Wapsi Square Forum

MerchManDan wrote:

trainer wrote:Things don't always need to turn into a disaster.

THANK YOU!!! Good grief, there's a lot of paranoid people in this forum.

The whole point of this chapter is to not let privilege turn into hubris. Of course, all endings are a pile of skulls-- happy-evers are in the living of them. If the privileged don't examine and mend their ways, they rob children and families of what happiness they might have. Villains instead of heroes.

There was a period when the Greek cities held competitions for tragic plays; you had to submit three of them together-- hence all the tragic trilogies. They would be performed back-to-back, to reemphasize how heroes get themselves into horror and tears by exercising their will on others; catastrophe, a triple-down on disaster.

But they'd be followed by a fourth play, also required: the satyr play. This would be a romp on the same theme as the tragedies it followed. Most are lost, because they were too bawdy to survive the Dark Ages, but they were very popular in their time, as they lifted the spirits of their audience, and put them in a mood to jump back into the dance of life. The sober reflection on hubris having been absorbed, the pile of skulls having been stared at good, long and hard, it was time to return and celebrate the general happiness that not being dead entails.

I imagine Nudge would be good at tailoring one for modern paranormal kids. Castela plays the princess who saves her sister, mom and aunt from an absurd mountain range of tragedy and sadness. You can't die now, because how would you learn anything? Who's the audience in this scenario.

MerchManDan wrote:

trainer wrote:Things don't always need to turn into a disaster.

THANK YOU!!! Good grief, there's a lot of paranoid people in this forum.

Yes...and after the cuteness of the last two pages, I will personally punch anyone who tries to tell Castela that she isn't or can't become a princess.

Timotheus wrote:(Now repeat after me, "Sammy Snake Says Say Sssss.")
(God, I can still remember that phrase.)

"44 dead stone lions" in Mandarin ("四十四隻死石獅子") is a famous one. According to Number Ten Ox, it's a fine test to see if someone is drunk, because it "comes out as Sì shí sì zhī sĭ shí shī zì if it comes out at all."

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

Wyvern wrote:

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

Wapsi wrote:

Wyvern wrote:Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

Somebody please remind me to never be late when returning books to the library. Any library. No sense taking a chance on who is staffing the Returns desk that day!

I guess it just depends on what books you are exposed to when young. I was not exposed to Disney, but was always given the original works to read. The original Jungle Books by Kipling, were by far and away better than the Disney versions, but they were darker and bloodier, too. If The King's Ankus doesn't make you look a little closer at human thinking you're in trouble. Reading Hans Christian Anderson (if I could reach through time and punch Anderson in the face, I would, if only for "The Little Match Girl") and the Brothers Grimm will also make kids think twice about "fairy" stories. One of the first short stories that I remember reading that made a big impact on me was Jack London's, "To Build a Fire." Animal Heroes"and "The Biography of a Grizzly" by Earnest Thomson Seton will also keep you from the, "and they lived happily ever after" syndrome, as well as the original Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. Adventure? Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Captain Ted W. Lawson might prepare you for what "adventure" is like. If not, Up Front by Bill Mauldin will make war seem real and awful as can be, without actually being shot at.
Still, she's at that age where "Happily ever after" should be allowed and if anything threatens that, they will have to deal with Katherine who fits the "mama bear" trope to a "T"

Wapsi wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

GAHH!!!!!

Wdot wrote:Still, she's at that age where "Happily ever after" should be allowed and if anything threatens that, they will have to deal with Katherine who fits the "mama bear" trope to a "T"

Yup. The world can be grim (no pun intended), and the "lighter" versions of childhood tales are often far removed from reality...

... but they should be. Children deserve at least some happy, care-free time to imagine, wonder, fly kites and dragons, and have tea with frogs. That's how the world should be, damnit!

There's plenty of time for Castela to learn the less-wonderful truths about the world, and realize that many princesses end up being married off to flatulent second sons of minor march-kings down by the bay, there to spend their lives officiating over the annual Fermented Herring festival.

What I see really going on with her isn't so much the "Princess" bit, really, although that sees how she's expressing it. The real magic of this moment is simply this: she's been granted her fondest wish. She's gone from being "throw away" to being "accepted, wanted, and cherished." She's living the dream - her dream. That's no small thing, regardless of what complexities the future may bring.

@ Dave

Totally agree - well said sir (and without a pun - I knew that you could do it.)

Wapsi wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

Strangely enough, from some background work done back in college, I can say that skulls and bones are extremely difficult to make walls out of. They do not stack vertically well at all. We had to run guide posts up through them all to keep the wall even remotely flat and vertical and let the mortar dry for each course before setting the next one. We also had to fill the skull's interiors with cement to keep them from crushing under the weight (plastic skulls, but bone would have had the same problem as it would have been actually weaker.

Essentially, you're embedding the skulls and bones in the wall, not building the wall with them.

Wapsi wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

Nice to have that confirmed.

Given the context/content of the pahe where it made its first appearance, i always figured it was.

Timotheus wrote:...plastic skulls, but bone would have had the same problem as it would have been actually weaker...

Dry bone, yes.

What most people don't realise is that living bone is actually *stronger* than most metals.

Fairportfan wrote:

Timotheus wrote:...plastic skulls, but bone would have had the same problem as it would have been actually weaker...

Dry bone, yes.

What most people don't realise is that living bone is actually *stronger* than most metals.

Yes, but it does not stay living for long without the rest of the support system. Then it gets brittle and turns to dust. In this case we may be looking at either filling with concrete or another form of petrification (maybe some of Medusa's work).

The only Tragedy in the desert flower's statement is that Monica And Shelly had to have the reminder presented this way. It's something they both should know without a eerily convenient object lesson. The only trouble Castela will run into is a tummyache from too many brownies.

kingklash wrote:The only Tragedy in the desert flower's statement is that Monica And Shelly had to have the reminder presented this way. It's something they both should know without a eerily convenient object lesson. The only trouble Castela will run into is a tummyache from too many brownies.

Something tells me that the eerie convenience of this object lesson is the result of it being Nudge's idea. She probably thought Phix was getting too worked up about what was clearly an accident and wanted to break up the yelling before any resentment sank in along with the remonstration.

Wapsi wrote:

Wyvern wrote:

eee wrote:So standing in front of Phix's wall of skulls (we've established it's wallpaper or something similar, not an actual bunch of dead people, right?)...

Wallpaper? Does Phix strike you as a sphinx who would have tacky skull wallpaper in her library?

That's a real wall of skulls. =)

And they aren't all human either... just look at what she did to Medea... not that Medea didn't deserve it.

Was that Medea? I got the impression that it was just some random demon who picked the wrong moment to get on Phix's bad side, and Nudge asked whether it was Medea half-sarcastically because there wasn't enough left of the corpse to be identifiable.

Mark N wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:

Timotheus wrote:...plastic skulls, but bone would have had the same problem as it would have been actually weaker...

Dry bone, yes.

What most people don't realise is that living bone is actually *stronger* than most metals.

Yes, but it does not stay living for long without the rest of the support system. Then it gets brittle and turns to dust. In this case we may be looking at either filling with concrete or another form of petrification (maybe some of Medusa's work).

Doesn't the Library automatically regenerate the materials it's made out of? Stone floors, wooden cases, paper books..... . .

@ Wdot:

I have a copy of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo that belonged to my mother. Growing up we lived in Killeen, Texas, next door to my grandparents' house. Across the street on the diagonal corner from them lived Mr. Gray; as a child I knew of him mostly because he had lots of rosebushes and had beehives in his backyard.
Some years after we moved away, my mom pointed out that the book had been signed by "Mr." Gray - then an Army captain. Turns out my neighbor of all those years was the pilot of the 14th (?) bomber behind Dolittle's on the raid.

Retired adventurers DO live right next door, sometimes.....