Don’t allow other people to define your reality (or your validity), is how I interpreted it. The whole problem with the Skin Horse (from Velveteen Rabbit)’s definition of Real is, you could only be Real on someone else’s terms.
Here I stand at the other end of time, filled with the same thoughts I had when I first saw this panel so many years ago.
This looks, so very strongly, like it ought to be that panel in Narbonic. The one that I still think is the single greatest panel in webcomic history, not for a grand vista or impossibly complex scene, but for all the panels that came before it.
And yet, I do not understand. There is something deep that is beyond my grasp.
Addendum for those who come after: if you do not know the panel of which I write, I implore you to read Narbonic. (Or, if you already have, use this as a ready excuse to read it again?)
It’s sorta an… inverse? a reflection? Of that panel, also — that panel in Narbonic was the echoing climax of little things adding up, that we’d slowly been piecing together over the comic, and this was the final confirmstion and outcome of that.
Whereas this — while it seems like it’s just serving as an epigraph, introducing the name “Skin Horse” and the general tone of the story, it’s actually a very specific opening bell, that looking back at it is clearly echoing FORWARD in the comic in very precise ways.
ROT13 (rot13.com) for Skin Horse spoilers:
Gur boivbhf bar, bs pbhefr, vf Negvr’f cbvag gb Gvc — “Jung unccrarq gb gur barf jub qvqa’g orpbzr erny? Gurl ohearq.”
Ohg V’z cerggl fher vg’f nyfb rdhnyyl gurer va Qe. Pbyybqv’f fcrrpu — Obgu znwbe boyvtngvbaf ur oevatf hc, “Lbh, nyy bs lbh, arrq gb ohvyq lbhe bja gbzbeebj.” naq “Lbh qba’g vagrtengr jvgu hf, jr vagrtengr jvgu lbh.” zveebe noq qverpgyl qvfnterr jvgu gur nffregvba bs Gur Fxva Ubefr: gung ernyarff vf fbzrguvat lbh TRG, sebz gur puvyq, naq gung vg vf gur gbl gufg punatrf sebz orvat ybirq, engure guna gur puvyq gung punatrf sebz ybivat.
Va gur bgure zbfg qenzngvp fprarf, Avpx’f cnegf — obgu uvf ebznapr jvgu Qe. Yrr (naq ybbx, gurer’f “Ybir” ntnva) naq uvf hfr ol Ze. Terra (naq gurer’f “whfg cynl”) nyfb qverpgyl qvfnterr jvgu vg. Ur vf Erny (“abj gurl jnaan gnxr zl erny obql, gbb”) orsber nalguvat ryfr, rira orsber ur trgf n “zber erny” obql (gur qebar), juvpu unccraf ORSBER ur vf Ybirq, Ernyyl Ybirq ol Qe. Yrr.* Gung orvat ybirq qbrfa’g znxr uvz nal zber “erny”, naq yvxrjvfr gur orvat “whfg cynlrq jvgu” ol Ze. Terra qbrfa’g znxr uvz yrff.
Gurer ner cebonoyl bgure fprarf V’z sbetrggvat. Jryy, jr’yy trg gb gurz ng fbzr cbvag va guvf ernq-guebhtu.
(* JNVG UBYL SEVPX AVPX’F ARJ SYRFU-NAQ-OYBBQ OBQL. GUR OENVA. Gur genfu urnc jnf tbaan or vapvarengrq, jnfa’g vg?? Gurl cynlrq gur fgbel ibzcyrgryl fgenvtug NALJNLF, NYFB. Bu zl TBQ Wrss&Funraba. JUNG.)
Seven and a half years before this comic appeared, this part of the book was the reading at our wedding. My wife loved the bit about your fur being loved off.
I have no idea of what’s next for you amazing people. Please know that I and many, many other folks love, appreciate, and are grateful that you are. May the best be yours now and forever.
People kept referring to the “filename story” in later comics but it took a while before I even knew what they were talking about. Then I finally found a link where someone compiled it:
Discussion (31) ¬
A.G. Hopkins (blackbyrd2) says: I can haz Seekrit Projekt?
Jeffrey Channing Wells (channing) says: Shh.
Leeds Main (forever) says: woot! yeah. Catz
Dan Knapp (dankna) says: Oh my god, I can’t believe I didn’t catch the reference in the title before seeing this quote. Wow. That is so awesome.
My Feed reader lost my place on this comic. So…. TIME TO RE-READ!
Velveteen Rabbit! Love that story.
I still don’t understand what the moral of the story was, or if there even was one.
“Don’t love your toys too much or they’ll come to life and turn on you.”
So it’s a horror story then?
Don’t allow other people to define your reality (or your validity), is how I interpreted it. The whole problem with the Skin Horse (from Velveteen Rabbit)’s definition of Real is, you could only be Real on someone else’s terms.
Ah! Nice quote to start off with.
And a nice extension to it if you keep reading.
I sure would like to have a different way to read Skin Horse than that damn Go Comics BS. Somebody please help.
You’re already here.
So, I figure with the story kind of sort of starting to wrap up, now’s a good time for a reread.
It’s always a good time for a reread.
The kind of reread that goes from the start of Narbonic.
It started to wrap up in 2019? I just started rereading from the beginning, now I want to see what was going on in 2019.
‘Wrap up’? I ain’t ready. There’s more FUN LIFE further on, right? Right? (a certain leonine character)
Here I stand at the other end of time, filled with the same thoughts I had when I first saw this panel so many years ago.
This looks, so very strongly, like it ought to be that panel in Narbonic. The one that I still think is the single greatest panel in webcomic history, not for a grand vista or impossibly complex scene, but for all the panels that came before it.
And yet, I do not understand. There is something deep that is beyond my grasp.
Addendum for those who come after: if you do not know the panel of which I write, I implore you to read Narbonic. (Or, if you already have, use this as a ready excuse to read it again?)
It’s sorta an… inverse? a reflection? Of that panel, also — that panel in Narbonic was the echoing climax of little things adding up, that we’d slowly been piecing together over the comic, and this was the final confirmstion and outcome of that.
Whereas this — while it seems like it’s just serving as an epigraph, introducing the name “Skin Horse” and the general tone of the story, it’s actually a very specific opening bell, that looking back at it is clearly echoing FORWARD in the comic in very precise ways.
ROT13 (rot13.com) for Skin Horse spoilers:
Gur boivbhf bar, bs pbhefr, vf Negvr’f cbvag gb Gvc — “Jung unccrarq gb gur barf jub qvqa’g orpbzr erny? Gurl ohearq.”
Ohg V’z cerggl fher vg’f nyfb rdhnyyl gurer va Qe. Pbyybqv’f fcrrpu — Obgu znwbe boyvtngvbaf ur oevatf hc, “Lbh, nyy bs lbh, arrq gb ohvyq lbhe bja gbzbeebj.” naq “Lbh qba’g vagrtengr jvgu hf, jr vagrtengr jvgu lbh.” zveebe noq qverpgyl qvfnterr jvgu gur nffregvba bs Gur Fxva Ubefr: gung ernyarff vf fbzrguvat lbh TRG, sebz gur puvyq, naq gung vg vf gur gbl gufg punatrf sebz orvat ybirq, engure guna gur puvyq gung punatrf sebz ybivat.
Va gur bgure zbfg qenzngvp fprarf, Avpx’f cnegf — obgu uvf ebznapr jvgu Qe. Yrr (naq ybbx, gurer’f “Ybir” ntnva) naq uvf hfr ol Ze. Terra (naq gurer’f “whfg cynl”) nyfb qverpgyl qvfnterr jvgu vg. Ur vf Erny (“abj gurl jnaan gnxr zl erny obql, gbb”) orsber nalguvat ryfr, rira orsber ur trgf n “zber erny” obql (gur qebar), juvpu unccraf ORSBER ur vf Ybirq, Ernyyl Ybirq ol Qe. Yrr.* Gung orvat ybirq qbrfa’g znxr uvz nal zber “erny”, naq yvxrjvfr gur orvat “whfg cynlrq jvgu” ol Ze. Terra qbrfa’g znxr uvz yrff.
Gurer ner cebonoyl bgure fprarf V’z sbetrggvat. Jryy, jr’yy trg gb gurz ng fbzr cbvag va guvf ernq-guebhtu.
(* JNVG UBYL SEVPX AVPX’F ARJ SYRFU-NAQ-OYBBQ OBQL. GUR OENVA. Gur genfu urnc jnf tbaan or vapvarengrq, jnfa’g vg?? Gurl cynlrq gur fgbel ibzcyrgryl fgenvtug NALJNLF, NYFB. Bu zl TBQ Wrss&Funraba. JUNG.)
Bu jbj V qvqa’g pngpu nal bs gung gur svefg tb nebhaq. Guvf er-ernq vf tbvat gb or njrfbzr!
Nyfb, V yvxr ubj guvf vf n erqrzcgvba bs gur bevtvany Iryirgrra Enoovg.
(Naq abj V’z snprq jvgu jnagvat gb fcbvyre gnt zl pbzzragnel bs vg juvyr jvguva n ebg13 fcbvyre oybpx).
Evtug, fb, nf n xvq V arire yvxrq gur Iryirgrra Enoovg, orpnhfr va gur raq gur enoovg naq xvq arire trg gb frr rnpu bgure ntnva. V nyjnlf haqrefgbbq gur inyhr bs sevraqfuvc naq orvat ybirq, naq arire ernyyl haqrefgbbq jul fbzrbar jbhyq jnag gb or “erny”. Gur enoovg jnf gnyxvat sebz cntr bar, nsgre nyy.
By the by, it’s pretty funny that WHAT rot13s to JUNG.
Seven and a half years before this comic appeared, this part of the book was the reading at our wedding. My wife loved the bit about your fur being loved off.
I have no idea of what’s next for you amazing people. Please know that I and many, many other folks love, appreciate, and are grateful that you are. May the best be yours now and forever.
People kept referring to the “filename story” in later comics but it took a while before I even knew what they were talking about. Then I finally found a link where someone compiled it:
http://www.ci-n.com/~jcampbel/skinhorse.txt
I found that difficult to read so I reformatted it:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CvSICLQPjYh7kXk_lvhVYzegGqur7coVbE47H4ETrLA/edit?usp=sharing
I assume this is all copyright Shaenon, I contributed nothing but this link here.
Not all heroes wear capes. I’ve always been curious about the secret story and now I’m going to read it!!