At the end of this issue there is a “previously on” block that you would normally find at the beginning of the issue. I must admit that I’ve been relying on these recaps to figure out what the fuck I read in the previous issue. Here is what this one says:
The story so far: You are reading a monthly comic book called “INTERSECT”. The story seems deliberately obtuse and difficult to decipher, like a cipher. But there’s something about it, and about you, that keeps you reading. You experience it, and you hold on to it. Part of you is hoping that it will come together in the end, that there will be a moment that makes you say, “Ah, it all makes sense now.” Another part of you knows that would only disappoint you. You live in a world that makes no sense whatsoever”
WRITTEN BY: Ray Fawkes
ART BY: Ray Fawkes
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: March 25, 2015
I’m tempted to just leave it at that, but I think this message itself is worth examining. By so accurately defining our experience and expectations as a reader, it becomes so clear how manipulated we are by the book. I don’t say that to be revelatory: after all art is by nature a manipulation, but I’ve questioned for some time where Fawkes is coming from with “INTERSECT”. Is he a mad man letting out his demons? Does all this shit make sense to him? Or is he just fucking with us to see how long we’ll put up with this madness. Well the answer seems to be Fawkes is praying upon our innate desire to make sense of the world, to look for patterns and to reject what we don’t understand. Indeed, the experience of reading “INTERSECT” is one of the themes of the book. We hope it will all make sense in the end, but we also know we’d be disappointed if it did. The book doesn’t make sense. We don’t make sense.
Its lofty to be sure, and it isn’t for everyone. But with the inclusion of a letters column we can finally feel less alone with “INTERSECT”. Its interesting how after every issue I go to find what other people are saying about it because I’m so intensely creeped out every time, I don’t understand what I saw, and I’m looking for someone else that understands what I just went through. Its trauma, reading this book is traumatic and we keep reading it and looking for help and insight and trying to understand, and then doing it again. We don’t make sense.
Do I want to make sense of “INTERSECT”? Do I think there is a puzzle to be solved? I’m not really sure anymore. I’ve started to think that Ali or Jason or both of them did something really horrible to each other and that this is hell. Would I be satisfied to find out that that is what is going on here? Probably not, but I don’t know. I think “INTERSECT” broke me.
