Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 3681 to 3685 (19-23 February 2018)
Is it cold in here?:
--- Quote from: ckridge on 24 Feb 2018, 10:55 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 24 Feb 2018, 09:48 ---
--- Quote from: ckridge on 23 Feb 2018, 04:56 ---The robots are acting as Hopalong Freud here.
--- End quote ---
My wife compares their emotional and dramatic role to that of servants in 17th century French plays.
I was so in awe of her nerdhood that I didn't ask what she meant.
--- End quote ---
Aww. Bragging on your wife. Sweetest damned thing.
But I wish you had asked. Are the servants more rational because less emotional because less refined and sensitive?
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: my wife ---I meant mostly that the relationships involving robots serve as counterpoint story lines to the human-to-human ones. It allows the dramatist (here, Jeff) to offer different perspectives on the same issues and the same characters, from those whose social standing and roles in the society are different enough to give them differing outlooks. Also, their brains function differently, which can be the case with some humans as well. He has done the same with certain human characters (e.g., Claire, Hannelore.)
In those old French comedies, yes, it's understood that the servants are less refined and sensitive, and much less educated, but as servants they're often aspiring to be more like their "betters" (hence, servant romances where a valet tries to use high-flown poetic language to woo a ladies' maid, offering great comedic potential.) That's usually not the case with QC robots, but yes, the often-less-refined thing is.
In those plays, the servants are sometimes more rational because they tend to be more practical, although rationality isn't the strong suit in either comedy or drama--the best stories come from characters who run their lives from their emotions. Because of the servants' lower standing--the fact that nobody has to pay that much attention to what they say, they can comment on obvious things about the other characters and their situations that the upper-class characters are too polite to say. (This is true of plays from other cultures as well--there are many examples in Shakespeare.) In this connection, for QC think Pintsize or May.
--- End quote ---
Case:
Ok, IICIH's wife wins the nerdthrone. Everybody can go home now.
ckridge:
That's kind of beautiful. It opens up new ways of reading the strip. Thank you.
Tova:
--- Quote from: Oenone on 24 Feb 2018, 17:47 ---Found it! I see what you’re saying. I disagree tho, because introducing the Mecha element made it more like different gradations of apples re quality and accessibility.
--- End quote ---
Okay, yes, I see what you mean re Momo's speech. I was thinking of May's, but that's not what you were referring to.
Tova:
Sorry for the double post.
So, I was listening to some music and decided to play the Coco soundtrack. When I came to the track titled Everyone Knows Juanita, I immediately thought of this thread. It's a short simple song that goes to the heart of the strange and ineffable nature of human attraction. It seemed relevant to this conversation, so here it is.
https://youtu.be/c8q-pzrEIPc
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