Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
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2018-09-10
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2018-09-10

by shaenon on September 10, 2018 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Figgs and Phantoms
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Discussion (34) ¬

  1. Frank
    September 10, 2018, 12:03 am | # | Reply

    Yeah, Dr. Lee, how could you have missed it? You were just at that arcade! (How big is this town anyway?)

    • awgiedawgie
      September 10, 2018, 1:33 am | # | Reply

      I’m not certain that this even is a town. So far it seems to be just a few novelty shops on a beach. The nearest town — and its Mayor — could be miles away…. by bus.

      I suppose she could use the excuse that she was still disorientated from finding herself here in the first place. And maybe she wasn’t exactly looking for an astrologer, but how much worse could it be than a couple of eccentric kids and a crazy old woman?

      • BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
        September 11, 2018, 7:27 am | # | Reply

        It’s a boardwalk

    • frithrikr
      September 10, 2018, 10:46 am | # | Reply

      My personal theory is that it’s a village.

      • frithrikr
        September 10, 2018, 10:48 am | # | Reply

        Or, perhaps, “Village.”

        • s854
          September 10, 2018, 7:45 pm | # | Reply

          It would be very convenient if it was a “Village”, as then the town hall would be just down the road.

          And then, being Number 6 is always better than being Winston Smith.

  2. Towering Barbarian
    September 10, 2018, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    The Narbonverse being what it is, I’m hardly going to rule out the possibility that an astrologer might indeed be useful. ^_^

    • Efogoto
      September 10, 2018, 2:14 am | # | Reply

      Especially Madame Delphi.

  3. Robert Nowall
    September 10, 2018, 12:13 am | # | Reply

    Strictly speaking, it means “the study of a subject,” the subject in question being whatever it’s attached to.

    • awgiedawgie
      September 10, 2018, 1:22 am | # | Reply

      “Study of” is only one of several meanings for “ology”. It does indeed also mean “science”. It also means “branch of knowledge; written work; structure or principle; a speaking, discourse, treatise, doctrine, or theory.”

      Curiously enough, it comes from the same Greek root word, legein — meaning “to speak” — where we get the term Hapax Legomenon, which was also the name of the fish-man ruler of Venus. His title literally means “to say only once.” Perhaps chosen for the “don’t make me repeat myself” philosophy of giving orders.

      • Max
        September 10, 2018, 3:43 am | # | Reply

        Everything is possible but I’m inclined to think it was chosen simply because it sounded like a vaguely plausible title of royalty while also having an actual meaning thus fitting the “always some more meaning hidden beyond the surface” nature of this strip…

    • Barking Monkey
      September 10, 2018, 6:12 am | # | Reply

      Which is why “apology” is the study of aps, as everyone knows.

      • frithrikr
        September 10, 2018, 10:50 am | # | Reply

        I’m stealing that. But at least I’m telling you that I am.

      • OneUniverse
        September 10, 2018, 3:19 pm | # | Reply

        Can we change that to App-ology?

    • Daibhid C
      September 10, 2018, 1:44 pm | # | Reply

      Any other Brits here who were instantly reminded of “You got an ology?”

      • Daibhid C
        September 10, 2018, 1:45 pm | # | Reply

        (Oh, wow, I can embed things; I was expecting it to just come up as a link!)

        • awgiedawgie
          September 10, 2018, 3:29 pm | # | Reply

          You can only embed certain things, like videos. Images won’t work.

        • DavidG
          September 10, 2018, 6:06 pm | # | Reply

          Beat me to it!

  4. Sora Hjort (@SoraHjort)
    September 10, 2018, 1:50 am | # | Reply

    … Could be worse, it could say “Scientology”

    • Robert Loughrey
      September 10, 2018, 5:33 pm | # | Reply

      Never agree to a reading.

  5. Ray Radlein
    September 10, 2018, 2:21 am | # | Reply

    There’s a giant mountain temple shaped like an alien crystal princess just outside this town, isn’t there

    • Shadowmehr
      September 10, 2018, 7:41 pm | # | Reply

      I know what you’re talking about, but that might actually be a possibility, depending on the humor of the programmers of the simulation.

  6. Martin Hooper
    September 10, 2018, 3:01 am | # | Reply

    I’m seriously getting “The Prisoner” vibes here with Ginny being Number 6….

    • frithrikr
      September 10, 2018, 10:51 am | # | Reply

      Who’s Number one?

      You are, Number six.

      • reynard61
        September 11, 2018, 3:53 am | # | Reply

        “I am not a number, I am a free Mad!”…”Okay, maybe not a Mad; but I’m certainly not weirdness-blind either…”

  7. bergerjacques
    September 10, 2018, 11:46 am | # | Reply

    There’s a distinct lack of “heh heh heh”s, but the woman in lavender bears a passing resemblance to a dowdy Dr. Helen Narbon, Sr.

    • awgiedawgie
      September 10, 2018, 3:33 pm | # | Reply

      Maybe a little, but Sr. always had those big square glasses.

  8. Kaymyth
    September 10, 2018, 1:04 pm | # | Reply

    So, “extirpation” means “to destroy utterly.”

    This isn’t a punishment. It a psychological terror experiment custom designed for Ginny to break her will completely and utterly.

    • Kaymyth
      September 10, 2018, 1:05 pm | # | Reply

      *it’s

    • Daibhid C
      September 10, 2018, 1:43 pm | # | Reply

      Which fits with the theory that this is the VR thing, since that’s exactly what they did to Sweetheart.

      • Shadowmehr
        September 10, 2018, 7:44 pm | # | Reply

        And just like Sweetheart’s experiment, this is a metaphorical reflection of what’s in Dr. Lee’s mind. All the people she’s meeting are representations of some parts of her personality. Which really doesn’t say much about her mind.

    • Towering Barbarian
      September 10, 2018, 8:24 pm | # | Reply

      Hard to break anyone’s will without breaking a portion of their mind as well. I wonder if breaking the mind of a not-mad scientist will necessarily prove all that wise? o_O

  9. Robert Nowall
    September 10, 2018, 7:48 pm | # | Reply

    She’s trapped in a seascape place
    That might be at Cape May.
    She seeks a good escape place
    To try to get away.

    Her search has turned up idiots
    Who were no help at all—
    She wants to discuss them,
    With no reason to trust them.
    ‘Cause their minds have been enthralled.

    A sign says astrology
    From false etymology
    And troubled philology
    Makes for bad terminology
    In all terminology
    The proper psychology
    A dash of mythology
    Perhaps some cryptography
    And maybe theology
    Of strange ideology
    With this bold chronology
    Pursuit of graphology
    Shows wicked symbology
    With nanotechnology
    And spoken scatology
    Will take an anthology.

    She’ll put on dark sunglasses,
    She’ll give up all her hopes.
    Surrounded by these asses
    Who demonstrate they’re dopes

    Her time is growing short now
    If Nick’s alive today—
    It must be remembered
    He’ll be shortly dismembered
    And his brain just thrown away.

    —from “When You Are Old and Grey,” Tom Lehrer.

  10. wykstrad
    September 11, 2018, 12:08 pm | # | Reply

    I think she meant to say, “Etymology, you are a cruel science.”

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