Yoohwhoo
From CerebusWiki
Yoohwhoo is a female God-like spirit that is a primary subject of Cerebus' extensive, difficult and dense commentaries on The Book of Moshe, seemingly identical to the biblical book of Genesis. This mainly takes place in the phonebook Latter Days.
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Origin of the name
Cerebus encounters the "ineffable name of God" which is presented as a series of non-Western characters and, asking what the symbols represent, is told "YHWH". He notes that what they appear to have done is to just remove the syllables. Figuring that they haven't said which syllables belong, how many and which order he goes with "Yoohwhoo".
Presence
Yoohwhoo takes on many forms in the commentaries.
Sometimes she is described as a large ball of light in the centre of the earth. Sometimes as representing the earth itself. Being God-like it is fair to assume she is both at once. Furthermore she can speak and act through mere mortals, dictating their behaviour.
In addition Yoowhoo seems to have a tripartite nature: the he, the she and the it. In spite of this the commentaries most strongly identify Yoohwhoo with femininity.
Finally, there also the "little yoohwhoos", identifiable in the commentaries by their uncapitalized initial 'y'. Some of these are described as "regional" because, amongst other things, they may take actions they believe effect the whole world when, in fact, they effect only a part of it. For example, Cerebus says that the Great Flood (of Noah's ark fame) only effected a region of the world but the yoohwhoo believes it to have been worldwide and therefore effecting all plants, animals and humans.
All manifestations of Yoohwhoo feast on blood, particularly the blood of "mutilated cattle".
A theme of the commentaries is that mortals take Yoohwhoo to be God. Cerebus is at pains to point out that the humans are an error at such times.
Relationship to God
Yoohwhoo's relationship to God is complex and changeable and, indeed, defining the relationship seems to be the driving force behind Yoowhoo's actions.
Yoohwhoo at times seeks to "become one flesh" with God (to "get to the hubba-hubba" as Cerebus puts it). At other times Yoowhoo seems to wish to define herself as the son (in spite of her femininity) or niece of God.
From Cerebus' reading, Yoohwhoo antagonizes God as she seems to believe that she has the power to get women pregnant, that women have "seed". Cerebus says she is erroneous in this and that "women are just the box that hold[?] the seed". Only God can make women pregnant.
Further, Cerebus says she antagonizes God because she is so painfully slow to learn lessons. God is, throughout The Book of Moshe (Genesis), trying to teach Yoohwhoo how he feels about her, what her nature is and how she can be good. At one point in the commentaries Cerebus says that Yoohwhoo makes some headway in her decision making skills, only to set things back to square one with a later disastrous choice.
Cerebus charges Yoohwhoo throughout with coming up with "crazy ideas" which God must make come true (for reasons either undefined or not found by the editors of this wiki thus far).
Cerebus' view
At one point in the commentaries Cerebus becomes so furious with Yoohwhoo's actions that her calls her a "bitch". Throughout he takes the side of God.
Context
Cerebus begins his commentaries shortly after a period of insanity and seclusion brought about when he reads a humiliating interview with the writer of Rabbi (the comic Cerebus had been obsessed with). This may explain the intensity, fuzzy logic and rambling nature of the commentaries.
At times a character from the Book of Moshe is at one moment possessed by God, then by Yoohwhoo, then back again in the matter of moments it takes for consecutive actions or spoken passages to occur. This may lead one to the observation that Cerebus' commentaries are weighted to shift any actions or spoken passages of which he disapproves sit with Yoohwhoo, whilst any redeeming ones can be attributed to his favoured God.
Dave Speaks About Yoohwhoo
Dave's Q&A for Sept 2004
"Of course my suspicion now is always that anything that I can’t account for as coming out of my own imagination I always figure was a “plant” by God to try to “fish in YHWH,” something that I wasn’t remotely aware of in a conscious way, something that came from my being “tapped into” a reality that I was only vaguely aware of. Certainly the idea of rock having a personality which would be implied by all the faces, I imagine, would be very appealing to YHWH since that was supposed to be the Big, Shock Surprise Ending—it turns out that YHWH was Mother Earth all along! Gasp!"
Phone interview with Dave Sim
"I was surprised to hear (Dave Sim) pronounces YHWH exactly as Y-H-W-H (I knew he didn't go with the "yoowhoo" one, but I just assumed he went with the common "yahweh" one)"
