Actually, magical thinking can go ether way, and I’m going to claim i4 could theoretically be neutral as well. Every time I celebrate my birthday the Leafs have a terrible season. So it’s my fault, but I really don’t care either way. I just enjoy making people that didn’t buy me a present feel guilty.
But in any case, there’s a fine line between magical thinking and being genre savvy. You don’t have to believe in ghosts to know not to go down to the celler of the creepy house.
clif
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m better off with or without tablet spell-correct.
fire_daws
For somethings it’s better not to have autocorrect on because of the butchering I once saw of “raison d’ĂȘtre”.
Deanatay
raisin deter?
TachyonCode
I’d argue there’s a difference in that reality has no genre – it is simultaneously trying to be most of them at once, and that’s why it’s such a mess.
Consider: anything that can happen to reality probably has happened or will happen somewhere in the universe, which is pointlessly vast – and therefore the context of any narrative that it happens to manifest can be said to be only locally consistent.
A person’s proximity to (and involvement in) any of these narratives does not, however, mean that it is following them, per se. It simply means they haven’t taken the correct actions to escape the event horizon of the narrative in question.
Consider video games: side quests are sometimes their own independent narrative, orbiting the larger one of the main plot, like a horribly composed Venn diagram.
I used to believe that my âsinfulâ act that most teenage males engaged in (Onanism) was the reason my favorite professional American football team lost. I saw that as G-d punishing me for my immoral behavior.
you are unfamiliar with the franchises that sell the God of Abraham? magical thinking,the crux of it infinitely bad outcomes, for almost everybody. And fairly large sales volume for each of them.
Doesn’t Willis exist in-universe? Of course it would be difficult to approach him due to how rich and famous he is, but I’m sure Ruth could get past his bodyguards.
Abbe_Faria
*In universe Willis wakes up to Ruth at the foot of his bed as lightening strikes*
My favourite definition of a personality: a story that we tell ourselves about ourselves.
(Probably not literally what the word means, and has flaws, but it’s fun!)
clif
That’s actually a fairly good definition of consciousness. It’s impossible to be aware of yourself. What we are actually aware of is our model of ourselves, a model which is fairly inaccurate as well as fictional, but serves to explain ourselves to ourselves.
Chris Phoenix
What we’re actually aware of is simply the things that have grabbed our attention recently. Sometimes that can get self-referential: “I’m aware that I’m aware of feeling sad.”
But the definition of “I” is mostly illusory; we don’t realize how fragmented we are and how tenuous is the thread of perceived identity that connects our different modes.
For evidence that we’re fragmented, look at the studies of how men’s morality changes when they’re aroused; or the fact that some people’s personality test results change when they’re at home or at work; or the way we can feel intense emotion when we’re paying attention to a situation but then distract ourselves within a few minutes.
Also, Duck Amuck is the greatest cartoon short ever made.
Fight me.
Fiddler115
I completely agree. It should be on the banner page on HBO Max to let everyone know they could stream it anytime they want. I mean the Snyder cut is nice, but I will take Duck Amuck over anything else 10 times out of 10.
clif
Don’t get me wrong, Duck Amuck is great. It’s just not What’s Opera, Doc.
Geneseepaws
One Froggy Morning, is so inappropriate on SO many levels: racist, sexist, classism, …etc. But, hey, really it is a Masterful example of âThe Willis is out to get meâ I think Iâve ever seen. Paranoid to beat the band.
Deanatay
I will not!
Altho What’s Opera, Doc and One Froggy Morning are both amazing.
“Its as if I pulled some sorta…dramatic tag that was holding back dramatic events from taking place, and now they’re just spilling out into the world retroactively. And nobody will believe me about the existence of aforementioned tag since that would imply things they experienced in their life prior to meeting me did not take place until I pulled it. You know what I mean?”
I think thinking you’re a fictional character is a common ailment of people who read too many books. Depression just amplifies and warps that narrative.
But the thing is, you don’t have to be a fictional character for your life to have a narrative or even a narrative arc. Or multiple narratives. It’s something that happens automatically unless you are a really really boring person.
Narrative arcs are different from stuff happening, even interesting stuff. Real world events can have drama, but they don’t have dramatic necessity. You can construct arcs retroactively, but you can’t use narrative structure to predict what’s going to happen.
Unless, like Ruth, you live in a fiction.
khn0
There’s also the problem of the feeling of borrowing everything to genres ofr fiction, including feelings, inculding the feeling of feeling like you borrowed….
I’m not saying I think I’m fictional, but sometimes I will say something about the possibility were living in a TV show before turning my head and winking. Just in case.
That’s what they tell me. Personally, I’m sceptical. I mean, who would willingly watch a Jim Carrey movie?
Needfuldoer
Somebody who stuck to their script.
Chronos
When he’s not doing “comedy”, he’s actually not a bad actor.
Kali
Yeah… I was apparently in an emotionally comprimised state when i watched that movie, cause it cause me to just curl up and cry for the last parts of it, and the following, like, hour…
I unno, but I’m avoiding watching it again… that and Stranger Than Fiction…
Dr. Sharks
That one movie made my brain the bad brain for about a decade.
I had someone writing a porno for my life for a while, which is not as fun as it seems from the catalog. But the person writing before that was doing one of those redemption from disaster stories, and those are no fun at all, there being the disaster to recover from and all. And what is never made explicit in the catalog is the effects of the disaster never go away.
185 thoughts on “Connect”
Ana Chronistic
magical thinking also supposes the outcomes are good, or good-leaning
Leorale
No it doesn’t. She can totally have magical thinking that the world has granted her most terrible, ill-advised wishes.
thejeff
Or simply as a malevolent force.
Obviously there’s a god because someone’s out to get me.
Deanatay
Cthulhu is magical thinking!
Ana Chronistic
I would suppose that’s cursed thinking
clif
Actually, magical thinking can go ether way, and I’m going to claim i4 could theoretically be neutral as well. Every time I celebrate my birthday the Leafs have a terrible season. So it’s my fault, but I really don’t care either way. I just enjoy making people that didn’t buy me a present feel guilty.
clif
But in any case, there’s a fine line between magical thinking and being genre savvy. You don’t have to believe in ghosts to know not to go down to the celler of the creepy house.
clif
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m better off with or without tablet spell-correct.
fire_daws
For somethings it’s better not to have autocorrect on because of the butchering I once saw of “raison d’ĂȘtre”.
Deanatay
raisin deter?
TachyonCode
I’d argue there’s a difference in that reality has no genre – it is simultaneously trying to be most of them at once, and that’s why it’s such a mess.
Consider: anything that can happen to reality probably has happened or will happen somewhere in the universe, which is pointlessly vast – and therefore the context of any narrative that it happens to manifest can be said to be only locally consistent.
A person’s proximity to (and involvement in) any of these narratives does not, however, mean that it is following them, per se. It simply means they haven’t taken the correct actions to escape the event horizon of the narrative in question.
Consider video games: side quests are sometimes their own independent narrative, orbiting the larger one of the main plot, like a horribly composed Venn diagram.
He Who Abides
F in the comments for clif, before Ruth rips their femurs out.
clif
Thank you, I think.
Usmagrad87
I used to believe that my âsinfulâ act that most teenage males engaged in (Onanism) was the reason my favorite professional American football team lost. I saw that as G-d punishing me for my immoral behavior.
ego
you are unfamiliar with the franchises that sell the God of Abraham? magical thinking,the crux of it infinitely bad outcomes, for almost everybody. And fairly large sales volume for each of them.
kgy121
I mean… She’s not wrong in context.
Rose by Any Other Name
Indeed.
Ruth basically just said “damn you Willis”.
She’s gained sentience.
RUN.
Undrave
Next thing you know she’ll be taking Willis’ femurs!
OtterBoy1
Doesn’t Willis exist in-universe? Of course it would be difficult to approach him due to how rich and famous he is, but I’m sure Ruth could get past his bodyguards.
Abbe_Faria
*In universe Willis wakes up to Ruth at the foot of his bed as lightening strikes*
Opus the Poet
Something strikes to make him lose weight? Has this comic shifted to the EGS universe? Transformation beams are more Dan’s forte.
Deanatay
Ripping out someone’s femurs would lighten them significantly.
Rabid Rabbit
Nah, Ruth would be subtler than that. In-universe Willis would wake up to Carla yelling about the cancellation of Ultra-Car.
Captain Oblivious
Watch out Willis. Ruth KNOWS.
NinjaMaid
She can sense the Meta. Willis had better run before she breaks his femurs.
Chris
I donât believe in magic; I believe Iâm a fictional character.
Geneseepaws
She is creating a narrative for herself… or of herself… IDK, both?
Leorale
My favourite definition of a personality: a story that we tell ourselves about ourselves.
(Probably not literally what the word means, and has flaws, but it’s fun!)
clif
That’s actually a fairly good definition of consciousness. It’s impossible to be aware of yourself. What we are actually aware of is our model of ourselves, a model which is fairly inaccurate as well as fictional, but serves to explain ourselves to ourselves.
Chris Phoenix
What we’re actually aware of is simply the things that have grabbed our attention recently. Sometimes that can get self-referential: “I’m aware that I’m aware of feeling sad.”
But the definition of “I” is mostly illusory; we don’t realize how fragmented we are and how tenuous is the thread of perceived identity that connects our different modes.
For evidence that we’re fragmented, look at the studies of how men’s morality changes when they’re aroused; or the fact that some people’s personality test results change when they’re at home or at work; or the way we can feel intense emotion when we’re paying attention to a situation but then distract ourselves within a few minutes.
Doctor_Who
The truth.
Chronos
“eeeeeh, ain’t I a stinker?”
Chronos
Also, Duck Amuck is the greatest cartoon short ever made.
Fight me.
Fiddler115
I completely agree. It should be on the banner page on HBO Max to let everyone know they could stream it anytime they want. I mean the Snyder cut is nice, but I will take Duck Amuck over anything else 10 times out of 10.
clif
Don’t get me wrong, Duck Amuck is great. It’s just not What’s Opera, Doc.
Geneseepaws
One Froggy Morning, is so inappropriate on SO many levels: racist, sexist, classism, …etc. But, hey, really it is a Masterful example of âThe Willis is out to get meâ I think Iâve ever seen. Paranoid to beat the band.
Deanatay
I will not!
Altho What’s Opera, Doc and One Froggy Morning are both amazing.
Deanatay
Also, Willis looks great with the ears. Jus’ sayin’.
Sirksome
Or maybe Ruth is just self aware that she’s in a comic and with her experiences playing part in a thematic through line of multiple characters.
CMasta1992
According to DDLC, realizing you’re a fictional character has immediate and permanent consequences.
James
According to Deadpool, it lets you see the little yellow boxes, as I recall.
So the question becomes, where does DoA fall on that scale?
Yotomoe
“Its as if I pulled some sorta…dramatic tag that was holding back dramatic events from taking place, and now they’re just spilling out into the world retroactively. And nobody will believe me about the existence of aforementioned tag since that would imply things they experienced in their life prior to meeting me did not take place until I pulled it. You know what I mean?”
abysswatcher1993
Stupid unsexy Willis.
CMasta1992
I wonder what Jason is up to. Or Penny. Or the damned soul of Blaine.
March
No way Blaine had an intact soul. He sold that on eBay back when it was still legal.
Doctor_Who
Blaine and Ross are currently sharing a lava jacuzzi to the dulcet sounds of “Rico Suave”.
Anon A Mouse
“You’re ENTIRE ass?Just packed full of red hot coals?”
“Right to the rim, baby”
“*sigh* You lucky bastard.”
Doctor_Who
A person of culture, I see.
abysswatcher1993
Blaine is probably being experimented on by Tzeentch, or Slaanesh is doing kinky stuff to him.
Lia
damn kind of feel bad abt this one gang
deathjavu
I think thinking you’re a fictional character is a common ailment of people who read too many books. Depression just amplifies and warps that narrative.
clif
But the thing is, you don’t have to be a fictional character for your life to have a narrative or even a narrative arc. Or multiple narratives. It’s something that happens automatically unless you are a really really boring person.
thejeff
Narrative arcs are different from stuff happening, even interesting stuff. Real world events can have drama, but they don’t have dramatic necessity. You can construct arcs retroactively, but you can’t use narrative structure to predict what’s going to happen.
Unless, like Ruth, you live in a fiction.
khn0
There’s also the problem of the feeling of borrowing everything to genres ofr fiction, including feelings, inculding the feeling of feeling like you borrowed….
Some1
I’m not saying I think I’m fictional, but sometimes I will say something about the possibility were living in a TV show before turning my head and winking. Just in case.
clif
It’s okay.We edit those out.
clif
But why can’t you just make speaches, when your alone, for the benefit of future historians watching on their time viewers, like a normal person?
HeatherJean
Wait, weren’t you the one complaining about autocorrect? 0:)
clif
You must be confusing me with my evil identical twin clone.
Needfuldoer
Somebody watched The Truman Show…
clif
That’s what they tell me. Personally, I’m sceptical. I mean, who would willingly watch a Jim Carrey movie?
Needfuldoer
Somebody who stuck to their script.
Chronos
When he’s not doing “comedy”, he’s actually not a bad actor.
Kali
Yeah… I was apparently in an emotionally comprimised state when i watched that movie, cause it cause me to just curl up and cry for the last parts of it, and the following, like, hour…
I unno, but I’m avoiding watching it again… that and Stranger Than Fiction…
Dr. Sharks
That one movie made my brain the bad brain for about a decade.
Chronos
Oh shit, Willis gave Ruth fourth wall awareness.
OniLink
You ever just hang a lampshade on your own genre savviness?
Ok it’s not quite genre savviness since even for this webcomic, this is a pretty extreme situation, but let me have this?
abysswatcher1993
Self deprecation 101
Reed
“listen. my life’s a narrative. some of us have those and mine’s pretty fucked up.”
Opus the Poet
I had someone writing a porno for my life for a while, which is not as fun as it seems from the catalog. But the person writing before that was doing one of those redemption from disaster stories, and those are no fun at all, there being the disaster to recover from and all. And what is never made explicit in the catalog is the effects of the disaster never go away.
Yotomoe