or it may not - but how are you ever going to know unless you finish it first?
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