From: Alexx@world.std.com (Alexx S Kay)
Subject: Re: cerebus 162
Keywords: cerebus
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 12:46:59 GMT

pathall@delphinus.as.arizona.edu (Patrick B. Hall) writes:
>In article <Bw4M78.6qI@world.std.com> Alexx@world.std.com (Alexx S Kay) writes:
>>[I claim that there are two Oscars]
>>
>>Sorry to rant, but it's so rare that I'm proved *right* on a controversial
>>issue :-)

>From the Usenet Interview:

>tyg (tyg@hq.ileaf.com) -- Was Oscar in Melmoth the same character 
>who was in Jaka's Story? People have said you've answered this 
>question differently at different tour stops.

>Dave -- That was left intentionally ambiguous. If you go by the 
>length of Jaka's hair between issues 75 and 114, Cerebus was on 
>the moon for a longer time than it appeared, or was wandering 
>around dazed for two years. The Oscar character in Melmoth refers 
>to the author of Jaka's Story as a separate person. This was one of 
>the instances where I was ambiguous with a capital "A"; 
>manufacturing two separate, irresolvable interpretations. Nothing 
>frustrates me more than the twentieth century adherence to the 
>notion that you can find out what "actually happened" and that it is 
>necessary for fiction to set out a linear, quantitative and absolute 
>reality for the readers consumption and assurance. I think 
>EVERYTHING is like the Kennedy assassination(s); riddled with 
>inconsistencies, false trails overlapping stories and considerations; 
>distortions wrapped inside fabrications and coated with lies. The 
>sooner we get over the idea that reality isn't like this, the sooner 
>we'll be able to put together a world that fits our circumstances as 
>they are; not as they never were and will never be. I'm not holding 
>my breath.
>(end of excerpt)

> 	Actually, rereading Dave's answer leaves me a bit more puzzled
>than before.  I don't quite see what the time lapse between #75 and #114
>has to do with anything here; both Jaka's Story and Melmoth occurred
>later (assuming that the "wandering around dazed" he speaks of occurs
>in 112/113, not between Jaka's Story & Melmoth).  

Well, I can (immodestly) think of at least two connections:  They're both
issues I spend a lot of time debating in my Timeline, and they're both
questions that I asked Dave at the signing at which I handed him a copy
of the Timeline.

>	It certainly seems most reasonable that the two Oscars were 
>different; I'm not quite sure why Dave thinks it's ambigious.  Unless
>you make the assumption that there _is_ only one Oscar, which leaves you
>with a continuity problem of how could Oscar be out of jail in Melmoth
>but back in jail in M&D.  Maybe that's what he meant.

Major Clue time:  Dave changes his mind on occassion.  He likes to keep up
this image of having a master plan for every detail for the series, but
careful reading of interviews and such will show him changing his mind about
details on a frequent basis.  At the time of this installment of the Usenet
Interview, Dave had not yet written the issue where we see Oscar in prison.
Some time betwen the interview and that issue (perhaps partially prompted
by the interview itself), he decided that he wanted to bring Oscar back.
It's possible that he just felt like cementing continuity that day, or
that he needed a sympathetic witness in the prison and thought of Oscar,
or that he had decided that he wanted Oscar to play an important role
later on in the story.  Any, all, or none of these.

One thing Neil Gaiman and Dave Sim appear to have in common is that they
love to *sound* like they know everything about their own work (see recent
discussions about Men of Good Fortune), but they seem, under scrutiny, to
be "making it up as they go along" (not that that isn't a perfectly valid
way to make Art).  Also, the two of them are very, *very* good at audience
misdirection, and surprising the reader...

Alexx

Alexx@world.std.com
"Really, now, Powers.  Had I intended for educated men to read 
 that nonsense, I would have used smaller type..."
	-- President Weisshaupt, Cerebus