Is this how it seems to you?

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Shardrol
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Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Shardrol »

Story.

I found it quite chilling.
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Dan Rowden
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Dan Rowden »

Can you say in what way? I got about a third the way through and sort of expected it to go somewhere interesting, but I frankly lost interest thereafter.
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Shardrol
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Shardrol »

This is how I saw it: a depiction of male-female relationship in the way that some people on this forum talk about it.

As soon as the boy & girl start getting interested in each other, tentacles begin to appear in the landscape, eventually pushing their way into the train & even through the bodies of the couple. The boy relates to the girl by trying to be charming & funny & it is obviously working. We can see this because there are tentacles coming out of the girl's chest. But her response to him is to mock him. I think Skipair would describe this as 'betazing the alpha' - a test to see if he can stand up to her. He tries to with his words but he has been wounded. The big blue tentacle that was coming out of his chest in her direction snaps back. He tries to rally but she mocks him again. The chilling part of this is that she probably thinks she's being amusing & flirtatious but they both have blood on their chests from where the tentacles used to be.

They sit there in silence as the train they're on starts falling apart, symbolizing the dissolution of their budding relationship. Then the boy says it's his stop & heads out the door. He steps out into nothing. The girl has destroyed all that he is by humiliating him. He starts to dissolve into nothingness. The only way to save himself is to go back to the girl as a supplicant, hoping she will accept him if he demeans himself. Holding his bleeding guts, he crawls back into the train & asks her out for coffee. She accepts. Giant flies appear in the wrecked train feeding on the dead relationship that nevertheless limps on with both of them smiling as the flies engulf them.

I admit this may not be the author's interpretation but to me it seemed to illustrate some of the ideas about men & women that I hear expressed in this forum. For example, men being enslaved to Woman because of feeling they need her approval, women trivializing the serious concerns of men, men selling their souls because they can't bear being cast out into the cold by Woman, etc. These are your ideas I'm expressing here, not mine. Maybe you should invite the author of the comic to join the forum . . .
ZenMuadDib
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by ZenMuadDib »

So you're saying that women aren't really oppressed like they want everyone to think? I mean I think this little comic illustrates a lot of what is wrong with relationship dynamics in general. It's not about love or anything, it's about a game and control, language games.
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Jamesh
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Jamesh »

I didn't read much into it, but then I don't really bother trying to interpret stuff that could be interpreted in a zillion ways.

What it said to me was pure Freud - Sex is more important than anything else, and we will ignore other more important and immediate things for the chance - no matter how slim, no matter what it costs us - of having a male-female relationship.

I could extent this to say the monsters are created and grow as a result of this reality.

Pretty much sums up the history and present nature of life generally.
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Shardrol
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Shardrol »

ZenMuadDib wrote:So you're saying that women aren't really oppressed like they want everyone to think?
I'm not really saying anything about women's oppression or lack of it, I'm giving my interpretation of a comic written by someone else. What interests me in art is individual awareness & experience, not sociological trends. I'd say the writer of the comic shared some ideas with some people here & presented them with a lot of impact. I was wondering what the people here who expressed those ideas might think of his production.
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Shardrol
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Shardrol »

Jamesh wrote:I didn't read much into it, but then I don't really bother trying to interpret stuff that could be interpreted in a zillion ways.
That is very interesting to me, & also the fact that no one commented on the story (except Dan, to say he didn't finish it) till I posted the narrative in words. Y'all are quite a verbal bunch aren't you.

'Trying to interpret stuff that could be interpreted in a zillion ways' is what I like about art - a kind of meeting between the mind of the artist & the viewer, reader, listener, whatever. Yes it can be interpreted or reacted to a zillion ways. I like that sense of space.
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Jason
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Re: Is this how it seems to you?

Post by Jason »

Shardrol wrote:This is how I saw it: a depiction of male-female relationship in the way that some people on this forum talk about it.
That's the obvious interpretation given that it was linked to from this forum, but divorced from that perspective I really couldn't see any clear message in the comic. Maybe just "romantic relationships are bad, m'kay.", if that. It reminded me a little of Japanese hentai.
The boy relates to the girl by trying to be charming & funny & it is obviously working. We can see this because there are tentacles coming out of the girl's chest. But her response to him is to mock him. I think Skipair would describe this as 'betazing the alpha' - a test to see if he can stand up to her.
I don't see it like that, I see it as mutual game playing. I think the girl is justified in calling him out, it seemed like he was being a bit of a try-hard with his contrived speech. But then they both seem to be acting in a contrived manner.
He tries to with his words but he has been wounded. The big blue tentacle that was coming out of his chest in her direction snaps back. He tries to rally but she mocks him again. The chilling part of this is that she probably thinks she's being amusing & flirtatious but they both have blood on their chests from where the tentacles used to be.
I didn't see it as being wounding or hurtful, and I did think she was being amusing and flirtatious and if he was wounded he must have poor self-esteem.
They sit there in silence as the train they're on starts falling apart, symbolizing the dissolution of their budding relationship.
Nah, they're both feeling a little awkward and shy as people can be when initially pursuing someone.
Then the boy says it's his stop & heads out the door. He steps out into nothing. The girl has destroyed all that he is by humiliating him. He starts to dissolve into nothingness. The only way to save himself is to go back to the girl as a supplicant, hoping she will accept him if he demeans himself.
I can't see how the girl's few words would destroy his world like that. He probably thinks that forgoing a potential romance with her, with all the good things that entails, makes it seem going back to his normal life would be like stepping back into a void. If anything the void might have been there to begin with. But then again maybe I'm the wrong person to be trying to interpret or analyze anything to do with romance and relationships.
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