2: Petit Trees (sketch)

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 06:23, 5 July 2014 by 108.162.221.86 (talk) (Explanation: Corrected explanation of baobab removal -- the reason the novel gives is that the roots would tear the asteroid apart, not simply that they would make it uninhabitable.)
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Petit Trees (sketch)
"Petit" being a reference to Le Petit Prince, which I only thought about halfway through the sketch
Title text: "Petit" being a reference to Le Petit Prince, which I only thought about halfway through the sketch

Explanation

The early comics sometimes do not present a particular point, but are just pictures drawn by Randall.

Le Petit Prince was a novella written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943, about the titular "Little Prince", who lives on an asteroid and visits other inhabited asteroids and eventually the Earth. The book is filled with drawings of the asteroid, the prince, and the travels they make. It is noted how, on occasion, baobab trees can begin to grow on these asteroids, and should they not be immediately uprooted, the growth of their roots would tear the asteroid apart.

Transcript

[Two trees are growing on opposite sides of a sphere.]

Trivia

  • This is the fourth comic originally posted on livejournal. The previous was 3: Island (sketch). The next was 1: Barrel - Part 1. View archive here.
  • Original title: "Le Petit"
  • Original Randall quote: "Another fairly old drawing that I scanned."


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Discussion

Randall says that he only thought of the reference to Le Petit Prince while he was drawing this picture. I think that it is likely that Randall was originally thinking of "pedigrees" and the tree structure of a genealogical chart. Since royalty is often descended from earlier royal ancestors, it would not be surprising that while drawing what was originally a pun, Randall thought of the book "Le Petit Prince." 162.158.123.79 16:55, 15 November 2019 (UTC)