Before 3000 BC, ancient Egypt began to domesticate cats, and the ancient Egyptians revered cats as the embodiment of the moon goddess. Ancient China also began to raise cats very early, from the Tang Dynasty began to cats become pets, there is a Song Dynasty even hired cats, Lu You such a cat lover wrote a lot of poems and articles for their own tanuki slaves. In today's urban life, there are many people who have no hesitation in joining the ranks of shovelers, how can these cute kittens have bad eyes, they are so cute, so arrogant, so lazy and loving to think, these captive cats live a good life every day, what are they thinking every day?
The well-known American graphic novelist and painter Carl Stevens and his wife lived in Boston with two cats, and one day, when Stevens was faced with the blank paper when his inspiration dried up, the 3-month-old cat Penny, who was adopted by the couple at the age of 7, jumped on his lap, so that the painter painted like Disney at that time, so there was this "Existential Thinking of a Cat".
This comic Penny is the absolute protagonist, the comic style is realistic, Penny's environment is clear at a glance, Penny's cat's various expressions and actions, and even the hair on the cat's body are vivid, Penny's thinking, surprised, lazy little eyes seem to be looking at the outside world through the album.
Penny's cat is different from the cat that everyone thinks, she is a cat with a big brain, in the days of adoption, she was carefully cared for by the owner, food and clothing, of course, occasionally there are times when the owner goes out on a trip and forgets to leave enough cat food, or accidentally let her escape from home. This cat is good at thinking, after all, the cat's life is mostly alone except for eating and drinking and being teased by humans. Tennessee Williams's phrase "all of us are in our own shells, sentenced to lifelong solitary confinement" is on her lips, and when she becomes a separate individual looking at this worldview of herself, she will feel that she is the center of the world, self-consciousness arises with loneliness, and Penny, the cat who likes to think, gradually begins to existentialize.
Treating the current life, it feels that its home may be a hell to imprison itself, and the outside world is not necessarily real, maybe it is good to indulge in the warm and dry food now, and it is not bad to indulge in a good life, but the heart that wants to escape is also eager to move. When the door opens one day and Penny has a dark magic moment, she can escape back to her life by the garbage can, but she is mistaken for the enemy who snatched the fish's head and fights with another cat, and finally Penny is rescued by the owner, she successfully convinces herself, she is still lost and meditates on the life of being fed.
This is only a moment of immersion in the great nothingness of Penny, in what she thinks is a warm cage, feeling that behind the cardboard box and the sofa towel is another world, she will think about many profound questions, such as the relationship between happiness and pain, feel sad about beautiful things, and become a slave to beauty.
Kind, solitude, beauty and failure, freedom and captivity, existence in nothingness, Penny's thinking is the thinking of real people on their own predicament, just like a series of works of Sartre's existentialism in the thirties, people who have experienced the baptism of war have all kinds of doubts about themselves, people are free, everyone is eager to embark on the road of courage and freedom, but confused people may not find the kind of freedom they yearn for when they break through the shackles, thus questioning the external world, "Life is for most people, It is meaningless and worthless. Realists are doomed to nothingness, idealism is destined to accept suffering. "Freedom is beautiful and heavy, and from where does it allow the heavy flesh to inhabit and reconcile with itself, like Penny."
If we understand Penny, maybe we understand ourselves. Reality often we don't know what the cat is doing there? So stupid humans, we think about the world, like cats looking at us, we look at each other together, and then we are confused and full of ideals.
Am I reading a comic about a cat? No, I'm watching Sartre, I'm thinking, like Penny.