“I call it, ‘The Torment of Existence Weighed Against the Horror of Nonbeing'”: A Calvin and Hobbes Cartoon to Cheer Up Gloomy Existentialists

There is a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that I especially like.

Calvin has just made a decidedly non-traditional SNOWMAN that looks, with his gaping mouth and look of agony, akin to Edward Munch’s The Scream, and says to Hobbes:

I call it, “The Torment of Existence Weighed Against the Horror of Nonbeing.”

Calvin then adds:

As he melts, the sculpture will become even more poignant.

I think that this cartoon marvelously captures existentialist notions of angst, absurdity, and even aesthetics—and does so in a way that says, “RELAX. Life isn’t all bad!”

To see the cartoon, click here.