Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 3756-3760 (4th June to 8th June 2018)
fayelovesbubbles:
Yeah, I have it to an unhealthy degree too and I admit that.
I really never cared too much about the relationships in QC. I think this is the best job Jeph's ever done of building something. Building tension. Creating a compelling story for Bubbles.
I am invested in the Brun/Clinton thing. I really want them to happen. Besides them and Faye/Bubbles, I've never had feelings one way or the other about the couplings.
HughYeman:
--- Quote from: Zebediah on 08 Jun 2018, 04:48 ---To address the other point: I don’t think Pintsize told the other robots about Faye and Bubbles. Whether that really was out of unprecedented decorum or a rare fit of self-preservation is open to question. But as far as we know he’s told no one, and only went to poker night to get out of the way.
--- End quote ---
Agreed. I think he just left it with that single statement, since none of the other players seemed inclined to probe his meaning. I think he was genuinely touched. And that seems fitting to me.
This brings me to a question I've been wondering about for years. You know when an author writes a joke or some other form of payoff that depends on a release of tensions or expectations that they've spent years building up? Is there a word for that? The best example I know of is the Aubrey/Maturin novels. There are a dozen books full of Jack saying to an agonized Stephen "Come, there's not a moment to be lost!" and dragging him away from whatever precious botanizing he's engaged in. Then there's a scene where Stephen bursts in on Jack and says that exact thing, and it's hilarious because of all that stored-up tension. It's like the discharge of a literary capacitor, and the books are full of that sort of thing. It's amazingly impactful in the right hands.
I bring it up because Pintsize's reaction is one of the best examples of this I've ever seen. For all these years we've seen him refuse to be anything but an annoying little perv, and because of all that inertia, his quiet act against type is literally singular. That payoff has been coming for over a decade, and Jeph can never give us that payoff again. That he chose to discharge that once-in-a-lifetime literary capacitor for Bubbles and Faye seems perfect to me, because I can't imagine there ever being a better opportunity to touch us by way of Pintsize being touched.
fayelovesbubbles:
--- Quote from: HughYeman on 08 Jun 2018, 05:39 --- the discharge of a literary capacitor
--- End quote ---
Can I just say this is awesome. :)
HughYeman:
I have a noob question. Is there a shorthand for the following, or a general consensus on our assumptions in this regard?
"I am aware that the question I'm about to pose has an obvious real-world answer. If I have to preface everything I post with that acknowledgment, this is going to get really tedious. Yes, there are architectural reasons for x which usually boil down to 'It's easier for Jeph to draw x than y.' And. It's fun to talk about in-universe reasons, and that's what I would like to do here."
I ask because I'd like to talk about Arthur's face in this strip, and about AI faces in general
Stoutfellow:
In some circles, a distinction is made between "Doylist" and "Watsonian" explanations. ("Why didn't they do this?" "It wasn't in the script!": Doylist. "They didn't know about this other thing.": Watsonian.) So what you're asking for is a Watsonian explanation of something that has an obvious Doylist explanation.
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