Analysis of Postmodern Imagery Within Lexicographic Preferences Depicted by xkcd

The 336th xkcd (hereafter "the comic") portrays a student valuing his aesthetic appreciation of lexicographic ordering on his report card over the traditional, or normative, values assigned to the letters therein -- namely, signifying his success or lack thereof in each class, which is traditionally taken as indicative of his ability and willingness to learn satisfactorily the material presented to him within the didactic environment.

This normative paradigm seeks to confine and simplify the student (both in desire and action) by reducing the gestalt of his cognitive abilities to his performance on a series of assignments, as judged by a single traditional authority figure, and thence to a single number or letter grade, paralleling the devaluation of individual worth within the context of the larger universe brought about by an understanding of Modernist tenets. Indeed, like the implacable and merciless universe, the teacher looming above the student addresses him only in reference to his grade, and provides no escape from the conclusion that the student must raise that grade (in the normative paradigm, good) or fail (bad).

However, the student understands the meaninglessness of his existence within the school other than as a number in a gradebook, and chooses to provide an alternative metric of success by which to define himself, for his sake only. Ironically, to form this new nonnormative paradigm he subverts a part of the traditionalist structure -- spelling -- taught to him earlier, and redefines the letters, ignoring and defying the normative success/failure metric. Additionally, since the teachers only possess the grades for their own classes, the report card as a whole exists only in the student's hands. In response to the uncaring universe, the student has defined his own aesthetic metric, by which alone he judges himself.

Finally, we examine the title text of the comic, in which the student suggests that the teachers give him E grades so that he may spell words on his report card. That grades as they stand should skip from D to F itself signifies the incomprehensibility of the universe, which the student desires to conform to his subjective standard (the alphabet, which does contain a step between D and F). At first this desire seems naïve or contradictory, considering his previous repudiation of the normative metric. But the request itself serves to deconstruct the grading system and expose its inconsistencies. Moreover, it is clear that his request is indeed a joke on the universe, for any concession would only be a deceptive façade on the teacher's uncaring nature, and allow further defacement of the normative paradigm by the student through his self-defined aesthetic. Although granting Es would aid his satisfaction of that aesthetic, it makes little difference what the teacher does because the student's paradigm is defined through a subversion of normativity itself. As long as letter grades exist and signify success or failure, the student can subvert them to define himself.

After conducting this analysis, it is clear that Randall Munroe is an unrecognized master of postmodern theory. Undoubtedly, many more gems of symbolism lurk in the 500+ other comics he has produced. It is my hope that one day, they will be exposed and his genius publicly acknowledged.