Is the Rest of England Relevant?

[shouqi]

As topic. Does the rest of England / UK care at all about the events of the comic, or are they not involved as story components?

[Casey]

I'm trying to remember exactly what Tom said in regards to this, and perhaps someone can help with quotes, but I think it was that Gunnerkrigg Court does exist in the real, known world, but the rest of the world either doesn't really know about it, or knows about it but doesn't know the nature of what goes on there.

Eglamore was knighted by the queen, so the Court isn't in total isolation from the real world, and he must have done things that were generally recognizable to the public, or at least the crown, in order to receive that. And the Court goes out into the real world to do its recruiting. Additionally, there are transportation lines (I believe Tom said it was trains) that run from GC to the outside world, and of course GC has Internet access.

But to answer your original question as best as I can, I think the outside world is unaware of the events of the comic or the existence of Gillitie Wood's special creatures.

[bluemotion]

I've got a question that seems relevant: how common is magic outside of the Court?

I think we can assume that the student body within the Court has an unusually high concentration of "gifted" individuals, considering most of the main cast has some kind of etheric background or ability. But how high is that number in the normal world? 1 in 10? in 100? in 10,000? even smaller?

I wonder this because magic is so blatant and powerful in the GC 'verse that I would think it would be very difficult to hide outside of a community like the Court. So if theres a reasonably high concentration of magic users in the general population, I would just assume that magic is generally known to be real and functional in the GC verse.

Therefore, I ask: is the rest of the world aware of magic, but not aware of what goes on in the Court? Are the etheric sciences only known to the Court (and possibly to other establishments, perhaps Good Hope for example) and kept secret from the public?

Has Tom answered any of these? I am curious.

[Mylian]

Well, Zimmy's problems are apparently etheric in nature and they started outside the Court. And there were urban fairies shown in the "City Face" bit.

[La Goon]

With 240 students on each year I find it hard to believe that the things going on in the Court can be kept a secret for the surrounding world. Maybe unless all students from GC goes on to further education in a similar semi-secret institution and ends up working for a semi-secret organisation... I find that rater unlikely, though

What I like to think is that people in the world of GC are aware of strange things going on, but generally don't bother much about it. Even though Kat is strictly scientifically minded she doesn't seam to have much trouble accepting that Reynardine possessed Annie's toy wolf, that Mort is a ghost, that Aly transformed into a bird and a bunch of other stuff. I like to imagine that's not an uncommon attitude.

Edit: Oh, and to the thread's overall question: I believe that the rest of the world is largely irrelevant, except for the existence of various countries which certain characters come from.

[Casey]

I think Tom has addressed some of these questions, but to be honest I just can't remember anymore what exactly he said. I'm sorry guys... maybe someone with better memory or searching skills than me will come along and help you more.

[Casey]

Tom very recently posted something on his Formspring account that might be relevant to the questions here:

Y'know, just thought of something - what does MI5 / MI6 have to say about all of this Gunnerkrigg stuff? You'd think that British national agencies would have noticed at this point.

The Court has an agreement with the appropriate agencies to be left alone.

[shouqi]

Apr 5, 2010 3:18:17 GMT Casey said:

Tom very recently posted something on his Formspring account that might be relevant to the questions here:

Y'know, just thought of something - what does MI5 / MI6 have to say about all of this Gunnerkrigg stuff? You'd think that British national agencies would have noticed at this point.

The Court has an agreement with the appropriate agencies to be left alone.

Yeah, I asked in both places. It's about the answer I expected -- the point is that the government simply isn't important to the narrative, and won't be unless Tom has a reason to bring their role into the story.

Purely my opinion of course, but I'd love to see some outside interaction. What the rest of the UK must think of Gunnerkrigg is beyond me.

[King Mir]

Apr 4, 2010 18:33:04 GMT bluemotion said:

I've got a question that seems relevant: how common is magic outside of the Court?

I think we can assume that the student body within the Court has an unusually high concentration of "gifted" individuals, considering most of the main cast has some kind of etheric background or ability. But how high is that number in the normal world? 1 in 10? in 100? in 10,000? even smaller?

I wonder this because magic is so blatant and powerful in the GC 'verse that I would think it would be very difficult to hide outside of a community like the Court. So if theres a reasonably high concentration of magic users in the general population, I would just assume that magic is generally known to be real and functional in the GC verse.

Therefore, I ask: is the rest of the world aware of magic, but not aware of what goes on in the Court? Are the etheric sciences only known to the Court (and possibly to other establishments, perhaps Good Hope for example) and kept secret from the public?

Has Tom answered any of these? I am curious.

I think it's pretty clear that the gunnerkrigg universe is intended to be very similar to our own, if not actually our own. So the apparent prevalence of magic outside the court should be the same as our own. Which is to say, lots of potential sources, but none reliably so.

[judgedeadd]

On formspring, Tom confirmed that Annie's moon-print is visible and puzzling all over the world (don't force me to hunt down the link.)

[Mezzaphor]

Eglamore was knighted by the Queen, but this is not Elizabeth II. So the Gunnerverse is not supposed to be our universe, just a similar one.

[todd]

But definitely similar. It shares the real world's myths and legends, literature, and pop culture, so the public differences can't be too strong. (Unless, say, the pop culture references are "translations".)

[Casey]

Apr 5, 2010 7:18:56 GMT Mezzaphor said:

Eglamore was knighted by the Queen, but this is not Elizabeth II. So the Gunnerverse is not supposed to be our universe, just a similar one.

Correct; I see it as, oh, let's say for example, the movie Independence Day, where it's clearly meant to be set in "real" America, but instead of the president being Bill Clinton, it's a guy named Thomas Whitmore who happens to look just like the actor Bill Pullman.

[TBeholder]

Apr 5, 2010 6:57:46 GMT judgedeadd said:

On formspring, Tom confirmed that Annie's moon-print is visible and puzzling all over the world (don't force me to hunt down the link.)

Here, but strictly speaking, this means the fingerprint's visibility is not limited by observers, and says nothing about places.

[cronkite]

Whenever this sort of question comes up, I always think of this strip. Presumably, Rogat Orjak exist in the rest of Europe, so there's an implication that there are magical/fantastical things outside of the Court and the Wood.

But I'm also a proponent of not overthinking these sorts of things. The feeling I get from the attitude of the strip in general is that the outside world isn't directly relevant to the story. I suppose we'll see how it plays out in the future.

[penguinfactory]

What the rest of the world outside the Court is like is an interesting question, but I think it's one that will never be directly answered.

My own feeling on this is that people outside must know about the Court (the place is probably visible from orbit even if you ignore the equally huge Gillitie Wood, and the UK is a very small landmass), but presumably they're not sure on the specifics since it seems as if only those chosen to be students are allowed in.

As to what extent magical or fantastic elements exist outside the Court, that's harder to say. It doesn't seem as if the students have any trouble adapting to the wierd stuff that goes on around them, although we do know they're freaked out by the students in Chester. Maybe things like fairies and Rogat Orjaks are common knowledge (Kat met a ghost on holiday after all), but humans possesing etheric abilities is something that's generally kept secret. Hell, keeping them secret could even be the Court's primary function for all we know.

[avurai]

My question is, “How many students have left the Court, talked about what they’ve experience and got sent to an asylum?"

[the bandit]

Roughly 14%.

[todd]

It might be significant that many of the children from the past generation that we know of (Mr. and Mrs. Donlan and Eglamore, for a start; apparently Jones as well) work at the school (not to mention that Surma used to work there before Annie's birth, as its medium). Maybe most of the students are given jobs at Gunnerkrigg - in part, as a way to keep them from spreading tales abroad. (And there are the ones who belong to the etheric world, like Brinnie; I don't think that the Court need worry about her telling school stories to her fellow Valkyries - and anyone else in Asgard who might be interested in hearing about them.)