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| | | title = Sky | | | title = Sky |
| | | image = sky.png | | | image = sky.png |
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| | | titletext = I dropped a bird and I didn't hear it hit bottom. | | | titletext = I dropped a bird and I didn't hear it hit bottom. |
| | }} | | }} |
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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | This comic is about the fact that much of the way we see the world is relative. Which way is left or right, for example, depends on the direction one is facing, so different people can give different answers and both be correct. (Contrast this to absolute directions, such as East and West, which do not change based on one's orientation.)
| + | There is no set rule that says the ground is down. Yes, that is what most people think, but down can be any direction. [[Beret Guy]] handles this in his usual way, by defining down to be toward the sky. Forcing yourself to think in a different perspective changes a lot of things that are usually thought of as mundanities. Here we are challenged with the perspective that we live pulled (by Earth's gravity) towards a ceiling (land/oceans) hanging over a bottomless abyss (space seems to be limitless). If gravity (under no control of our own) were to fail we would drift helplessly into the abyss (unless we clung to objects such as mailboxes). If a hole actually had no bottom, there would be no gravitational force towards its non-existing bottom. |
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| − | Which way is 'down' is a little more complicated, as both the absolute and relative direction use the same word (owing to the two directions usually being the same on Earth): it can be defined as 'whichever way gravity goes / the direction things fall', but it can also be defined as 'the direction one's feet are'. In space particularly, the latter definition tends to be used as the former is rather hard to deduce. It is possible, though not too useful, to simply say that 'down' in space is 'whichever way Earth is', or perhaps even 'whichever way is opposite to the Sun'.
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| − | However, even on Earth, the direction of 'down' can get muddled. Humans rely a lot on vision to determine which way is down, so in an enclosed room with no references, one can easily convince themselves (accidentally or deliberately) that down is in a different direction to gravity. Forcing yourself to think in a different perspective changes a lot of things that are usually thought of as mundanities.
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| − | [[Beret Guy]] convinces himself that down is toward the sky. [[Megan]] asks him why he is clinging to the ground. He responds that he is holding on to the ground so that he does not fall into the sky. Megan at first dismisses this but later looks up, gets scared and is found by [[Ponytail]], clinging to a mailbox afraid of falling up (down?).
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| − | The title text continues this idea, where Megan "drops" a bird into the sky, and never hears it hit the "bottom". As birds can fly, and captured birds often fly away when released, its flight appeared to Megan as the bird falling upward. "Didn't hear it hit bottom" would normally mean that the pit is too deep for the sound of impact to make it back up, although in this case as the 'pit' is genuinely bottomless the bird would never hit 'bottom' even if it didn't move.
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | :[Megan is looking down at Beret Guy, who appears to be doing a handstand on a grass lawn, with grass tuft drawn several places, including where his hands touch the grass. His hands can be seen in the grass like he is holding on to the grass. Both his legs are moving around above him, as indicated by movement lines.] | + | :[A woman approaches a guy in a white beret, who appears to be doing a handstand on the lawn.] |
| − | :Megan: What are you doing? | + | :Woman: What are you doing? |
| − | :Beret Guy: Clinging to the ceiling of a bottomless abyss. | + | :Beret: Clinging to the ceiling of a bottomless abyss. |
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| − | :[Megan walks past Beret Guy, whose legs are still moving. She is still looking down at the grass.] | + | :[The woman walks past him.] |
| − | :Megan: You are very odd. | + | :Woman: You are very odd. |
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| − | :[In a frame-less panel, Megan walks towards a mailbox looking down at it. There is grass around the base of the mailbox pole.] | + | :[The woman towards a mailbox.] |
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| − | :[As Megan passes the mailbox, she looks up towards the sky and seems to stop.] | + | :[As she passes the mailbox, she looks up.] |
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| − | :[The last panel is upside down with the grass at the top and the mailbox pointing down. Megan is clinging to the mailbox, sitting on the grass with her head under the mailbox. Ponytail approaches her, walking on the grass with her head pointing down. The text is written in the sky below them.] | + | :[This panel appears to be upside down. The woman is clinging to the mailbox, and a woman with a ponytail approaches her.] |
| | :Ponytail: What's wrong? | | :Ponytail: What's wrong? |
| − | :Megan: I looked down. | + | :Woman: I looked down. |
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| | ==Trivia== | | ==Trivia== |
| − | *This comic's [https://xkcd.com/1115/info.0.json official transcript] actually refers to [[Ponytail]] as Ponytail. | + | *This comic's official transcript actually refers to [[Ponytail]] as Ponytail. |
| − | | |
| − | {{comic discussion}}
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| | + | {{comic discussion}} |
| | + | [[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]] |
| | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
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| | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] |
