Reflecting on the Enduring Wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes After 34 Years

Bill Watterson named the protagonists of Calvin and Hobbes after two European philosophers. John Calvin (1509-1564) was a controversial theologian whose ideas gave rise to the predestination-oriented Calvinist branch of Protestantism. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) wrote Leviathan, one of the foundational works of social contract theory.

Matching either character to their namesake’s philosophy rarely works. Calvin is the closer of the two. Being a young child is a sort of predestination in itself, since little of his day-to-day life is in his direct control. Hobbes is a tiger, so he favors the nasty, brutish, and short state of nature that Thomas Hobbes sought to avoid. If the two have anything in common, as Watterson noted, both Hobbeses do not think much of humans.

Watterson provided a core mission statement for Calvin and Hobbes in a commencement speech at his alma mater, Kenyon College, in 1990.

To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble, Watterson said. Reading those turgid philosophers here in these remote stone buildings may not get you a job, but if those books have forced you to ask yourself questions about what makes life truthful, purposeful, meaningful, and redeeming, you have the Swiss Army Knife of mental tools, and it’s going to come in handy all the time.

That provides a useful lens to view Calvin and Hobbes through rather than seeing it as a straightforward philosophical articulation. Calvin constantly asks questions because he showed up late to the party and does not understand why things are the way they are.

Hobbes keeps things simple. He does not necessarily have all the answers, but he refuses to overthink anything.

You have to laugh at times

Hobbes giving a one-sentence answer to a complex question is a well-populated subgenre of Calvin and Hobbes. If Watterson ever greenlights a series of themed collections the way Charles Schulz did with Peanuts, then Calvin and Hobbes: The Dialogues is a lock for inclusion.

The punchline to these strips often hinges on Hobbes being a tiger who does not care about the topic or holds a low opinion of human nature. An exception appears in the strip for April 19, 1992.

This falls relatively early in the period following Watterson’s first sabbatical, when he successfully negotiated with his syndicate to earn the right to be more creative with his full-color Sunday comics. Rather than breaking them down into multiple panels that individual newspapers could freely reorganize, Watterson worked with a single half-page block. This strip uses large empty space in ways that newspaper comics before and since usually cannot manage.

On a stroll through the woods, Calvin asks Hobbes if it is strange that evolution gave humans a sense of humor. He points out that having a physiological response to absurdity, laughing at nonsense, and finding it funny creates a weird puzzle regarding how it benefits people.

Hobbes replies that if humans could not laugh at things that do not make sense, they could not react to a lot of life, and he walks away.

Calvin takes a moment and says aloud that he cannot tell if that answer is funny or really scary.

That simple answer to a complex question rings true. People must laugh sometimes because the alternative is to scream, rage, or shut down entirely. Previous generations of artists and writers made the same point in their own ways, including Lord Byron, and this strip offers Calvin and Hobbes a chance to revisit the concept. Anyone looking for one of the wisest things Watterson ever put in Hobbes’ mouth will find this strip to be a solid contender.

Source: Polygon