See I don't even think that sort of contorted-ass logic follows. Y'don't need to up the stakes to cosmic level "annihilation of all goodness" to be "this is a horrendous thing that destroys a person's ability to live a functional healthy life."
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Replying to @loudpenitent @chrysopoetics and
But the Hulk's angst isn't just about SELF-loathing Or it doesn't have to be, that's not the darkest framing (a therapist would say acknowledging it really is only about himself would be the first step to Bruce healing)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
The Hulk's existence is a statement about the nature of the world Everything is a mask, everything is a surface, and whenever you peel that surface back you find something a lot uglier
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
The trauma of child abuse isn't really just trauma over knowing your dad, in particular, was an asshole It's how your parents are your model for how you think the world as a whole behaves, for what God is like Those lessons once learned are not easily unlearned
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
It's the whole thing where religion comes in in Heart of Darkness Kurtz's fiancée, the Beloved (a very Biblical term, from the Song of Solomon), who is more or less completely defined by her faith, and the contrast she paints to both Marlow and Kurtz
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
Her whole conversation with Marlow is just her insisting that whatever happened to Kurtz and however painful his death was in his last moments God must've been there, God must've comforted him, he must have left the world bathed in the warm light of his faith
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
And Marlow just silently agrees, even though he and we know that what Kurtz really saw on his deathbed could only be described as "The horror... the horror"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
I've always loved the Hulk precisely because what he's about is this very classic very highfalutin very literary theme about the duality and depravity of man But he's also the most cartoony wacky dumb superhero The power of comics to make metaphor literal
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
But yeah this is going from the pulpy idea of Jekyll and Hyde duality to the more literary Heart of Darkness duality If Kurtz as he is in Europe and Kurtz as he is in Africa are so different then that means Kurtz, as an identifiable meaningful singular identity, doesn't exist
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
That's the horror, the "heart of darkness" That there's nothing really there - in Kurtz, whom everyone thought was the smartest most humane philosopher they knew There's nothing really there in anyone Which means there's nothing up there either
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The same lesson you learn when the person you love most in the world who tucks you in every night beats you bloody and breaks your arm
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
Man and the point of the One Below All is that when the Hulk finally and fully takes over it IS the One Below All All the various Hulk personae - Savage Hulk, Joe Fixit, Professor Hulk, Bruce Banner himself - just cease to exist He was always only a conduit, he didn't matter
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent and
The Hulk isn't his "alter ego" and it isn't a sign he himself is special The Hulk is just a truth about the way things are, that Bruce learned long ago at his father's knee and was suddenly reminded in a flash of agonizing heat and light And he's fated to teach it to the world
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