Editing 24: Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey
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| date = September 30, 2005 | | date = September 30, 2005 | ||
| title = Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey | | title = Godel, Escher, Kurt Halsey | ||
− | | before = | + | | before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]] |
| image = godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg | | image = godel_escher_kurthalsey.jpg | ||
− | | titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan | + | | titletext = I love the idea here, though of course it's not a great-quality drawing or scan. |
}} | }} | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|the bubbles, expanding text, shreds & ending are not yet explained.}} | |
− | + | Before starting xkcd, [[Randall]] worked on robotics at {{w|NASA}}'s Langley Center. This drawing was apparently made during that period, while attending a talk that he didn't like. | |
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The name of the comic is a portmanteau-like play on the following: | The name of the comic is a portmanteau-like play on the following: | ||
− | * | + | * {{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach}} is a book by {{w|Douglas Hofstadter}}. He is an American author who has written several books about philosophy, mathematics, and science. This particular book is his most famous one, about "strange loops", self-reference, and recurring patterns, partially shown through the works of the three people in its title: |
** {{w|Kurt Gödel}} was a 20th-century mathematician most famous for proving that in our commonly used axiomatic systems, there are true propositions that cannot be proved from the axioms. His proof used a self-referential paradox. | ** {{w|Kurt Gödel}} was a 20th-century mathematician most famous for proving that in our commonly used axiomatic systems, there are true propositions that cannot be proved from the axioms. His proof used a self-referential paradox. | ||
− | ** {{w|M. C. Escher}} was a 20th-century artist most famous for mathematically inspired engravings of tessellated animals, impossible scenes, [http://philosopherdeveloper.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/devilsangels.jpg | + | ** {{w|M. C. Escher}} was a 20th-century artist most famous for mathematically-inspired engravings of tessellated animals, impossible scenes, [http://philosopherdeveloper.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/devilsangels.jpg fractals], and so on. The form of this strip resembles one of his [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Escher,_Metamorphosis_II.jpg Metamorphosis etchings]. |
− | ** {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} was a German composer and musician from the | + | ** {{w|Johann Sebastian Bach}} was a German composer and musician from the Baroque Period, famous for numerous works such as the Brandenburg Concertos. |
− | * Kurt Halsey is a comic artist from | + | |
+ | * [http://www.kurthalsey.com Kurt Halsey] is a comic artist from Oregon. His work often contains introspective philosophical musings. | ||
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+ | The comic is drawn in the form of a {{w|storyboard}} and is clearly intended to be visualized as an animated sequence. | ||
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+ | In the first part of the comic, two people discuss the difficulty of comparing past and present generations, since the person making the comparison invariably belongs to one of the two groups. | ||
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+ | It's unclear whether the hatted guy is [[Black Hat]], because Randall hadn't standardized his character designs yet. The sarcastic comment suggests that it is. | ||
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+ | The assembly of text panels found in the middle of the strip is similar to his [[124: Blogofractal]]. | ||
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+ | ==Interpretations== | ||
+ | ''While I feel this article can't be improved with rational arguments, I believe a standalone section with different hypothesis is a great way to tackle the problem. If the goal here is not to go into subjective interpretations of the comic, then I think its better tagged as closed, because you obviously can't go any further by ignoring the symbols. (You may want to edit meta-comments out, but I wanted to make my point first). Please add to or adapt my interpretation to whatever suits you or the community here. It would be very nice if we could have a subjective section for people to explain what they interpreted out of the strips.'' | ||
− | The | + | * The bubbles may illustrate ideas, memories or subjects that one could wonder about. In the context of the boring talk, this would mean that Randall is lost in thoughts and gradually looses focus of things going on around him. He sees the talk as mundane, as a part of so many other "subject bubbles". |
+ | ** Even the comic vertical lines (and therefor the strip's structure) seems to loose their sense to Randall as they collapses and become part of the scene, eventually merging three panels into one. They later reappear for the last six panels. | ||
+ | * The big bubble pushing the small ones further outside may demonstrate how shallow the surface bubbles are to him or represent an infinite (or very large) amount of small bubbles. | ||
+ | * The quote stating "There's too much. And so little feels important." tell us that he feels overwhelmed by the world; maybe by information given in the NASA talk or by events in his life. He recognizes what is important to him, and feels it is small compared to the size of the worries of the world (or the big bubble). He may have experienced a sort of existential crisis before turning to his feeling of love in the last panels, when asking himself "What do you do?". | ||
+ | * The structure of the strip has some abstract connections with the structure of the book. The beginning, middle, and end sequences reflect back on themselves; the strip displays some symmetry. In the book there's an interplay of contributions from the artist, the musician, and the mathematician; some of this is present in the strip [Lots of citations missing] | ||
− | + | The biggest bubble is expanding, and on it is a fractal arrangement of articles describing various scientific and philosophical discussions. A subjective interpretation is that the fractal nature of the excerpts are a comment on the unending attempt to rationalize and justify the unchanging nature of humanity. The largest bubble bursts, leaving the two figures on a shred of what once was. The final question is "What do you do when the bubble bursts?" It seems his answer is to find someone, and love them; in the end that's all that matters. The rest is just air. | |
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==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :Drawn during an unending NASA lecture | + | :Drawn during an unending NASA lecture. |
:[Two people are talking, one in a hat.] | :[Two people are talking, one in a hat.] | ||
:Cueball: it's just so hard to compare kids now with kids in the past. you can't help but to belong to one group or the other. | :Cueball: it's just so hard to compare kids now with kids in the past. you can't help but to belong to one group or the other. | ||
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:but how do you select the channel you wish to se- | :but how do you select the channel you wish to se- | ||
:thou ... shou ... palin ... stri ... it is a ... crab ... | :thou ... shou ... palin ... stri ... it is a ... crab ... | ||
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:[Closer still, we can just see a huge sideways s and h.] | :[Closer still, we can just see a huge sideways s and h.] | ||
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:[Cueball and Megan are standing amid the fragments.] | :[Cueball and Megan are standing amid the fragments.] | ||
− | : | + | :Man: There's too much. And so little feels important. |
:[The jagged edge of the shaded area is encroaching on the sides of the panel.] | :[The jagged edge of the shaded area is encroaching on the sides of the panel.] | ||
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==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
− | This is the | + | *This is the sixth comic originally posted on livejournal. The previous was [[1: Barrel - Part 1]]. The next was [[13: Canyon]]. View archive [http://liveweb.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40 here]. |
+ | *[Original title]: "Strip series" | ||
+ | *[Original [[Randall]] quote]: "One of a series of strips I drew during a long and boring NASA lecture. It careens wildly from intellectual to chaotic to Godel, Escher, Bach to Kurt Halsey to chaotic and sappy." This might suggest that the image on LiveJournal was only part of this strip. Unfortunately, the image link on LiveJournal is broken. | ||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
− | + | [[Category:Comics posted on livejournal]] | |
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[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
− | [[Category: | + | [[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]] |
[[Category:Romance]] | [[Category:Romance]] | ||
[[Category:Philosophy]] | [[Category:Philosophy]] | ||
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