And occasionally bring him a hot dinner—Walden Pond was in a park either in or adjacent to the town (I forget which). Even before I saw Vera’s line, I was thinking that this actually is a lot like Walden. (Oh, Thoreau, you beautiful blinded-by-privilege idealist, embodiment of the “Is this a pigeon?” meme. “Is this rugged primitive living off the land?” “Is this daring political protest?” No, no, it isn’t, but somehow it will get people to do the real thing, and I have to love you for it.)
He was a bit of a faker, yup. My favourite (aside form the laundry thing) is the famous “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” line. Which may or may not be true; but in context he’s implicitly declaring “but I’m not one of them”, which – kinda protesting too much, don’t you think?
This is America. No matter where you are, there’s either a 7/11, a Starbucks, or both around the corner. When we finally build colonies on the Moon and Mars, those two business (and maybe a McDonald’s) will have little domes of their own to start selling things to the colonists.
He’d have to be b&e and stealing if that’s where he’s getting the food considering the reality blindness atm. More likely the safe house had a stash of food he’s pilfering.
We saw Alfie, Killbot #2, and Sweetdaddy, so I’m just guessing everyone from inside the house was on the ship somewhere. Maybe hiding, maybe in another brig when AG-I captured everyone, maybe no one thought to capture them since they weren’t with the rest of them (the AG-I team wasn’t all that bright, after all). Since they weren’t directly involved in the story, seeing them was kind of superfluous. Shaenon can’t draw everyone all the time… her drawing hand would fall off.
I suspect the Jersey Devils are what Tip and Leo are referring to as “monsters out here”. Without the Cobras there to keep them up to date on their “allergy shots”, the Devils will have reverted back to their wild selves.
My wife grew up in Concord MA. Walden Pond is just that. A pond. She didn’t know there was anything interesting about it until her high school course in American Authors.
Just as a side thought… where on earth does Leo get his glasses? And for that matter, where do some of the other (moles, I’m looking at you) sentient nonhumans get theirs? The sizes aren’t exactly standard, and somebody’s got to do the lens-work. Do we have a highly-trained sized-to-spec glasses-maker among the nonhominids? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW. (Well, mine does, anyway.)
Does this mean our leonine friend is going to redesign the pencil? o_O
Maybe he already did.
Well, he is a writer with a different set of manipulating appendages than the typical human one, so it only stands to reason.
No cobras? No robots? I am disappointed.
The cobras went off with Bubbles, no?
(Did Thoreau really have his mom do his laundry? I don’t know a lot about Thoreau.)
Yup.
And occasionally bring him a hot dinner—Walden Pond was in a park either in or adjacent to the town (I forget which). Even before I saw Vera’s line, I was thinking that this actually is a lot like Walden. (Oh, Thoreau, you beautiful blinded-by-privilege idealist, embodiment of the “Is this a pigeon?” meme. “Is this rugged primitive living off the land?” “Is this daring political protest?” No, no, it isn’t, but somehow it will get people to do the real thing, and I have to love you for it.)
He was a bit of a faker, yup. My favourite (aside form the laundry thing) is the famous “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” line. Which may or may not be true; but in context he’s implicitly declaring “but I’m not one of them”, which – kinda protesting too much, don’t you think?
Either that or grudgingly speaking from experience.
A friend of mine calls Thoreau “a pioneer of First World problems”. I can’t say I disagree with her.
That is a perfect description.
I’m going to wager that “the land” has a 7/11 around the corner.
This is America. No matter where you are, there’s either a 7/11, a Starbucks, or both around the corner. When we finally build colonies on the Moon and Mars, those two business (and maybe a McDonald’s) will have little domes of their own to start selling things to the colonists.
They’re in New Jersey, so he’s easy walking distance from at least 17 Wawas.
Walden Pond was just a few hundred yards from the railroad tracks.
He’d have to be b&e and stealing if that’s where he’s getting the food considering the reality blindness atm. More likely the safe house had a stash of food he’s pilfering.
How much of a functional difference is there between living off the land and stealing from a Wawa?
How is it pilfering when that’s what it’s there for?
Poor house, seems it was not as safe as it expected.
Oh, I imagine that the house is fine. I suspect that Bubbles took everyone to crew the Habakkuk, even though we only saw a few of them.
A little while ago, some of them were on the H. M. C. S. Habakkuk. But not all of them, least as far as we could tell.
The Habakkuk could not have been crewed by only the three or four individuals we saw, so I’m betting Bubbles took everyone.
Besides, we only saw Alfie. What happened to Meg and the others? And where are the Jersey Devils they were treating with their venom?
We saw Alfie, Killbot #2, and Sweetdaddy, so I’m just guessing everyone from inside the house was on the ship somewhere. Maybe hiding, maybe in another brig when AG-I captured everyone, maybe no one thought to capture them since they weren’t with the rest of them (the AG-I team wasn’t all that bright, after all). Since they weren’t directly involved in the story, seeing them was kind of superfluous. Shaenon can’t draw everyone all the time… her drawing hand would fall off.
I suspect the Jersey Devils are what Tip and Leo are referring to as “monsters out here”. Without the Cobras there to keep them up to date on their “allergy shots”, the Devils will have reverted back to their wild selves.
With a good deal of sneezing, no doubt.
I’m thoreauly enjoying this.
My wife grew up in Concord MA. Walden Pond is just that. A pond. She didn’t know there was anything interesting about it until her high school course in American Authors.
Just as a side thought… where on earth does Leo get his glasses? And for that matter, where do some of the other (moles, I’m looking at you) sentient nonhumans get theirs? The sizes aren’t exactly standard, and somebody’s got to do the lens-work. Do we have a highly-trained sized-to-spec glasses-maker among the nonhominids? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW. (Well, mine does, anyway.)
If it’s a non-weirdness-blind human glasses maker, the nonhominid community just took a healthcare hit.
Oh right, everyone in charge of the safehouse left.
…Sweetheart why didn’t you get anyone to replace the safehouse guards?