1136: Broken Mirror

2012-11-19T20:30:36Z

206.219.248.2: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1136
| date = November 19, 2012
| title = Broken Mirror
| image = broken_mirror.png
| imagesize =
| titletext = 'I see you're in this mood again.' 'I am always in this mood.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete}}
It is a {{w|Mirror#Mirrors_and_superstition|common superstition}} that breaking a mirror will result in 7 years of bad luck. [[Black Hat]] is mocks the superstition while ostensibly subscribing to it saying that breaking the mirror results in the "illusion that my actions somehow influence" a world governed by nothing other than chance. [[Black Hat]]'s comment is a reference to magical thinking, in which individuals believe that their actions have an effect on unrelated events in the world.

"Eccles. 9:2" refers to the Bible book "Ecclesiastes," specifically chapter 9 verse 2 ("All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath." King James 2000 Bible). "My fate is as these shards" parallels Ecclesiastes 3:19: "Man's fate is like that of the animals".

"All is vanity" is also from Ecclesiastes, specifically the introduction to chapter 1. The mirror is often associated with the vice of {{w|Vanity#Symbolism_of_vanity|vanity}}. There is also a drawing titled "All is Vanity" by {{w|Charles Allan Gilbert}}, which alternately depicts a woman admiring herself at a dressing table, or "{{w|Vanity_(dressing-table)|vanity}}," and (when viewed at a distance) a human skull. The table Black Hat is standing at is also called a "{{w|Vanity_(dressing-table)|vanity}}," and a mirror associated with that is often referred to as a "vanity mirror", describing its relationship to the furniture.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat and Cueball stand in a bedroom. There is a broken mirror on the floor at Black Hat's feet]
:Black Hat: Oops. Guess this means seven more years of the illusion that my actions somehow influence the indifferent hand of probability which governs our lives.

:[Black Hat looks down at the broken shards of glass on the floor]

:Cueball: Plus like half an hour of sweeping.
:Black Hat: No, I think I'll leave it.
:Cueball: You'll get glass in your feet.

:Black Hat: Eccles. 9:2—All things come alike to all: to the clean, and to the unclean.
:My fate is as these shards.
:Cueball: Dude, chill. It's just a vanity mirror.
:Black Hat: ''All'' is vanity mirrors.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

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1136: Broken Mirror