As of the time I post this, unless there is a last minute upset after counting the Hero Inititive extra votes, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has won out over Selkie in March Madness. Thank you, everyone, for your votes and efforts to help me compete. It was a solid competition. Good luck in the next bracket, SMBC!
As for today’s comic, well lets just say it’s a short storytime. :3
I'd censor the beach scene but it's so non-detailed I barely see a point.
D-did you stealth a pun in the secret commentary there, Dave? “Barely”?
(As a student of the terrible pun myself, however, I hardly have a right to comment.)
😉
Selkie is in for a treat: She’s about to have her worldview expanded.
I wonder how many different cultures have that story?
I’d never heard of the Irish Selkies. But I knew of many “bird maiden” stories, from Africa to Siam to Iceland to Persia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden
The selkie myth apparently got started because from a distance a gray seal diving from the rocks (selkies are associated with tiny islands that are basically rocks sticking out of the ocean) looks awfully like a naked person diving into the water at first sight, and seals have big dark eyes and their babies are awfully cute. But the fairy tale of the selkie wife is, IMO, really about how not to marry. Don’t entrap her, or in the end you’ll have no wife at all.
You know, now that I think about it, while most myths and fairy tales do this…this is really a prick move, isn’t it?
If you shift the perspective about a little, there’s an extortion charge here.
Sure. The hero of just about ALL fairy tales is an ass. Look at good old Jack, for example, climbing the beanstalk to steal from the Giant. Goldilocks doing a B&E at the Bears’ house.
But most fairy tales were dreamed up centuries ago, where the “common people”s lives were short and harsh, and ANYTHING you could think up to better it – whether stealing gold from a Giant or forcing a beautiful princess into marriage – was an improvement.
This is pure speculation on my part, but I would also hazard a guess that back then they didn’t have much in the way of non-humans being thought of as people. Bears are ferocious and dangerous, giants are man-eating monsters. Why not steal from them?
Yeah well it’s not just in their fairy tales you can find that kind of justification.
And you know what “ogre” means? Uygur. Hungarian. As in literally “a human being from Hungary.”
For another turn on the non-human bride, whose skin needs stealing… http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/ is quite good.
I wondered if this legend would ever come up in the story. I wonder what Selkie will think of it.
I always thought this story was messed up. Just saying.
Also, a 14 vote difference? Come on!
Yeah well it’s not just in their fairy tales you can find that kind of justification.
Hopefully this helps her get over the stolen shirt fiasco. God that was overblown.
No, that was not at all overblown. If you are female having your clothes taken is one short step from sexual assault.
I am more imagining that she will have a much more personal reaction to a story that involves an innocent girl having her clothes taken and then tricked into marriage. And forced marriage IS sexual assault. Although I am also pretty sure she will be too innocent to make those particular connections I still think this will be another bit of shocking unfairness in a fairytale that she has learned (remember the Sarnothi tale of the Maiden and the Eel Spirit)
I’m going to explain this as calmly as I can
This attitude you have, while common, is thoroughly and completely wrong, and it is responsible for (or at least a symptom of) everything wrong with society right now.
Please try to step back from your myopic modern perspective and try to see things through literally every other eyes that have ever existed.
Getting that upset over something is never alright.
No you need to realize that when being topless can have you charged with indecent exposure at the least it is not “overblown”. And far too many girls Selkie’s age have been molested or raped, your trying to claim that me pointing out the truth is “what is wrong with society” is something seriously wrong with you. Sorry if the painful truth is something you don’t want to hear, but pretending it is all someone else’s hyperbole doesn’t make it go away. Perhaps I am being out of line here but I will believe it when Dave says so not you.
Blue Coyote is being much nicer to you than you deserve.
Simply put, when someone is attacked they are entitled to their reaction. You do not get to tell someone how to feel about something that has happened to them. Trying to control another person’s emotional response or expression is abusive. If you were in Selkie’s exact situation and reacted differently, that’s your own reaction and doesn’t dictate hers. If you never experienced an incident like that, you have no right to judge her reaction at all.
Telling victims to “shut up and take it”, which is essentially what your comment does, shows a severe lack of empathy and that you identify with the bullies rather than the bullied. Blue Coyote is trying to educate you; I’m a little more cynical and figure you for the kind of person who will never admit you’re wrong, and therefore never learn. You say you want Blue Coyote to step back and look through others’ eyes, but you refuse to even try to do it yourself.
You’re also being condescending and insulting as hell to someone who’s been nothing but civil to you. I don’t believe Dave’s moderation policy allows for an honest assessment of your personality, so I’ll leave it at that.
It did seem rather dramatic. Getting your clothing stolen would suck something awful though; regardless of your gender. It’s happened to me and I look back and laugh about the whole thing. Stuff happens when you’re a kid, then you grow up and realize it wasn’t as awful as you thought and it becomes a whole lot less significant. That is of course assuming you didn’t dwell on it your whole life and have the ability to laugh and get through things. Best to always look towards the future than dwell on the past! Learn from the past, yes, but do not dwell!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytKfE25jeqQ
A great version of the song…
I saw a movie once called “The Secret of Roan Inish” about the descendants of the Selkie and the Human from the legend.
It’s nice to see you trying on (another) new style.
Mercedes Lackey took this legend also, for Home from the Sea (don’t read it until you’ve finished this story, please)
Ohh I just read that one! It is pretty good, and nice to see her moving away from spoiled twits complaining about unfairness to actual people dealing with real double-dealing.
I think i already read a similar tale like the one in this page before
Yeah, this is the general tale of the Selkie mythological creature. Cool rendering though.
What! Are you suggesting that Dave is guilty of plagiarism! Nonesense, this is an entirely original work, and any resemblances to any other stories must be entirely coincidental.
😉
don’t worry, the story i know have another ending