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Day #157: Little Nemo and the "Dream"sicle Incident

"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated October 11, 1908:


Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (NOVEMBER 5, 2020):


This is a frightening comic strip… I mean, I guess it makes some twisted sense (dream logic), but it's one helluva nightmare… - 1/11

It starts off harmlessly enough with our trio going to grab ice cream to celebrate Flip's birthday (maybe; at least he says that it's his birthday)… - 2/11

Sadly, Flip's gluttony leads them to eat 18 bowls of ice cream (presumably) between them all and freeze into blocks of solid ice… - 3/11

I'm incredibly annoyed at how Impie is treated… panel 6 clearly demonstrates his expendability as his being knocked off his chair and shattered is meant to demonstrate the fragility of the characters in their current state. - 4/11

Sure, Flip slips and shatters, as well, but it's an accident. He isn't poked off of his stool just to make a point. I hate it. - 5/11

When Flip does shatter in panel 10, he isn't valued much either though… the gentleman carrying him away simply says he'll get a shovel (presumably to clean up the mess), without so much as a "oh, god! He's gone… how awful". - 6/11

He's more concerned with the fact that he dropped him, not that he shattered. - 7/11

Now, Nemo is carefully brought home where he's left in front of a hot stove to defrost… sadly, the stove melts him instead of defrosts him and Nemo becomes a puddle of dream-boy goop all over the kitchen floor… - 8/11

That Nemo is treated the kindest and most fragile of all our three characters isn't surprising given his prominence as the central, title character and the one of highest social/class status. - 9/11

I don't really think I have that much more to say about this strip… I'm interested to hear all of your thoughts. It's another "dream-->nightmare" scenario, which seems to be common right now, but it doesn't do for me what the last couple have. - 10/11

This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #157. What's yours? - 11/11

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