# Calvin and his imagination: cause and effect
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 13, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479 "2011-01-13T17:32:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/41 "2011-01-14T14:43:11Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> Pssssttt…post #7
That is post #7.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/42 "2011-01-14T14:47:01Z")
That’s in answer to post #39 above it.
So good, we posted it twice.
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### Author:  [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/43 "2011-01-14T19:55:17Z")
Speaking of C&H, I really like [this fan art](http://www.interbutt.org/plog-content/images/sfwmaybe/general-coolfunny/calvin_and_hobbes_adult.jpg).
And also [this](http://kaesenchin.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/calv9mz.jpg)response to the fake last strip.
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### Author:  [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/44 "2011-01-14T20:14:45Z")
> [@Infovore](#):
>
> Speaking of C&H, I really like [this fan art](http://www.interbutt.org/plog-content/images/sfwmaybe/general-coolfunny/calvin_and_hobbes_adult.jpg).
Awww…but where’s Mr. Bun?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/45 "2011-01-14T20:20:40Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#):
>
> Awww…but where’s Mr. Bun?
She outgrew him. He was never “real”, anyway, just a stuffed toy like a normal girl that age would play with.
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### Author:  [@Tess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tess)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/46 "2011-01-14T23:16:14Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> Does NOBODY else believe that Hobbes really comes to life when nobody’s around???
>
> Tell me I’m not the only one!
I thought Calvin imagined Hobbes into reality.
He occasionally did or knew things that couldn’t be credited to Calvin.
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### Author:  [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/47 "2011-01-14T23:42:04Z")
I think I can share some experiences here that might elucidate this issue. Feel free to skip over if you find this sort of thing narcissistic and/or navel-gazing.
I was pretty similar to Calvin as a kid, except without the ultra-violent streak. I liked playing by myself, being surrounded by the world of my imagination, which is a thing you can’t communicate to others fully. And as such, I mostly did. I had one best friend (who was a human being) and we shared some imaginary worlds together, though, as well.
I mostly translated my aloneness to arrogance. As I saw it, other people just didn’t comprehend the world on the same level that I did. In reality, I was a very smart kid, yes, but I was also just painfully socially awkward and didn’t correctly understand other people’s reactions to my behavior. So I would say that I started out strange enough, but my lack of proper socialization did indeed add to that.
Incidentally, I also carried a stuffed animal around everywhere I went. To me, my stuffed cat was very much alive\*, as were my other [del]imaginary[/del] “invisible” friends. Bill Watterson explains the Hobbes issue as different people perceiving the world differently, and I think this is perfectly sufficient for me. Needless to say, I pored over C&H collections as a child, and I still consider it by leaps and bounds my favorite comic strip.
\*He even had a birthday, on which I somehow managed to convince my mom to bake chocolate cake, because that was his favorite. I hated it, myself.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/48 "2011-01-14T23:58:03Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#):
>
> Having imaginary friends is not weird, even for kids in “real life”.
Of course, Calvin’s a few years away from the age when _all_ boys have imaginary playmates–many of them _Playboy_ Playmates, and some of them real tigers…
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/49 "2011-01-15T00:15:21Z")
> [@akira5822](#):
>
> Wow, I actually teared up a little
Is [this one better?](http://www.bloggerheads.com/images/calvin_and_hobbes.gif)
(Hey…you can take the kid out of The Far Side, but you can never take The Far Side out of the man. 😃 )
[These](http://andywibbels.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8354f1fb569e20133ed0507ec970b-pi) [ones](http://ryanmartinsen.com/blog/images/calvin-hobbes-future.jpg) are a bit more upbeat…though [this one](http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5382/462pxcalvinteenagerbd3.jpg) is probably the most realistic.
Pills and maturity nothin’…it’s _hormones_ that rule the day.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calvin-and-his-imagination-cause-and-effect/567479/50 "2011-01-15T00:44:13Z")
Neither of the two poll options. The author intended him to be a normal boy with friends, the strip just edits around them.
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