5125: Reading

==Explanation==
==The author writes:==
The original instance of this comic relies on what has become a standard trope amongst the Garfield cognoscenti; namely that Jon is subpar in all aspects of his life. In the aforementioned case, to whit, the effort of reading a small notice displayed on the back of a cereal box (or at least what may be assumed to be such, given that no denial or confirmation is given within the strip itself, requiring the viewer to discern the nature of the unremarked-upon box to deduce from its branding the nature of its contents) is enough to render him visibly exhausted after what we must assume is only a matter of seconds in the frame of reference of the comic.
The SRoMG (Square Root of Minus Garfield) comic makes a small but significant edit to a single word in the original instance, replacing the word 'milk' with 'Ulysses' in Garfield's seemingly earnest reply in the third panel. (Again, only seemingly since no confirmation or denial is given on this point within the strip either. Once more requiring the viewer to use their own discernment based on Garfield's smile and wide-eyed expression. This might be considered at odds with the feline's usual proclivities as he is more often seen to display a sarcastic or denigrating attitude towards Jon's shortcomings.) The intent of the author of this derived instance is (without any need for assumption, guesswork or discernment, due to the author's significant screed beneath the strip on its native website where the 'joke' is explained at some length) to make a humorous observation that the aforementioned book Ulysses is a work of literature that can be considered in many (but not all) respects to require vastly more effort to parse than the previous text that Jon has spent of much of his energies attempting to comprehend (or perhaps only enunciate).
This twice-derived instance by the author who has penned (or rather typed) this text which the reader should currently find themselves perusing, makes a more significant edit (in terms of raw pixels altered as opposed to actual thematic or emotional impact) that involves drastically reducing Jon's verbiage. This is to indicate that his mental prowess is significantly less than that demonstrated in the original instance. This in turn produces a humorous result somewhat (but not entirely) analogous to the first derived instance.
That is to say, in both cases Garfield's claimed future reading material is presumably far above the level of works which Jon has been grappling with in the strip's domain. However in the first instance this was achieved by raising the level of the assumed subsequent text whereas in the secondly derived instance it was achieved by lowering Jon's demonstrated standard of comprehension.
Finally, in what may be considered a 'meta-joke' or at least an attempt at analysis, the author has provided an explanation of her produced derived instance as well as a (more speculative) exploration of the primary source and first derived instances that is of a length superior (in sheer character volume) to that produced by the deriving author of SRoMG #5011. The humor here being derived from the excessive, jargonistic and overly-detailed explanation of the instance's textural workings in a manner that might be considered analogous to the "famously convoluted and long book by... a famously convoluted author". Though the effectiveness of this approach may be debated and it may be surmised that either or both authors of the SRoMG-derived instances of the comic have far too much spare time on their hands that might be more profitably devoted to other activities such as reading Joyce.
Original Square Root of Minus Garfield strip: 2023-02-06.
Original strip: .
==Transcript==
Jon: Garfield, I read!
{Jon is holding a brightly-coloured box of cereal}
Jon: "Fortified..."
Jon {visibly tired}: Head hurts...
Garfield {enthusiastically}: Tomorrow, we read a milk carton!
Category:Levellass