• A text box reads, After studying comics formalism and philosophy in college (as well as psychoanalysis and dream interpretation), I fatefully ran into a book at a thrift store that changed my life... College-Elk is holding a copy of a book entitled The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes. The image on the cover is a sort of MC Escher-style cartoon of a man climbing in and out of a block simultaneously, like a sort of optical illusion. On the bottom of the cover it reads, by Rudy Rucekr, Foreward by Martin Gardner. Elk exclaims loudly in a bold speech bubble, Whoah Groovy!
  • College-Elk is nose-deep in the book with little swirls and stars and planets bouncing around his head. It reads, My first ever introduction to four-dimensionalism articulated in goofy diagrams written (and drawn!) by sci-fi author and mathematician RUDY RUCKER! which is written in big bubble letters. Elk has little hearts in his eyes and is surrounded by images of clocks, watches and sun-dials, and there's a framed portrait of Rudy Rucker behind him. Rudy Rucker is a cute older white man with a big goofy grin and is smiling behind big glasses and is wearing a fly-fisherman bucket hat. Elk says, I'd read a lot on the philosophy of time, but this was the first instance where the theory struck me like a LIGHTNING BOLT.
  • Rucker's goal is to jolt you into shifting your consciousness, using cartoons to help reconsider how you conceive of the fourth dimension- time. Rudy Rucker is shooting thunder bolts from his hands. Below is pictured Walter Benjamin shooting thunder bolts out of his hands while smoking a cigarette, and the text reads: like Walter Benjamin's Dialectical Image that shocks you into realization!
  • In the tradition of Rudy Rucker, 4dtime.space is my attempt to flash you with images to provoke gut insights on the philosophy of time. Pictured: a diagram of the block universe, which is a cube with a plane passing through it, and two points on either end of the cube with a world line passing between the two. There's an arrow pointed at the first dot, labelled YOU! The plane in the center that's passing through the block universe is labelled the moving present. Elk is below the diagram pointing at a reel of film and a comic book with its pages open to reveal bare panels, and he says, Specifically, shock you using comics and film formalism as guide.
  • Elk is dressed up as an old-timey philosopher with a big ruff and a flouncy hat with a big feather in it, and he's holding a skull dramatically. He says, While there is scholarship on comics form and content, the comics medium itself is rarely used to make truth claims. Scott McCloud appears and says, Hey! If you want to understand comics, I wrote the book AND drew it! Elk replies, but it can't just be you! In the next panel, Elk looks embarrassed, with his head in his hands and looking guilty with beads of sweat on his forehead. He says, admittedly we did have Nick Sousanis' Unflattening, but I didn't find it adequately rigorous. He whispers, Sorry Nick, but we can go further.
  • A text box reads, Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother is the clear exception to the rule, since it is a well-argued psychoanalytic text. Pictured to the right of this frame is a redrawn panel from Are You My Mother where Alison Bechdel has a worried look and is laying down on a couch in a therapy session. Elk is blushing with hearts around his head, and whispers shyly, Thanks Lesbian comics mom! Then, in a speech bubble made up of hearts, he shouts I LOVE YOU in all caps. In the next panel, Elk is dressed as a bare-knuckle boxer, and continues, But in all seriousness... I wnat to take Alison Bechdel's rigor, Scott McCloud's ambition, and Nick Sousanis' vision, and bring it into my wheelhouse: the Philosophy of Time.
  • Elk swings his fist in an excited gesture, saying comics has a particular aptitude baked into the medium for literalizing concepts like block universe theory. Through the form itself you can make truth claims regarding not just the philosophy of time, but the shape of the universe and how it functions on a cosmic scale. In the next panel, Elk's third eye is opened and squiggly lines are emanating from his body, both his hands making some kind of ohm okay hand sign. He goes on, Through this comic, I aim to expand understandings of time, space, and our place in the universe.
  • Elk blushes, saying, As a trans philosopher and autobiographical comics artist, of course I'm interested in the question what is the self and how a subject persists through time! He is surrounded by a tiny trans pride flag, the gay inverted triangle, and a gender symbol that has the trans male/female symbol, non-binary x symbol, and a question mark branching out from it. He also is adorned with a little banner that reads his pronouns, which are he, him, and his. In the next panel, Elk is wearing a T-shirt that says PERDURANTISM SAYS TRANS RIGHTS while giving a thumbs-up to the viewer. He says, Informed by my own identity and experience, I hope to help people reconcile their place in the universe and the tractory of their own lives using comics. This, in fact, is the first part of what I call a trans metaphysics.
  • On the final page of this segment, Elk recreates an obscure meme where in the first panel he looks angrily off-screen, and in the second he raises his fists and shouts into the sky. The first panel reads, I'm using comics to take four-dimensionalism beyond old white dude philosophy and its endless pedantry! When he raises his fist, it reads, Bringing to life a new conception of time, while using the revolutionary potential of comics as a way of producing philosophical concepts!! In the next, final panel, Elk looks sheepish at his laptop, waving his hand. He says, Don't worry if this all sounds super obscure... Just click the home button and start exploring! And thanks for reading.
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