Real as a tiger could be
We have already quoted Calvin & Hobbes here several times. In Wikipedia’s entry on Calvin & Hobbes it says:
Calvin sees Hobbes a different way (alive), while other characters see him as something else (a stuffed animal).
— Wikipedia, 2007-03-15
In fact, there is a whole article on its own about Hobbes including a discussion of his reality, also quoting creator Bill Watterson:
When Hobbes is a stuffed toy in one panel and alive in the next, I’m juxtaposing the “grown-up” version of reality with Calvin’s version, and inviting the reader to decide which is truer.
— Bill Watterson, as cited in Wikipedia, 2007-03-15
I remember having discussed this issue with friends. Apparently, many (that is most if not all of my friends) see Hobbes as a stuffed animal. They think that Hobbes as a real tiger exists only in Calvin’s imaginations.
Whereas, I think that Hobbes is real as a tiger could be, and it is only other’s imagination where Hobbes is a stuffed animal.
Though, this is imaginary, of course.
March 16th, 2007 at 8:57
Beware! Presenting himself as a stuffed animal is just another trick of Hobbes…
March 16th, 2007 at 10:23
You mean Hobbes is a part-time liar? That would explain why Hobbes is so true for me :)
August 20th, 2007 at 17:11
I think the idea behind all that is misleading. To pose the question of Hobbes being real or not, one should trust in an underlying “reality” (big trust) and one should trust to be part of it (even bigger!). But who may decide that? Who can say that I’m more or less real than Hobbes? Maybe Hobbes sees us as puppets.. Or maybe reality is just a projection of our trusts, so that Hobbes is real in my reality, and not real in someone else’s one.