OotS 599 is up

[el-remmen]

English class is right. . . I mean, I am looking at all this from the point of view of literary theory and criticism. . . And I could point you to wikipedia's page on the Intentional Fallacy (I guess I just did), but really it talks about it in context of New Criticism (which is really old criticism, but it was relatively new when it was dubbed as such and the name stuck), which tells us that everything we need to know about a literary work can be found in the work itself and not outside of it, but I am not a proponent of New Criticism, as I think certain contexts or lens (such as class, gender, race, historical context) can help round out the view of a work.

Anyway, the most direct way I can explain how an author's view is not "authoritative" is by simply asking this question: Is an author's view of his or her work always unchanging, static. . .? I think it is safe to say (and anyone who has seriously written for pleasure or profit would likely agree) that this is often not the case. Heck in some cases, it is not only the author's opinion on their own work that changes (in terms of quality) but their understanding of the reasons and methods they used in its creation! And if that is the case, how can such authorial view be privileged over anyone else with a familiarity with the work, such as that gained from careful and repeated critical study?

Just because an author may not have noticed patterns, tropes, themes, implications of their work does not mean they are not there and that they don't mean something in the context of that work.

Jeez. . . the thing's I'll do to procrastinate when I should be working on my master's thesis. . .

 

[el-remmen]

BTW, before all this theory talk. . . my original comment about V's player leaving the game was a throwaway line meant to just highlight the ole trope of making a PC into a villain when their player leaves the game. . . Not because that's what I think "really" happened. . . There is no "really happened" - it's a comic strip.

 

[Imp]

I think the "shadow player" is most apparent in Belkar, because his appeal is as an id character – both as a psychotic little halfling who gets to act out all the time, and as a little bastard player behind the character, who also gets to act out all the time. You can see the hand in the puppet with him. The others, it's hard to pin down what kind of players are controlling the puppets.

As for the V storyline, I keep expecting Burlew to pull one of his usual Crazy Ivans, but he keeps going straight, so I suppose V's gonna sign away his soul or something.

 

[el-remmen]

I think the "shadow player" is most apparent in Belkar, because his appeal is as an id character – both as a psychotic little halfling who gets to act out all the time, and as a little bastard player behind the character, who also gets to act out all the time. You can see the hand in the puppet with him. The others, it's hard to pin down what kind of players are controlling the puppets.

YES! I could write a paper on Belkar alone!

I HATE HIM! (and yet I love him). . .

 

[Thunderfoot]

V finally went completely off the deep end.... and for the first time I'm actually rooting that he/she/it gets offed. He/she/it has been getting very annoying and I'm actually looking forward to his/her/it's death. Bring on the destruction.

 

[That One Guy]

I gotta' admit, I was not expecting Lit theory and Crazy Ivans... but it's all good.

So... here's another thought (just for fun, mostly to let el-rem be more lazy. 'Cause distractions from Masters programs is... needed) which sort of backs up his point of view, but from a different school of criticism.

If multiple people can look at a single piece of art, is anyone's opinion more or less valid? Why assume that the artist's interpretation of their own work is more valid than your own?

I think V already said the four words. I think the imp'll make an offer. Approach, V'll abuse it verbally, and then it'll ask him about getting what he wants. And then... things'll only get worse. Because I like tons of threads tangled with everything going to He[ck].

 

[Rechan]

I interpret the references to D&D rules not indicating a double-narrative of players and DMs, but simply a joke about taking the rules as literal rules of the universe, like Gravity, spoken with a straight face and used in Order of the Stick-world logic.

To put it another way, in a world run by mimes, invisible boxes and winds would be credited as explanations for whatever.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Come again? Now I avoided taking as many English classes as possible, so bear with me here, but how can one fail to take the author's word on the matter, when theirs is the only truly authoritative view? Isn't that akin to saying "Well, the creator doesn't really know what he's talking about", when they are the only ones who truly know 100% of what they're talking about?

The point is, ultimately, that even if the creator is 100% aware of everything that went into the work (and, frankly, no human being is that self-aware), each and every reader brings their own interpretation to the work and sees things in it which the creator may not have intended - but, since they're the reader, denying that it's there is pointless. They're not going to stop seeing it just because the creator says it wasn't supposed to be there, or even if the creator says it isn't there.

Reading something is itself an act of creation, in a sense - it's not coming up with plots and characters and dialogue, no, it's not equivalent in that way, but it is creative in the sense that you invent explanations and form intepretations and make inferences.

The perfect Order of the Stick example: Varsuuvius's gender. Some people think he's male, some people think she's female, some people think elves don't have human-like gender; some people think Haley knows for sure what V's gender is, some people think Haley assumes V is one or the other. All of these interpretation of the comic strip are created by the readers, and everyone sees the same pieces of dialogue and artwork as supporting their theory!

 

[Greylock]

Anyone else getting tired of the thousand different plot line that just keeps looking worse and worse? Roy's dead and they no longer even have the skeleton......

Anyone else missing the days of where the plot was simple and the jokes easy?

Who? Roy? Who's Roy?

Don't worry, that won't be until 2011 or so at the pace things are going.... When your protagonist has been dead for 2/3rds of the strip, there might be a problem.

I've been tired of it for some time now. Its a pity too, because everything up to and including the Azure City arc was amazing.

Roy has been dead for about 150 strips now. Roy might not be coming back...

Oh yeah. That Roy.

The strip, when it is funny, is still head and shoulders over any other strip I read in pure laughs. But the angst and bazillion plot lines are wearing my patience thin.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I'm enjoying it.

I somewhat suspect that the imp may play a role in either V's ultimate arcane power bit, or Belkar's "responsibility" for getting V killed (V's bird spell would've worked, and V would've unclenched afterward, if Belkar/the PCs didn't have them for dinner).

or even both.

Perhaps V goes into lichdom via a deal with the imp. Which s/he does because s/he wants to save the world in regard to the gats.

Then again, I wonder if Roy's body may come back to life, but with a different soul behind the driving wheel, so to speak (Eugene hops in, hoping to free himself from his Oath once and for all, rather than hope his daughter can do it [or has to, because Something Happens to Julia]).

Part of me sorta-kinda expects a bit of drama/tension over Therkla between Elan & Haley later on (Haley hears reference of Therkla, esp. in relation to Elan, and Elan "doesn't want to talk about it..." DUN DUN DUN...).

Lots of threads of the story which can be developed/brought into play. There's still Durkon's return home (or him discovering that the ban is still in effect), potential future Linear Guild hijinx, potential Xykon vs. Redcloak conflict, the "big reveal" of the Monster in the Darkness (I'm guessing it's a possibly a avatar/"strand" of the Snarl on the Prime Material Plane—the Snarl itself seems like it could click into a Tharizdun-like role), etc.