Someone asked me, the other day, how the Fillipods "advanced," as a culture, without opposable digits. This will be on the eventual encyclopedia entry, but what the heck: Let's talk about it, now. It's a fun question!
A Fillipod can grip in one of two ways:
1.) They're walking stalks can be brought together to form a basic "grip," or, more commonly...
2.) Each individual stalk employs van der Waals forces four to five times more effectively than, say, a gecko's feet could, to "grab" everyday objects.
This has been your GALACTIC FUN FACT!
Hummm I think I'd prefer the "they don't need proper object manipulation to be culturally advanced, cause culture isn't just building thing, they can be awesome singers!"
Ohhh a "creativity enabling hive mind" would be a first! :) Just make them high advanced on telekinesis hehe
they don't need proper object manipulation to be culturally advanced, cause culture isn't just building thing, they can be awesome singers
Singing doesn't fill your belly or keep the rain out, both of which are needed to develop anything beyond a subculture. It's like someone who learns to do laundry and gets a part-time job, and thinks he's independent (despite still living at home with his parents, who pay the bills and buy groceries). :-P Culture isn't "just" building things, but building things is a pretty crucial part of culture.
Fillipods are so cute when they're panicked!
Wow. Not to downplay the conversation at hand, but I was thrown off by the curse word. Not that I dislike it, mind you; I dig the guts of a mature subject. I just wasn't expecting it.
Still, I'm eager to see this play out.
it's not really much of a curse word, is it?
Comparing the accuracy and sincerity of a statement to masculine bovine excrement in a concise fashion is a pretty established form of expression in most social settings.
A worm-like creature could curl itself in a variety of ways like a snake. They may also be social creature like ants that join their bodies together to accomplish building tasks that they then individually enjoy. More than building, I think a basic requirement for creating a culture is being able to harness non-biologic energy and using complex communication. Thus I think fire and language are our species greatest inventions, not apposable digits or bipedalism (even though all intelligent aliens in science fiction are bipedal) or building.
Good points, but I have to address a few things.
-- One, we didn't invent opposable digits, they developed. Similarly, we harnessed fire; it existed before we came along.
-- Two, my point was that you can't create an independent culture without things like fire and building. They are, pun definitely intended, foundational. "They don't need to move things" only holds if the species doesn't have physical needs.
-- Three, if you think all intelligent aliens in science fiction are bipedal, you're not reading (or watching) nearly enough science fiction. Jabba the Hutt says hi. ^_^
I think the Tessican explicative shows how uncouth they are, and why they may go extinct, or at least become scarce.
The Fillapods show good sense and that is a need of a culured society. I like the telekinesis and ant hive theories, but if they had telekinesis, they would be rulers, and not the bullied species.
I'm relatively sure that Dave isn't picking words at random for his dialogue. He has decided to develop this Tesskan charater in this manner, and it is his art so he can do with it what he likes. If you don't like grown-up words, stick with Sheldon.
Also, the geek in me got a little excited about Van der Waals forces. Sweet!
Regarding the language: One of the reason I wanted/needed/had to move DRIVE off the Sheldon site was exactly this. Sheldon is and always will be an "all-ages" strip. DRIVE is more in the PG category. Light, light language will be a part of that. As will the occassional "head on a spike" (see last week's strip), or inter-galactic war.
Dave's comment in here kind of make me notice something. The not-ungraphically drawn severed heads on spikes from last week got absolutely no complaints and one compliment, then this week one swearword (that I barely noticed) brought some ruffled feathers. Some people have a strange idea of what's family/child friendly and what isn't.
Anyway, loving the comic so far Mr Kellet, I was so happy when I read that the number of alien species knocking around in Drive might get into the dozens. I'd say keep it up, but I can't see you doing anything else =)
Ditto, Crayslug.
Also, I had no idea there was even a curseword here, and had to take clues to figure out where it was.
But maybe I just have a foul-mouthed mind. ;) It stands out more to me when people deliberately censor or leave them out in situations where it would be normal, for characters who probably have no reservations, just an audience that does.
The only way a comic should censor cusses is with those adorable @#%#$@!!s. :)
Well, I'm gonna take the opposite tack. Personally - and no offense is meant by this, Dave - I never much liked Sheldon. It's a great example of the kind of comic it is, I'm just not interested in that sort of comic. I want grit, I want depth, I want imaginative, slightly off-kilter universes.
Drive is excellent. I'm really, really enjoying it.
But part of having a grittier, slightly more deadly universe is having believable characters who inhabit that universe. Drive is a universe where an entire planet is possibly about to be obliterated. The more brutal characters in this universe aren't going to hesitate to sling a little profanity around, and from what we've seen, Tesskans are about as brutal as it gets.
I have absolutely no complaints about appropriate profanity, and I think good use of it can accent a character or race rather nicely.
kids are no strangers to "bullshit", they know who penn and teller are. nor are they strangers to a hundred other words and phrases which anyone over 20 doesn't even recognize as filthy. but i'm sure they're as amused by the desperate 18th century puritan antics of their elders as any other generation has been.
Our Captain missed a hanging slider punch line there in the last panel.
"Sir, I don't know if your scanners are showing..."
"TESORO!! Tesoro tesoro tesoro!"
"Ohhhhh-Kay, I'll take that as a Yes."
Regarding curse words, as long as you Dingbat out the Classic Carlin "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say On T.V." (Repeat after me, they are...) or stuff in that class of 'High Explosive Words', you should be fine. Space can be a really rough place, and we don't have to sugar-coat it for a 10-year-old protagonist.
If you want to dance on the line, put the leading letter or two and asterisk out the rest. Those who choose to figure it out, can.
The Fillipods don't really need opposing fingers/digits to develop a civilization, fine manipulation and the knack for tool use is the key no matter how they got there.
Sentience/Sapience, communication, cultural awareness, Language and history (so they can develop higher education by building on the work of previous generations) and Self-Awareness being the other big keys to developing a civilization and a culture.
Other than that, there are lots of different avenues they could take to get to the same goal, we (Homo Sapiens) don't have a monopoly lock on the Only Process to get there.
-->--
@BillJ:
I appreciate the feedback! It's a perfectly valid stance, and I'm sure you're right: I'm sure there will be a percentage of readers who abandon one or the other strip because of the existence/content of the other. Every month -- I kid you not -- I lose 10% of my readership over this or that joke, and gain 10.5-11%. Every month. So I'm used to the idea that *every single thing* I produce will offend somebody, somewhere, given a wide enough pool of readers.
But again: Drive is "PG", and Sheldon is "G"...and they exist on separate sites for that reason. For that separation of mood, tone, themes, and age-appropriateness.
Another way to look at it might be this: Most folks don't have a problem distinguishing Theodore Giesel's highly sexualized, post-modernist paintings from his much-loved, all-ages Dr. Seuss books. It's the same artist, and a very different body of work. The same thought carries through here: Same artist, different body of work.
Speaking for myself as a long time reader of science fiction, I have always found that Terrestrial curse words break my sense of immersion. I have no problem with the word itself, but its use in this particular comic was jarring.
Local slang, or an expletive in whatever the native language is, would seem to be more fitting. Do these aliens have Earth's culture so ingrained that they don't have/remember their own curse words?
In my mind it makes them seem less alien, and that is a tanj shame.
It is implied, in the Tesskan 'pedia article, that they have adopted ISESH (if abbreviation incorrect, please correct me):
"Since their assimilation into the Empire, Tesskans and Fillipods have both adopted the "Imperial Standard English-Spanish Hybrid"."
Using expletives from the adopted language doesn't seem very out-of-character to me. Surely there's some local versions, but in dealing with the race which originated the language, why not use an expletive both sides know well?
Also, I don't see the frakkin' problem with using expletives, especially since Drive is rated PG. Expletives are a part of life, and this is, imho, a fairly 'safe' one.
Then again, it might be because of my European heritage that I don't see what the problem would be with swearing a little. Hell, as a Dutchman, swearing is kind of cultural thing, really ;)
Forgive me for this, but if I can't nerd out here, I can't anywhere.
That same Tesskan article says they encountered Humans 110 years ago. It also states the maximum lifespan of a Tesskan is ~100 years with the average being 44 due to their violent nature. Not only that, it makes it clear they are not the brightest beasts on the block.
Given the short amount of time, at most three generations, and the extreme cultural and intellectual differences, I find it hard to believe that an alien race like the Tesskans would speak the Imperial language as their native language on their own planet. The article seems to imply it is at best a trade language.
The past two weeks I have worked with a German who has trouble understanding our English slang and insults. Not just how they translate, but why we find them insulting.
Given all these factors I just don't see a Tesskan busting out with "Bullshit!" Does he pause during his emotional outburst and consider that perhaps it would be more poignant to use a Human word to better convey his meaning? A word, mind you, that has no meaning to a Tesskan beyond hearing a Human use it in similar situations. I don't think that fits with the portrayal of the Tesskan race.
But that's just me. The creator can do whatever he wants, it is his work. I just don't understand what the word adds to this particular comic. In fact, I feel it detracts from it (please don't misunderstand me, this statement has nothing to do with the word being crude).
@Irate: But the Tesskan who's swearing is the big kahuna, and might have made a point of becoming very fluent in the Imperial language. He might have chosen the word to prove that he knows the Imperial language as well as any captain of the Empire, and that they can't intimidate him with their vocabulary.
Plus I'll confess that whenever I learn a new swear word in another language I will use it as often as I can get away with, just to make sure I've learned it properly. :)
[count me among those who (1) has such a salty mouth that I didn't realize there was a "curse word" in the strip (2) is perfectly happy with "Drive" being PG]
That is a reasonable assumption, and were the Tesskan's portrayed differently I may agree with you. But nothing about the Tesskan description and behavior we have seen so far indicates to me that even the highest ranking Tesskan would become fluent in the language and then go so far as to choose specific words for added effect.
I don't see a Tesskan making an effort to learn anything cerebral, least of all the language of a rival.
Ha! Is it really a Texas oil company?? I completely believe that that's the case!
