…although, she has the same general complexion as Virigina, which would seem to suggest she’s also of East Asian descent?
…but then she’s using a very western style teapot and teacups, and using more typically western sweeteners for the tea, which puts us back toward Britain?
…and we’ve seen lots of other very British elements… the particular style and aesthetics of the seaside resort town, and Melanie’s accent and colloquialisms…
…which in turn has put several folks in mind of Gavotte…
…and it’s worth noting that Gavotte kept flowers… and also was shown to use honey as a sweetener when she gave Tip a toffee early on…
My best guess is that the Gavotte’s somehow involved in all this… more specifically, I wonder if maybe her psyche has somehow been fractured apart, and each of the weirdos Virginia is interacting with is a single aspect of Gavotte’s personality, and thus the need to “heal that which is broken”…
It does crop up in places like the American South sometimes, but not terribly commonly. It’s probably less common than calling someone Hon’, for example.
It really is much more common in Britain. I had actually not even noticed it until you pointed it out, but now I’m shocked I missed it. It seems to fit so very well.
Also, upon reflection, Ms. Ape could even be another bee reference, via “Apiary”, and ultimately the Latin “apis”… which has the ablative case form of “ape”.
Probably because European-style tea is decidedly bitter and needs the sweetening. ‘s a whole thing that resulted from colonial trade and the necessary measures needed to transport tea leaves for months at a time across the ocean.
1) I am wondering if the “Phantoms” part of the story title is a hint that this is supposed to be a rough analog of the Phantom Tollbooth. Because Rhyme and Reason sure seem to be lacking around here.
(I haven’t read Figgs and Phantoms, so if there’s anything suggestive of that story, I am missing it)
2) I also have a vague sense that BMAD, collectively, seem to be parts of a single programmatic AI rather than an organic mind, or distinct AIs themselves. Specifically, Beatrix is a pattern/phase space explorer (similar to something called a “drunkard’s walk”, but a little kid wandering around playing and bumping into things and picking up and dropping sticks covers way more ground than any drunkard), Melanie is some sort of directed target matcher, Ape does aggressive pruning, and Delphi does predictive/stochastic analysis. Some sort of expert system, maybe?
Whatever did happen to GODOT, anyway?
(I haven’t given up on my prior hunches. I am large; I contain multitudes (of hunches, ideas, notions, and whatnot))
Figgs and Phantoms is a YA novel by Ellen Raskin, who wrote The Westing Game. It’s about an eccentric family called the Figgs who believe that when they die they do not go to Heaven but to an island called Capri (not to be confused with the actual island of Capri). The heroine is the youngest daughter of the family who would really like the family to be normal. After an incident that I will deliberately leave vague, she finds herself mentally journeying to Capri. The world Dr. Lee is in now is nothing like Capri, but that seems to be the analogy.
Fun fact, an old way to serve tea is to take it with salt (I’ve tried that. Actually not half bad, at least with green tea; you get an almost vegetable broth vibe). An even older way involves boiling up the tea leaves with onions and other stuff for an actual broth type thing.
I did not know that. I do, however, use brewed tea as a cooking liquid when soup or sauce is too thick. Gives a nice brown color as well as a subtle flavor.
My bet is that these are all fragments of Gavotte’s mind. That the reason why we haven’t seen or heard of her yet despite there have being enough time for her to repopulate her swarm is that she’s been broken up somehow. The part about healing probably refers to healing Gavotte.
The thought crossed my mind a long time ago that there may not actually be a Pavane. It is possible that Gavotte’s mind had already begun to fragment long before she left Skin Horse. The VR swarm that introduced itself to Sweetheart as “Pavane” may have simply been a fragment of Gavotte’s mind.
This interpretation of the Gavotte-Pavane relationship strikes me as entirely plausible–especially given how Sweetheart deduced it by analogy from the Cypress-Venus relationship.
Not that this doesn’t raise all sorts of interesting philosophical questions, like whether and when a part of a gestalt entity that splits off from its entity of origin should be considered a separate, independent entity, and what terms like those even mean when you’re talking about gestalt entities and fragments thereof, and so on.
If a “fragment” has independence, why wouldn’t it be a real individual?
A few thoughts on Gavotte:
1) Given that she had that mating swarm on the Very Bad Day, doesn’t that mean there’s another swarm-daughter out there besides Pavane?
2) On the other hand, could Pavane actually be that swarm daughter, due to a temporal anomaly?
3) On the other other hand (or leg — we may need all six, and maybe the wings too) is the swarm intelligence factor something not necessarily inherited, and thus the Very Bad Day swarm daughter could be no more intelligent than any other bee colony?
If something that began as a fragment becomes independent and self-sustaining, then it could be considered an individual of its own – as in the case of Cypress & Venus (who re-assimilated herself back into the Mother swamp after the divorce, which raises other questions about individuality). My theory regarding Gavotte & Pavane, however, is that there may not be any physical entity other than Gavotte herself, and Pavane is merely a fragment (or a figment, if you will) of her mind – something like a human being with Multiple Personality Disorder.
I don’t think this idea is consistent with what little we’ve been shown about Pavane, and the storyline with the Cypress and Venus.
Gavotte first mentions Pavane while talking about the Cypress; she thinks the marriage/divorce may be because of something like Pavane. That is, Gavotte posits that the Cypress has separated into two gestalts that are two distinct entities, not that she has a physically non-distinct second personality.
[ todays-comic-404 ; comic for October 16, 2010 ]
also
[ captain-brams-old-cabin ; comic for March 31, 2011 ]
If you think that Cypress & Venus are independent and self-sustaining fragments, then the context of the story itself means that Gavotte and Pavane are independent and self-sustaining fragments.
I suppose your idea might make sense if Gavotte herself did not know that Pavane was not a distinct entity, but I don’t see how you can get that from what she is shown as saying.
I’m not trying to insist that my theory is correct – after all, it’s only a theory – and a flimsy one, at that. But have you ever met anyone with MPD? They actually believe that they are distinct individuals, even though they are only one person.
What’s wrong with unsweetened tea?
My preferred kind. She must be from the South.
Or certain parts of Britain.
…although, she has the same general complexion as Virigina, which would seem to suggest she’s also of East Asian descent?
…but then she’s using a very western style teapot and teacups, and using more typically western sweeteners for the tea, which puts us back toward Britain?
…and we’ve seen lots of other very British elements… the particular style and aesthetics of the seaside resort town, and Melanie’s accent and colloquialisms…
…which in turn has put several folks in mind of Gavotte…
…and it’s worth noting that Gavotte kept flowers… and also was shown to use honey as a sweetener when she gave Tip a toffee early on…
My best guess is that the Gavotte’s somehow involved in all this… more specifically, I wonder if maybe her psyche has somehow been fractured apart, and each of the weirdos Virginia is interacting with is a single aspect of Gavotte’s personality, and thus the need to “heal that which is broken”…
I’m putting my money on that.
I don’t have any money, but if I did, I’d put it on that. As it is, all I can offer is pocket lint.
I see your pocket lint and raise you a dust bunny!
This ties in nicely with Pavanne having access to the VR, or perhaps being a part of it…
As a further minor reinforcement of your theory, there were Tiki prizes in the Skee-ball place.
Mrs Ape’s “Love” here also strikes me as a Britishism, although as a Brit myself I suppose it may be more common elsewhere than I think.
It does crop up in places like the American South sometimes, but not terribly commonly. It’s probably less common than calling someone Hon’, for example.
It really is much more common in Britain. I had actually not even noticed it until you pointed it out, but now I’m shocked I missed it. It seems to fit so very well.
Also, upon reflection, Ms. Ape could even be another bee reference, via “Apiary”, and ultimately the Latin “apis”… which has the ablative case form of “ape”.
If she’s giving it to her plants, it should be cold. Is there anywhere where it’s common to drink cold tea in a teacup like that?
Did the dahlias take it with honey or sugar?
Probably because European-style tea is decidedly bitter and needs the sweetening. ‘s a whole thing that resulted from colonial trade and the necessary measures needed to transport tea leaves for months at a time across the ocean.
I guess this must be the elusive mayor?
No, this is the Ms. Ape, the crabby lady who wrecked the “raft” that Melanie built.
Two distinct thoughts:
1) I am wondering if the “Phantoms” part of the story title is a hint that this is supposed to be a rough analog of the Phantom Tollbooth. Because Rhyme and Reason sure seem to be lacking around here.
(I haven’t read Figgs and Phantoms, so if there’s anything suggestive of that story, I am missing it)
2) I also have a vague sense that BMAD, collectively, seem to be parts of a single programmatic AI rather than an organic mind, or distinct AIs themselves. Specifically, Beatrix is a pattern/phase space explorer (similar to something called a “drunkard’s walk”, but a little kid wandering around playing and bumping into things and picking up and dropping sticks covers way more ground than any drunkard), Melanie is some sort of directed target matcher, Ape does aggressive pruning, and Delphi does predictive/stochastic analysis. Some sort of expert system, maybe?
Whatever did happen to GODOT, anyway?
(I haven’t given up on my prior hunches. I am large; I contain multitudes (of hunches, ideas, notions, and whatnot))
Figgs and Phantoms is a YA novel by Ellen Raskin, who wrote The Westing Game. It’s about an eccentric family called the Figgs who believe that when they die they do not go to Heaven but to an island called Capri (not to be confused with the actual island of Capri). The heroine is the youngest daughter of the family who would really like the family to be normal. After an incident that I will deliberately leave vague, she finds herself mentally journeying to Capri. The world Dr. Lee is in now is nothing like Capri, but that seems to be the analogy.
Nooooo! Don’t you know what plants need to grow is not tea but electrolytes?!?
Perhaps she’s trying to grow teaberry.
If it’d gotten as far as “one lump or two?” she would have suffered the same fate as Pete Puma…
She didn’t even consider that Virginia might not want tea at all…
Still wearing her prison greys. How many skee ball tickets for a new skin?
Fun fact, an old way to serve tea is to take it with salt (I’ve tried that. Actually not half bad, at least with green tea; you get an almost vegetable broth vibe). An even older way involves boiling up the tea leaves with onions and other stuff for an actual broth type thing.
I did not know that. I do, however, use brewed tea as a cooking liquid when soup or sauce is too thick. Gives a nice brown color as well as a subtle flavor.
Also, the only one left now who had a speaking part was the guard at the walnut slave labor camp. Everybody else has washed out.
Only villains sweeten tea. Noble volunteers can drink tea as bitter as wormwood.
That’s called “absinthe.”
My bet is that these are all fragments of Gavotte’s mind. That the reason why we haven’t seen or heard of her yet despite there have being enough time for her to repopulate her swarm is that she’s been broken up somehow. The part about healing probably refers to healing Gavotte.
Just my guess.
But how do you get a swarm of bees in a VR rig? Hundreds of tiny little helmets?
Ask Pavane.
The thought crossed my mind a long time ago that there may not actually be a Pavane. It is possible that Gavotte’s mind had already begun to fragment long before she left Skin Horse. The VR swarm that introduced itself to Sweetheart as “Pavane” may have simply been a fragment of Gavotte’s mind.
This interpretation of the Gavotte-Pavane relationship strikes me as entirely plausible–especially given how Sweetheart deduced it by analogy from the Cypress-Venus relationship.
Not that this doesn’t raise all sorts of interesting philosophical questions, like whether and when a part of a gestalt entity that splits off from its entity of origin should be considered a separate, independent entity, and what terms like those even mean when you’re talking about gestalt entities and fragments thereof, and so on.
If a “fragment” has independence, why wouldn’t it be a real individual?
A few thoughts on Gavotte:
1) Given that she had that mating swarm on the Very Bad Day, doesn’t that mean there’s another swarm-daughter out there besides Pavane?
2) On the other hand, could Pavane actually be that swarm daughter, due to a temporal anomaly?
3) On the other other hand (or leg — we may need all six, and maybe the wings too) is the swarm intelligence factor something not necessarily inherited, and thus the Very Bad Day swarm daughter could be no more intelligent than any other bee colony?
If something that began as a fragment becomes independent and self-sustaining, then it could be considered an individual of its own – as in the case of Cypress & Venus (who re-assimilated herself back into the Mother swamp after the divorce, which raises other questions about individuality). My theory regarding Gavotte & Pavane, however, is that there may not be any physical entity other than Gavotte herself, and Pavane is merely a fragment (or a figment, if you will) of her mind – something like a human being with Multiple Personality Disorder.
I don’t think this idea is consistent with what little we’ve been shown about Pavane, and the storyline with the Cypress and Venus.
Gavotte first mentions Pavane while talking about the Cypress; she thinks the marriage/divorce may be because of something like Pavane. That is, Gavotte posits that the Cypress has separated into two gestalts that are two distinct entities, not that she has a physically non-distinct second personality.
[ todays-comic-404 ; comic for October 16, 2010 ]
also
[ captain-brams-old-cabin ; comic for March 31, 2011 ]
If you think that Cypress & Venus are independent and self-sustaining fragments, then the context of the story itself means that Gavotte and Pavane are independent and self-sustaining fragments.
I suppose your idea might make sense if Gavotte herself did not know that Pavane was not a distinct entity, but I don’t see how you can get that from what she is shown as saying.
I’m not trying to insist that my theory is correct – after all, it’s only a theory – and a flimsy one, at that. But have you ever met anyone with MPD? They actually believe that they are distinct individuals, even though they are only one person.