Wed 27 Feb 2008
toxoplasma gondii
Posted by benadair under links
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This little parasite‘s effects on pregnant women and their developing fetuses have been known for quite some time. However, new studies show it can cause suicidal behavior in mice and dramatic personality shifts in humans, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and even affect whole societies.
When I was a kid I loved the Garfield comic strip with an almost religious fervor. Later in life, I came to despise it as all that’s wrong with mass entertainment and media (don’t even get me started on Bill Murray in the Garfield movies. No, his participation in Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola films does not make up for it. Not by a long shot).
But then there’s this:
Toxoplasma gondii or something else?
Who knew just one tweak was all it took to turn the sickeningly saccharine into a beautiful mediation on mental illness and extreme ennui? I’m going to fantasize that this is how Jim Davis draws his strips and that the editors force him to keep adding that insipid cat back in.
Link: Garfield minus Garfield
