Just as voice 1 is Selkie’s perception of the Mythological Selkie, Voice 2 is Selkie’s perception of the Mor’Kama Maiden
Unrelated to Selkie, but my cousin showed me this and I freakin’ love it. It’s kids at a Band Camp covering Tool:
A rule of thumb I have is that Selkie speaks without pluralses in dreams, fantasies, mindscapes, and when writing things out (such as her "buff butterfly" science essay). My basis for this is that Selkie "hears" her own voice and thoughts as perfectly normal, so in her own mind, she talks/thinks in normal speak.
I really hope she didn’t say that last bit out loud. Monday might show us Truck trying to kill her again.
Well certainly she does not use the extra S in her mind. Kids that stutter don’t think, “I have to g-g-go to the b-b-bathroom”. Kids with a lisp don’t write, “Thee the thilly thquirrel”. They KNOW how it is supposed to be. They just can’t get it out of their mouths correctly.
Thilly Retards.
ಠ_ಠ
I have a mentally handicapped daughter. Why did you use that word?
Because they probably aren’t expecting a random person on the internet they’re not talking to butting in on their conversations because they’re afraid of a word?
I’m not afraid of a word I’m offended by. Here is a person with a mentally handicapped daughter being offended by the casual use of the word “retard,” He/she has the right.
He has the right to be offended. We have the right to not care in the least.
Well, you SHOULD care. I was born with a minor case of Cerebral Palsy and while it doesn’t affect me as obviously as those with worse disabilities, I have heard that word slung around all my life.
I have had it used towards me and towards all of my friends who have one handicap or another….so trust me, it isn’t “just a word”. That word says to us: “Hey, you’re different and that’s not okay.” There is NOTHING wrong with us, yet that word makes us feel like we are beneath everyone else.
Words have power…be careful how you use them!
You have the right to be a complete douche, yes. If you want to be a terrible human being, you’re going to want to use hurtful language wherever possible, and definitely not care about anyone’s feelings, or the real world effects that using slurs has on the targets.
You’re not free from any consequences, including the very mild one of people calling you out on being a douche.
given the kind of reactions I’ve seen here over the past so many comics, you guys are already doing a good job of being terrible human beings without calling anyone a retard.
I’m not afraid of the word and use it freely. But when I use it, I’m using it in the classic sense of the word and never in reference to a person. I might say the fuel line is retarded when gas isn’t getting to the engine because the word means slowed down.
As for people, could never bring myself to calling a person a retard because I don’t see people as retarded. Their development might not be the same pace as mine in mainstream ways, but they have other developments mentally on a speed I can’t beat. So why call them retarded when the word doesn’t fit?
I’m not afraid of the word. I just want to know why TheJerk used it. (BTW, I did mean to reply to TheJerk’s comment, not Benjamin’s).
TheJerk randomly throws in nasty words in an attempt to prove his worthiness of his name. I don’t understand his compulsion to be nasty, but it has shown up repeatedly in the comments.
” I don’t understand his compulsion to be nasty”
Because that’s what trolls do. They say nasty or argumentative stuff, trying to get a rise out of people, for the pure joy of starting an argument. It makes them feel important.
The Jerk has always been this way. I pretty much ignore him. He never has anything valuable to say.
1. This is an open discussion, nobody’s butting in.
2. It’s an offensive word that has no place here.
3. Why do *you* care so much?
This question is actually relevant to the current story arc. Does Truck bully because he’s been led to believe it’s acceptable, or does he know his behaviour is unacceptable and harmful, and just wants to hurt people? Does TheJerk act like they do out of ignorance or malice?
Given what we’ve seen, I’d say Truck acts mostly from the former, with a bit of anger and malice creeping in. And while I’m not familiar with TheJerk, my understanding is they’re an adult, and ignorance only covers so much, so I’m going with genuine nastiness.
I think it is pretty clear that Truck acts this way because that is how he has seen his father act, and because he has come to believe (until the big kaboon at school) that his father would be proud of him for acting like this.
I also think that the only way he can reliably stop acting like this and eventually turn into a decent human being is for his father to lead by example. Right now, it seems more like his father is bullying him into no longer bullying others, which is kind of counter-productive.
Guys, guys: Don’t feed the troll.
You did see his forum identity, right? Ignore him and move along.
In a wheelchair here and have speech issues due to M.S can we maybe NOT use the R word? Pretty please?
She´s probably thinking in Sarnothi.
Not necessarily, I’m trilingual (I speak Polish with my family, English on the internet and Dutch at school and pretty much everywhere else) and I don’t really think in any language in particular, unless I’m actually thinking about saying or writing something. And if I do, the language I’m thinking in is adjusted to the purpose and setting I’m imagining speaking or writing in.
Even in dreams I can speak multiple languages depending on who I’m speaking to. I can also dream in first or third person, in the second case I usually don’t even exist in my own dream…
True, but her pluralses started as a difference between Sarnothi and English not translating properly, didn’t they? So I could see it appearing in writing, depending on how she learned English and what Sarnoth’s writing system is like.
I think it’s more like speech impediment, rather than mis-translation.
Perfect examples are heavy accents from french/german/mexican/spanish/italian people trying to speak English.
I always have to listen very carefully if my Italian colleagues say “bitch” or “beach”… they pronounce it exactly the same.
We have been told
that the s’es are a result of Sarnothi using pluralis more often and differently than english. It isthe result of an accent, but indeed a mis-translation 🙂
*it is NOT the result of an accent or speech impediment, is what I ment to say
Why would a 3-year-old child (that’s how old she was when Mama dropped her off) know how to write?
She was five when she went to the orphanage. She spent 3 years there.
I don’t really like where this is going because it almost makes him look like a victim himself and that’s not a good way to twist his character image. The reality is, he did bad things, he lied and he basically understood he did these things or he wouldn’t have lied.
Being a child once myself I can safely say he’s more sorry about being caught then actually doing the bad things.
He’s clearly not. He was sorry only about getting caught until everyone told him that he was being the *Bad* guy and just now talking to Selkie he realized that from another perspective, he wasn’t justified at all. Go back and look at the comic before this, where he talks about going to a therapist who thought he might be a narcissist. He’s genuinely scared that he actually did something bad, not just in a way that got him in trouble but in a way that he *agrees* was bad.
There’s a world of difference between not doing something because it’s wrong and not doing something because other people will do things to you for it.
So far, all I’m seeing in Truck is the latter. My view of him may change eventually, but not yet.
At this point he IS a victim – of his fathers arrogance and ineptitude, plus the fear others have of antagonizing his parents.
That doesn’t justify anything he does, and treating him with deference won’t help it change, but at that age, he’s largely the product of what his parents have made him into – he’s never really had the option of being other than he is.
He has that option now, but like I said before, I don’t think he’s getting the help he needs.
He’s a victim of his father, doesn’t understand why his action was bad (because he’s seen his father use the same actions against him… stopping him from doing something harmful or bad by physical force…), and feels conflicted between what he’s told is right and what he’s seen others do.
His problem is largely that he’s obedient instead of a decent person. He doesn’t know how or why to act, just that, so long as he does as his father, he’ll be ok (because his father more-or-less claims authority over everyone else he encounters, by legal or political force). This may very well be the first time he’s had to deal with someone he hurt where his dad didn’t simply fix it.
Actually, I’ve never seen it ever mentioned in the comic that his father ever used physical force on him when he did something his father didn’t want him to do. I understand that many kids are the product of their upbringing; but, in this case, I think it’s because his parents never taught him that what he has been doing was wrong because his parents didn’t know he was actually doing those things. Sometimes parents assume they don’t need to teach their kids not to do stupid or mean things because they assume they’re not already doing them.
Aww common Selkie you were so close…
“Sploosh! That’s guts exploding.”
Heh heh. Just imagine her saying it in Whoopi Goldberg’s voice (as Guinan). And heck, fill in another Whoopi Goldberg voice for the other shoulder angel. Heh heh. Comedy gold.
Empathy: The intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
Selkie has it, Truck does not. Here we see an aspect of Selkie inner mind showing concern for him but Truck’s only concern is for himself. Even in his “apology” he hasn’t considered Selkie’s feelings. He’s only doing it because of how it will effect him – he doesn’t want to be crazy.
Before modern psychiatry came up with some new terminology we use to call people without empathy by the catchall – sociopaths. I’m still liking it in Truck’s case.
Speaking from your own personal experience as as sociopath, I suppose.
No, just using my ability to ‘intellectually identify with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.’ 😛
“Sociopaths” was a term created by psychiatry, we just called them “bullies.” I think Truck is trying to come to grips with his feelings and what he’s been told about them. I think there’s hope for him.
A sociopath is someone who never developed empathy. It’s a clinical term for a personality disorder.
A bully is simply someone who bullies.
Not all bullies are sociopaths, and not all sociopaths are bullies.
If Truck was a sociopath, he wouldn’t be trying. He’d be “thank goodness my Dad’s friend stopped talking, that was really boring” and later “There’s that girl that’s caused me all this trouble. I better avoid her so I don’t get in more trouble.”
I am a bit of a pragmatist. The primary point is to get Truck to act better. The motivation behind it is secondary. So I see Truck’s reaction as a step in the right direction.
For one thing, psychological studies have shown that people are heavily influenced by the ideas they espouse in public. So if you can get Truck to say things like “I don’t want to be the bad guy” or “I don’t mean to hurt people” then he is actually more likely to follow that, no matter the motivation for saying it in the first place. Even “I am sorry” or “I apologize” is a start.
In a perfect world, Truck becomes more empathetic. In the most likely reachable world, he just starts acting better.
Now, whether Selkie thinks like that and how her actions help or hinder the goal of improving Truck’s behavior is very up in the air right now.
While I do think Truck needs help, I don’t think Selkie is the person to help him get better. First of all, she’s not big enough to stop him if he snaps and does the wrong thing again. Truck needs people who are able and willing to stop him if necessary.
I think it was inappropriate of Truck’s father to have Truck put Selkie in this situation. If there needed to be an apology, it needed to be with parents present, not a one-on-one thing. One-on-one things happen when there isn’t risk of severe bodily harm.
How can Truck’s father expect Selkie to take the apology seriously if she’s terrified for her life? This isn’t gonna be a good experience for Truck, either =.=;; Oy.
For that reason . . . yup, I agree with RUNNING.
This conversation is taking place in the middle of a crowded cafeteria, and Truck is not being threatening. Selkie is justifiably scared, but it’s her memory of what happened earlier that’s scaring her, not any current physical danger.
I hope she finds the courage to stay despite her fear. I think she will, after she remembers that she wanted to be strong as well as kind.
To comment on everyone saying Truck wasn’t really bad since he thought what he was doing was okay two posts back: there is no such thing as good or evil, they’re just concepts we make up. Everyone’s really mixed in between, It’s a lot more complicated than in the cheesy cartoons with the whole good guy bad guy philosophy or whatever. I still think he’s bad for the things he did during the snowball fight faisco, I think he’s even more bad for believing that everything he’s been doing was okay, BUT I don’t think he’s completely bad since he’s starting to show doubts about his justice and possibly showing remorse as well, for that we owe him credit. There’s some truth in real life about his “we were only joking around ” claim, when your the offender, you view your actions as offensive. But Truck’s behavior was clearly way over board; He grabbed Selkie and started shaking her when she screamed in self defense, refused to put her down because she didn’t stop when he told her to, and refused to believe he was doing any wrong despite what his school mates and his teachers told him. That is, until his dad caught him. Anyway, looking forward to mister Trunchbull getting his due in either court, or the PTA meeting. Also, everyone talked about there own name stories several posts back, I have one of my own to tell, but I’ll post it another time, not today.
I meant “when your the offender, you DON’T view your actions as offensive” e.g. Are you laughing at them or with them?
Dave – it’s actually a music school in I think Ohio. You should check out some of the other videos too! (My personal faves are the cover of David Bowie’s ‘Magic Dance’ from Labyrinth, for the cute factor, Guns n Roses ‘You Could Be Mine’ and Stevie Nicks’ ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, and Dream Theater’s ‘Pull Me Under’.) The kids do AMAZING work, and the way it works, the ones who consistently do best in group performance at the school get the opportunity to record in some of the best studios around – field trips to get them used to the idea and so on.
If I had the money, I would be establishing scholarships to this school. They obviously have found a strategy that WORKS, and WOW.
Bohemian Rhapsody is nice, too!
I have seen Selkie rising through the ranks on TopWebComic.com’s website voting pages. I had to see what made Selkie so popular. I’m glad I did! This is great fun. I just binge-read all 500+ episodes in the space of a week so I’m 1) thoroughly awash in Selkie lore, and 2) spoiled on being able to get immediate Selkie fixes with the push of a button. Now I have to wait?
I’ll send some fan art your way; keeping busy with that will tide me over… for now. 😉 Great comic!
Thanks!
I, too, know the feels of completing an archive binge. Then the waiting… XD
I see from the dialog they’re all one person.
Yep, shoulder angel and devil. But in this case the Sarnothi side acting as the angel, and the human side acting as the devil. Or in freudian terms: The Ego (Selkie), Id (Human side), and Superego (Sarnothi side).
*snicker* I can KINDLY run away.
You can also BRAVELY run away! Ask Sir Robin!
ok but isnt anyone wondering why selkie’s adult sarnothi inner self is of a different clan? does it have anything to do with doctor fisherman’s influence?
maybe i should go back and look at those clans once more, cause i can’t remember what they are all about anymore d:
It’s the Mor’Kama Maiden from the Eel Spirit story.