Has Chris ever been back to Manchester High? It's seems to be his Mecca so a pilgrimage makes sense for him.
Actually, speaking of Makkah, I know Chris has hinted at bigotry towards Muslims. It does make me wonder what it would be like for him to travel abroad, particularly to a country where Christians, whites and/or English speakers are in the minority. Aside from not wanting to date a black girl, I'm not really sure how racist he is. Much of it seems to come from his father and parroting back crude stereotypes he's learned from TV shows, but I think it would be interesting (and good) for him to be taken from his comfort zone.
His approach to religion is especially interesting. He seems to accept it more because he was raised in it and its at least nominally considered the norm in the culture he was raised within. From what he's written in his comics, he doesn't seem to realize not everyone celebrates Christmas, and his conversations with Vivian Gee reveal an astonishing ignorance on Atheism and Taosim. I wonder how he'd react in someplace like Saudi Arabia, Japan, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Thailand, Israel, Sri Lanka, Mali, Senegal, Cambodia or the like. Would he be surprised to find different cultural norms? Would it make him more open minded?
but Chris seems to have had this thing where CWCville was indeed a real place and not a happy place in his imagination where he's thin, cool, and hanging out with Sonichu.
Well, as Marvin said, its similar to religion. Of course, most religions either have centuries of worth of texts (for world religions like Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Bahá’í and Sikhism), oral traditions (most tribal and ethnic religions; also Santería and other Afro-Caribbean religions) or both (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Shinto). Also, not all religions necessarily posit belief in a deity (Taoism for instance, as well as some schools of Hinduism), or they may have gods but not really care about them (Buddhism), and some religions like Wicca, certain schools of Hinduism and even mystical traditions in Islam and Christianity are pantheistic, not necessarily believing in a literal god. Other Hindu schools, as well as the former Roman and Arab pagan religions, consider ritual more important than belief.
The biggest difference between Chris' fantasy world and religion is, regardless of your own personal views on the subject, virtually all religions foster a sense of community amongst their believers. Even the most hardcore Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Wahhabis still interact with other human beings, even if its only a narrow circle and their behaviours are heavily prescribed by the dictates of their faith. Chris doesn't even have that. For him, its not even about creativity, its about retreating into a private fantasy world. Much like a child's imaginary friend, I'm curious as to how much he actually believes he is talking to (or channeling) Sonichu. Does he actually hallucinate it? Or is it simply a justification for social faux pas after the fact?
Interestingly enough, Chris-Chan
isn't alone in believing that fictional characters exist in some sort of magical, parallel universe. I'd be lying if I said it was normal, but other, more intelligent people have been able to express said belief with considerably more eloquence. I suspect most people on these forums are familiar enough with "Otherkin," as well as furries and their "fursonas." What you may not know is that there are also Otakukin, which are basically the same thing, but they believe/claim they are anime characters. And yes, its just as retarded as it sounds. Go ahead and Google them if you want to go deeper down that rabbit hole of insanity. The sad thing is that even they seem to have more socialization than Chris.
Of course, you'd think that it would at least be easier to disprove the existence of cartoon and comic book characters, since they are mostly of recent vintage and you could always go and just ask their bloody creator (or their writer, or the person who holds their IP rights, etc). But then, there are also some creators who seem to hold the same delusions as Chris. Most famously, Alan Moore claimed to have encountered John Constantine (a regular poster on these very forums no less!
) in a London sandwich bar. Of course, that's just Alan Moore. If you aren't familiar with his antics, go Google him too. On the other hand, Alvin Schwartz believed he encountered a
tulpa (a Tibetan term appropriated by New Agers for "imaginary" beings) of Superman, while Neil Gaiman is said to have met a real-life version of Death (though considering how popular Sandman was with all the Goth girls back when I was in school, I should imagine there were quite a few women who looked like Death running around back in the day).
Then again, all of those people are successful comic book creators with solid careers they've built up over the years. Chris... isn't. We can't exactly chalk it up to the infamous "artistic temperament" either, though I suspect we might be able to get away with calling it an "autistic temperament."
I think he did specifically want one of the gal-pals though, as opposed to any random high school china. Remember his Facebook whines about "I have to find Tiffany Gowen"? Plus, the only time he ever tried to get involved with high school again was for reunions with his own class. I'm sure he'd be equally willing to bang any of his hired friends, but I think it does have to be someone he already knew. Meeting new people is hard and socially uncomfortable.
Quite possibly. He seems to attach a disproportionate amount of significance to his time in high school. Granted, American pop culture does tend to glorify high school, but I think its that he's still obsessessed to his various 'gal pals' from that period of his life. Given his self-proclaimed shyness, it wouldn't be surprising if he's been trying to get Tiffany or one of the other girls he knew back then to come back to him. Didn't he fixate on Sarah Hammer for a long time as well? God, I honestly hope he doesn't start trying to track down these poor women.
but it's fun for the kids." There's no similar common understanding about God or whatever.
, I think.