Calvin's Ego

If there's an origin to my imagination, it starts with the comic Calvin and Hobbes. The six year old captured my interest when I borrowed the collections from the library. I remember reading about this young boy who duplicated himself with a cardboard box. The same box would serve as a time machine and a "transmogripher." Each of these uses would set Calvin up on a week or so adventure usually ending in the reader questioning how much was part of Calvin's imagination and how much was real. Calvin often fights with his counterpart and best friend, a stuffed tiger named Hobbes. Both are named after late philosophers John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes. To my recollection, the two didn't have opposing views. Hobbes wasn't born for at least twenty years after Calvin's death in the late 1500s. The comic book versions are simplified versions of the inspriration's philosophy. Based on the 10th anniversery collection, creator Bill Waterson describes Calvin as a believer in pre-determination. A fitting trait for a bratty boy in the cusp of childhood. Thomas Hobbes is more famous for his book The Leviathan, rather than his actions. Again, drawing comparison, the comic version of Hobbes is more inclined to think things through rather than jump head first into something. Thomas Hobbes believed that mankind was corrupt and needed a guiding influence in the form of a king. John Calvin, on the other hand, spent his life annoying people with his writings and actions working contrary to the wishes of the Catholic Church. Thus, the comic versions of Calvin and Hobbes play out as an immature child and his more grounded consence playing ridiculous games and getting into trouble. 

I remember that I checked out the Calvin and Hobbes collection so much that my parents threw up their hands and bought it for me. I believe it was the Authoratative collection that drew my interest. The larger versions of the collection always had a difficult word on them. "Essencial" or "Indispensible" were plastered on the front pages. I always asked my parents what those words meant. Calvin, despite being a child, had a huge vocabulary. I still don't know what a "Neo-deconstructionsist" is or how it's funny. The humor is layered like a Loony Toon cartoon. I was drawn in by the silly plots and the slap stick humor. Today, one of my favorite cartoons has Calvin begging his mom to buy him a satanic music album. His mom, instead of exploding at him for seeing and wanting such a thing, explains that he should invest his money in bands that aren't in it for the money. Calvin says something like "Mainstream commercial nihilism can't be trusted?" "'Fraid not kiddo." His mom answers. Calvin slinks off disillusioned. It's such a clever critique of reality while at the same time poking fun at Calvin's naivete and offers a lesson in parenting. It's layered in the same way a kid will watch Bugs Bunny hit Elmer Fudd with a hammer but miss him rolling his eyes at Fudd's incompetence. Like a joke you can come back to years later and notice something you didn't see when you were a kid. 

But for me, Calvin is what kick-started my imagination. My sister was drawn in too, we traveled through time to find dinosaurs and every year we made plans to build one of Calvin's snowgoons. We made a two-headed one and one that had a cannon ball shot through it. It was a lot of fun. Like Calvin, I too was into dinosaurs at the time. Dinosaurs are like realistic fantasy creatures that we can only speculate about.what they were like. This type of imagination draws in young people like myself who visualize what it would be like to walk among the giants. 

But I've gotten far off topic. I wanted to talk about a smaller aspect of Calvin that I think drew me in: Calvin's ego. There are a few comics that expose how egotistical Calvin is to the reader. The comic usually follows a ridiculous idea that Calvin has with it ending with him declaring himself to be a genius. One I can remember is one where he clones a good version of himself that disappates when it tries to fight Calvin over the local girl, Susie. The clone disappears because it was designed to be a good version and couldn't exist if it had a bad thought, such as fighting the original Calvin. Calvin, realizing this to be the case, declares his accidental genius to Hobbes. It's a ridiculous notion that Calvin is so into himself that he's smarter than realizes, even beyond his own understanding. The second comic is less of a series and one where Calvin presents his business card to Hobbes which he made by making indentions on a piece of tough paper. Hobbes is impressed that Calvin went to the trouble for such a useless endeavor while Calvin declares himself to be a genius for thinking up this method. But the only reason Hobbes knows about this card is that Calvin declared that he was carrying such an item. It's a strange bragging point and a cry for attention. 

Calvin must have connected with me on a deeper level, because I too crave attention. I feel the need to tell people how great I am and sometimes I'm obsessed with being famous. I guess I want the attention that goes with fame while in reality I'm very shy. Jump ahead thirty years and I'm still chasing that stardom. I recall thinking that I would be an inventor when I grew up and have several pattents that would sustain me. There's an urge in me to get attention from random strangers which confuses me why I crave such a thing that runs contrary to my nature. Perhaps it's something that bloomed in my from my time with Calvin.