Editing 1860: Communicating

{{comic
| number    = 1860
| date      = July 7, 2017
| title     = Communicating
| image     = communicating.png
| titletext = You're saying that the responsibility for avoiding miscommunication lies entirely with the listener, not the speaker, which explains why you haven't been able to convince anyone to help you down from that wall.
}}

==Explanation==
{{quote|There's glory for you.|{{w|Humpty Dumpty}}|{{w|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There}}}}

In Lewis Carroll's ''{{w|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There}}'', {{w|Alice_(Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland)|Alice}} meets {{w|Humpty Dumpty}} (the egg-shaped character from the children's verse). Humpty Dumpty is a Looking Glass creature, and the Looking Glass creatures all feature some form of inversion. For Humpty Dumpty the inversion is in meanings. When they first meet, Humpty Dumpty berates Alice for having a name that doesn't mean anything (contrasted with his name which means his shape). 

But later, Humpty declares to Alice "There's glory for you". Alice doesn't understand what Humpty means by "glory". Humpty explains that he can make words mean whatever he chooses to mean. By "glory" he meant "a nice knock-down argument". And he adds: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less." ([https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass,_and_What_Alice_Found_There/Chapter_VI#124])

In the comic Humpty is explaining to "Alice" (portrayed by [[Jill]]) that he can choose meanings for his words. Alice points out the obvious problem by pretending to wonder what meaning should be given to that utterance, and decides it means "Please take all my belongings". Humpty realizes he has been caught in a trap, but now Alice is choosing meanings, and even his protests are taken to mean "take my car along with my belongings".

While it seems that Alice chooses these specific meanings of words to educate Humpty Dumpty about the mistake in his way of thinking, she could as well inform him about planned theft with random, meaningless words or not at all. After all, she got "permission". Also, even though Humpty Dumpty decides about the meanings of words by himself, he "accidentally" chooses the normal meanings of all of Alice's words, because otherwise he wouldn't be informed about the planned theft and wouldn't be able to react to this with "What!? No!".

Humpty Dumpty is known from the nursery rhyme or riddle:
:''Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
:''Humpy Dumpty had a great fall.
:''All the King's horses and all the King's men,
:''Couldn't put Humpty together again.''

Carroll's Humpty Dumpty is a parody of people who use technical language without defining their terms and expect others to understand. The title text continues this. By Humpty insisting that he is not responsible for others understanding him he is unable to get help getting down from the wall, which will lead to his inevitable demise. This two-sided nature of communication is also shown in the title text of [[1028: Communication]], as well as in later comics like [[1984: Misinterpretation]] (with a list of other comics about communication).

==Transcript==
:[Egg-shaped character Humpty Dumpty, drawn with an angry face, is sitting on a brick wall, and facing Alice, depicted as Jill.]
:Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean. Neither more nor less.
:Alice: I wonder what all those words you just said meant. Maybe you're telling me I can have all your stuff!
:Humpty Dumpty: What!? No!
:Alice: Your car, too? Gosh, thanks!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Social interactions]]