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Post by Broadus on Mar 25, 2007 4:35:29 GMT
I have a stupid question! Sure, you might think, "Then don't ask it." Good point. ...Here it is. Waaay back on this page, www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=77, Zimmy has an entry which Antimony calls an abomination, and then later some guys in bio-security suits have it taken away. So is her entry ever revealed anywhere, or is it just one of those eternal mysteries in which it's not actually anything in specific, but the meaning is clear enough? |
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Post by Count Casimir on Mar 25, 2007 4:53:41 GMT
I believe it's an eternal mystery. Maybe someday it'll get big! And loose! And they'll have to hunt it down.
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Post by mrw on Mar 25, 2007 5:32:57 GMT
Yeah, Zimmie's entry was never revealed to us. Someone theorized she had made some kind of Frankenstein-like spliced-bug-critter reminiscent of her flashbacks. I like that theory myself, but I doubt we'll ever know what it really was.
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Post by Broadus on Mar 25, 2007 5:48:49 GMT
Well, Tom would know... Though it probably is safe to assume that it was never actually meant to be anything in actuality, at least when it was made.
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Post by todd on Mar 25, 2007 11:06:55 GMT
I doubt that we'd ever be told what it was, simply because I doubt that anything could live up to our expectations by now. It's one of those situations where what makes it so effective is that we *don't* know what it was - only that it was so dreadful that even Reynardine was afraid to go near it.
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Ben²
Junior Member
Participant
Posts: 58
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Post by Ben² on Mar 25, 2007 14:58:46 GMT
True, I bet it was just a one-time joke, but it's always possible it'll resurface someday. After all, those haz-mat suited men carting off the petri dish had Gunnerkrigg emblems. Chances are it's still being stored somewhere on school grounds.
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Post by Broadus on Mar 25, 2007 19:55:33 GMT
HAZMAT! That's what they're called! Y'know, all day yesterday, I was trying to remember the name of those suits.
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Myrani
Junior Member
Posts: 85
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Post by Myrani on Mar 26, 2007 17:42:34 GMT
I think now's one of those times for me to mumble off a paraphrase of the idea that danger behind a closed door typically looks worse than if it was revealed, because the imagination will invariably dream up or expect something far more horrible than what lies behind the door in reality. I do believe there would be some exceptions to the rule, but regardless... it can be a handy device.
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Post by mrw on Mar 26, 2007 19:21:28 GMT
I think now's one of those times for me to mumble off a paraphrase of the idea that danger behind a closed door typically looks worse than if it was revealed, because the imagination will invariably dream up or expect something far more horrible than what lies behind the door in reality. I do believe there would be some exceptions to the rule, but regardless... it can be a handy device. Hitchcock was a master at this, and it appears Tom is also. |
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Post by yeochild on Mar 27, 2007 20:36:33 GMT
I feel convinced (though I don't know exactly why) that the identity of this experiment will be revealed. So, what do we know about it?
.Zimmy says that it's not dangerous.
.Annie says it's an "abomination" (but probably thinks it isn't dangerous too, since if she had she would have told someone).
.Some scientists seem to think that it is/might be dangerous.
.Reynardine hates it, but I think he doesn't know what it is. He refuses to touch anything Zimmy creates, so why even bother to look at it if his mind is already made up?
Now, what does Annie know that a couple of highly trained scientists don't? Magic. So it has to be magical. What does Annie consider an abomination, but not so much of one that she would refuse her help in Dobranoc, Gamma? That's a tough one . . . we still know so little of the fundamental values of our heroine.
My personal, utterly baseless guess is that it's some strange, magical thingy that looks like what the seer fears/hates most. Annie sees her dead mother, and recognizes that it's a sick trick. The scientists see a biological superweapon, and are taken in, despite Zimmy's raving.
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Post by Aspen d'Grey on Mar 28, 2007 4:59:14 GMT
Are we really in a position to trust whether or not Zimmy thinks that it is dangerous? I get the feeling that, while Reynardine was avoiding it purely because Zimmy made it, he also has pretty good reasons for doing so- remember when he tried to pull Annie back before Nice Man Robot pushed her off? He knew that Robot in this form was dangerous.
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Post by mrw on Mar 28, 2007 5:13:06 GMT
Reynardine may have been acting purely out of self interest, if for instance Annie had instructed him not to run off. Which seems like a wise thing to instruct him to not do.
Yeochild, your utterly baseless guess is brilliant. I think it's the best guess yet, true or not.
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Post by Aspen d'Grey on Mar 28, 2007 5:18:49 GMT
Oh, hello... actually reading that last paragraph in his comment is a plus. Yes, I like that idea as well... But, I also still think that we can't trust Zimmy's word on the danger. Something like that could be seriously damaging to a person psyche. Also, why would both scientists see the same thing? (a bioweapon) and why is that their greatest fear?
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Post by yeochild on Mar 28, 2007 14:47:01 GMT
Okay, maybe what it thinks will make them worried/cause most chaos/fit in most with their expectations/get them to kill it so it can get away from Zimmy. I dunno.
And Zimmy seems pretty honest/trustworthy. If she actually thought it was dangerous, she'd probably try to explain or look all innocent when the bio-guys turned up (Zimmy trying to look all innocent . . . now there's a thought). But her "It's not dangerous, you prats!", to me, seems to indicate that not only is it not dangerous, but that that fact should be obvious to a group of people she thinks the biologists should be a part of (sorry for the long, run-on sentence, btw). I'd guess that she thinks they (since they work with the Court) should know enough about magic to realize that this is just a harmless creation.
One more thing: if Reynardine thought that thing was REALLY dangerous, he'd probably have blown his cover in order to get rid of it and keep Annie safe (which he definitely seems intent on doing, though for reasons unknown).
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Post by owl on Mar 31, 2007 18:05:09 GMT
Well, perhaps it's NOT dangerous to Zimmy because of whatever she is...and perhaps not dangerous to Reynardine or Annie either (because of whatever they are). Rey has no such motive to protect Kat (the one of the group that it WOULD me dangerous to), so he wouldn't break his cover for that.
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Post by nickgoodway on Mar 31, 2007 20:18:44 GMT
Even if it is just a McGuffin, they can still drive a plot forward. Look at Marcellus Wallace's briefcase in 'Pulp Fiction', or of their use in many Hitchcock films, the money in 'Psycho' for example.
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