Oh the Places You'll Go

Memes are fun. They make you laugh, think deeply, and suck you into an alternate time zone until you look at the clock and say, "Oh crap". But memes can also say something take for example:

This speaks strongly to the student in me. I think pretty much every student in the history of homework has had this look and thought at one time or another. But this memes does target a certain audience. While someone who hasn't been in school for fifty years might see this and find it interesting or funny, they won't connect to it in the same way as a student who has experienced this will. In a way in order to truly get this meme the person seeing it has to have been a student the more recently they were one the more impact this meme will have for them.

The above meme is humorous. But there are some that hit a deeper note. Like:

This meme hits at a persons compassion. When I saw this meme I thought of the people in the world who don't have shoes and what I could do to help them.

Far from the relatable humor of the first meme, this meme has a strong humanitarian message. That causes those who see it to relate to an experience they may have never had. I've never not had shoes. But I can feel sympathy for Frodo( the geek in me is demanding that I say- yes, Hobbit physiology is different then a humans and no, they don't actually need shoes) this meme helps me consider the people in the world who don't have shoes and that they still have to do really hard things with out them. This meme helps me see a different point of view.

Along with memes there is fan art. Of all different skill levels and styles. Like this piece:

While I'm sure there are more technologically difficult pieces of fan art out there this one is still pretty intense. From my beginners point of view I'd guess this picture has at least three layers to it. The picture of Mycroft, the picture of Sherlock, and the words. They also night have used an opacity? gradient on Sherlock to make it so you could see Mycroft. That's my guess anyway. This piece would not be easy to create and even if the creator knew the software, this piece probably would have taken a fair bit of time.

It's a cool looking piece of fan art and looking at it I can think of several different meanings it might have. For example this picture might be showing how Sherlock as a person has been impacted by having Mycroft as a brother. But that's my own interpretation. Which is fair I suppose, but I wish I could talk to this pieces creator and ask them what they wanted this picture to say.