“It is true that I am getting older, but it is also true that culture can get worse: less surprising, more reliant on references and brands, familiar to the point of revulsion. I worry that I have witnessed these changes in my short lifetime, although I cannot really know. As a hedge against uncertainty, Garfield variants offer a course of conditioning. To consume them is to become a kind of aesthetic Spartan, training yourself to survive in an environment that offers less and less comfort. Once you’ve learned to experience the pipe gag as the satisfying outcome of any two events, sitting through another “Avengers” movie feels easy. These algorithmically modified reruns of decades-old cartoons sharpen the skills we will need to find meaning in a potentially more disordered future.”
— Dan Brooks (via)