14-09-2007

I was sent an email recently from a fan concerning Clarence. I thought it’d be nice to post it with my reply.

Hi, I’d just like to say first of, I really enjoyed the clarence principle. The story was just something I never read before. How the artwork can project the feeling of the story is beyond effective. I have just been extremely puzzled about its meaning leading me to conclude that it’s intentionally ambiguous, and leaves the reader to decide the ending. I can’t help but think that it involves a deeper meaning in death.

While flipping through the pages I found a background quote in the courtyard scene which I believe in complete text it says: “sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt”. Which is latin for “Tears for things, morality touches the heart”. I don’t know if I’m going anywhere with this but it’s just been really bugging me. I don’t know if it’s just there to fill in space or something like that.

Anything you can say to me that can give me a little insight would be great, I’d be satisfied with even just an answer to the background quote.

Thanks,
Jay

My reply is a bit long. I cut out spoilers, but I hope what I discussed in the email doesn’t ruin things for anyone. I mean, I have so much I want to say and discuss, but I always worry that what I say publicly might spoil things for people who haven’t read the book yet. Read on if you’d like.

Hi Jay,

I’m actually quite flattered that you’ve dived so deep into the book like this. I slipped in lots of tiny details into the story that I’d hoped people might find or see on a second or third read. I love it when I find things in stories on a second read that I never noticed before. It almost makes the whole thing fresh.

I’m surprised you were able to decipher that quote this well. As I recall however, it actually was meant to say ‘Tears can cut/stab the heart’. It may have been bad translation on my part though. My Latin is not that great (your version sounds better haha). It was meant to be a kind of reference to both Clarence’s state of mind as well as his encounter with Blossom, the girl on the stage.

[spoiler cut out - fweeee]

It all spawned from a thought I’d had, concerning Heaven. I’d often heard people say that Heaven would give you anything your heart desired. What if you’d lead a good life, but by the end of it, you died damaged? What then? And so I took that idea and wrote a short story titled ‘Ridiculed’, which sat on my PC for a year, before I went back to it and expanded on it to turn it into ‘The Clarence Principle’. I started to toy with visual ideas in a surreal, yet still familiar environment, to bring a lot of the points across while at the same time, just having some fun with it too. Life isn’t always serious, so I would presume that death must have its funny moments too.

I hope my ramblings have answered at least some of your questions. If I missed something or if you have anything further to discuss/ask, feel free to drop me another email.

Thanks for writing.