Spinning Them

The Bulb and Space Probe Death: A Brief Essay

Something that I don’t recall being addressed in 17776 is the fact that the space probes are not immortal. The humans are on Earth where the nanobots and their mysterious longevity prevent them from dying, but Nine, Ten and Juice are in space.

The only thing protecting them from system failure and natural wear and tear is presumably that they are capable of self-repair. If they ever experienced a damage too great for them to fix themselves, Juice is the only one close enough to Earth to have any hope of being reached in time.

I think that the reason the death of the Bulb was so deeply sad and disturbing to the probes is it reminded them that like the Bulb, they are ultimately objects that can be damaged and destroyed. Like the football that obliterated the Bulb, Nine, Ten, and Juice could be hit by an asteroid or any other space debris and die (particularly if they were distracted or asleep and didn’t see it coming).

They could flicker out of existence at any moment. It’s a slim possibility, but the possibility of that football hitting the Bulb was also nearly nonexistent.

This also means that Nine and Ten could, in theory, commit suicide by piloting into a star or planetary body intentionally (that is, if they ever got close enough to one) or that a human could do the same by going to space or somewhere else without nanobots (assuming that the nanos don’t cling too or cloud around humans too closely for that to be possible). 

I also find the role reversal in 17776 quite interesting. Once, objects outlived their creators, they were what remained after they were gone and preserved their memory. Objects, naturally, are meant to last longer than people. But in 17776, the opposite is true. Footballs can burn to ash in car accidents, light bulbs can shatter, and, possibly, sentient space probes can die.

This was meant for my 17776 blog (@we-perpetually-hang-out) but is posted here instead due to tag issues.

The Objecthead Phenomenon: Another Brief Essay

One of the most thought provoking concepts in 17776 is the idea of a mind with all the emotions and complexities of a human being forced to inhabit a completely inhuman body. Juice, Nine, and Ten do not, and never will, have human bodies. They will never experience what it is like to have a human body - additionally, this means machines, unlike humans, have to consider their own mortality and come to terms with their weird, disjoined, person-object existence. 

The fact that space probes, who are completely physically different from an organic being, mange to be so human is something that makes 17776 so special. This also leads to me having what I can imagine are controversial tastes in fanart: I don’t particularly care for the “objecthead” designs and feel they undermine one of the most important things about Nine, Ten and Juice as characters.

 Like, Jon Bois created these remarkable and bizarre characters, who are intentionally physically inhuman, something that has significance in the story - and people immediately decided to go ahead and draw them in order to…undo that.  This is why the objecthead or humanized fanart saddens me a bit. 

I do, however, understand the desire to further anthropomorphize the probes. After all, it’s frustrating for characters with such distinct personalities to be completely physically inexpressive. Nine, Ten, and Juice don’t have facial expressions (other than emoticons, of course). They don’t pose, they don’t wear clothes, they can’t touch or physically interact or any way. That makes it pretty much impossible to easily make visually interesting art, as you could only ever draw them. Uh. Floating in space. Visually unchanging. Forever and ever. Not exactly appealing. 

In a way, the objecthead phenomenon in 17776 fanart provides some poetic insight: the idea that these beloved characters are objects is uncomfortable. We want to give them bodies that correspond with their personalities, we want them to be physically expressive. We want to give them these experiences that they will never be able to have. I can imagine that the probes feel these things too, this desire to have their consciousness match what their body looks and feels like. 

Practically the first thing Nine assumes when they wake up is that they are trapped aboard the probe and need to escape. They experience a moment of visceral panic and existentialism, which I found very distressing because they are trapped in a space probe. Their first instinct is to leave, to get out, and that will never happen. There is no hope of escape. 

Juice also demonstrates this kind of thinking in a much more lighthearted way during the spaghetti conversation in the first chapter of 20020. The nonexistent bowl of spaghetti shows that the probes, or at least Juice, do imagine themselves with bodies, doing human things. This makes you wonder how often they think about the things they will never be able to experience. Do Nine and Ten wish that they could hug? Does Juice lament not being able to enjoy a Lunchable or catch a football?

This was meant for my 17776 blog (@we-perpetually-hang-out) but is posted here instead due to tag issues.

JADE WINGLET ARTDUMP!!

*i chuck these at u and scramble away*

The Day We Escaped

2007

no you don't get it I like superhero comics in a smart way. their long publication histories and self-conscious positioning as a deeply usamerican art form allows them to act as a fascinating time capsule for the cultural history of the united states. you pick up a superhero comic from even just a few decades ago and you get a snapshot into that time period's prevailing views on gender and race relations, nationalism, individualism, environmentalism, views on children, the contemporary relationship between writers/artists, their editors and the reading public, etc. and superhero franchises are so prevalent in usamerican children's media that they act as a shared cultural touchstone of childhood on a scale that few other things do, which results in them being loaded with all these frenetic youth interpretations that are later canonized as young readers become adult writers. it's the adolescence of a thousand people that has since become the thought experiment of a thousand adults. it fascinates me. also it has people in themed skintight spandex/leather outfits beating the shit out of each other which I like for sex pervert reasons