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JP Babb

@jpbabb.bsky.social

25 followers 19 following 74 posts

I am an SF author and academic, currently pursuing a PhD in science and technology studies in Toronto. My research interests include science fiction, epistemology, and the history of cosmology, among others.

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JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 4h

The *Picard* novels are pretty good, but they badly need one about Agnes Jurati being an awesome and lovable Borg Queen.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 4h

I wrote a thing. #StarTrek #SNW

Star Trek Needs New (and Better) Villains - Reactor

The "villains" of Trek are meant to be foils to the Federation's worldview, not blindly evil antagonists.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 14h

The most frustrating thing is when you have to argue against someone who doesn't realise that you already agree with them.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 2d

I never thought I would die fighting side by side with a Pope.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 3d

If you write yourself into corner, just cast some yarrow sticks and pull out the I Ching, like a respectable creative professional.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 3d

Everyone fears them until they don't. And then the dam bursts.

Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · 3d

We’re in this weird period in which everyone is afraid of people that almost everyone despises

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Witkoff tries to praise Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, but has a hard time finishing his thought because of booing

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 3d

What can I say, it's a *really* good book!

John Hansen (suburbanerd) @suburbanerd.bsky.social · 4d

Just want to say I cannot put this book down.

(I mean. I’m not reading it *now* because I’m posting this and gonna have spaghetti later and was running errands earlier but it is being read often throughout the day.)

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 12d

Oh, I guess I should tell everyone about my novel.
#writing #booksky #sf

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 5d

I believe he's president these days.

Reposted by JP Babb

Micah @rincewind.run · 5d

Discworld QOTD, from Men at Arms

“If you had enough money, you could hardly commit crimes at all. You just perpetrated amusing little peccadilloes.”

Micah @rincewind.run · 6d

Discworld QOTD, from The Wee Free Men

Tiffany was on the whole quite a truthful person, but it seemed to her that there were times when things didn’t divide easily into ‘true’ and ‘false’, but instead could be ‘things that people needed to know at the moment’ and ‘things that they didn’t need to know at the moment’.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 5d

I think that we need to bring back physical media as a tool of resistance. I'm just thinking of all of these underground comics from the 70s and 80s that were so over the top that they would certainly just be taken down for ToS violations from, say, Webtoon.

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Anyway, tune in next week, when I will be explaining the meaning of life. /end

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

They exist to exist. "What if," Larson seems to ask, "cows made tools?" And the very simple, very obvious answer that he presents is, "There'd probably be some weird, crappy tools around the barnyard." /16

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Thus, the absurdity comes from the complete void where narrative is supposed to be in the alternate world that the image evokes. Both the cow and the tools are objects whole and entire and of themselves. /15

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

This world is paradoxical; the cow is evidently no more intelligent than one of our world (hence the tools' crudity), lives in the same manner as our cows (hence the barn), has no obvious means of either crafting or using the tools, and has no obvious reason for needing them (she is a cow). /14

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

And so, what the comic is inviting us to imagine is not a particular narrative, but an entire alternate world. One in which cows, like humans, chimpanzees, and certain corvids, are amongst the ranks of tool users. /13

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Cows, as a rule, are less intelligent than humans; and thus one would assume that tools made by cows would be a cut below even those made by our ancestors. And so the intended joke is essentially: "If cows could make tools, they would be bad at it." /12

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

This, however, is too narrow of an answer. Gary Larson has said that the comic is intended as a joke about tool use, particularly by early humans. The idea being that the tools of early humans are famously crude; in many cases, only a trained eye can distinguish them from rocks. /11

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

(in fact, one reason Gary Larson cited for public confusion is that one tool looks kind of like a handsaw; thus readers tried to discern the specific task that the cow might be trying to accomplish, rather than the more nebulous question of what the tools could be used for in general). /10

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Thus, one can try to imagine what possible need a cow could have of these tools; under what circumstances they could be used and why /9

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

A few obvious candidates suggest themselves. First of all, obviously, tools are things that exist to be used. The implication here is that, as these are cow tools, they are tools intended for use by cows. /8

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

So. Back to Cow Tools. Here we're faced with anthropomorphised cow wearing an unreadable expression, standing in front of a wooden bench on which rest an assortment of crude implements; a barn is visible in the background. Our question needs to be: What narrative is implied by this panel?

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Importantly, the humour runs on the complete lack of narrative closure. Any possible answer you could get to above the questions would never be as satisfying as what your brain fills in. /6

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

And all of this is purely evoked. There's only simple line-drawing and two sentences of text, but you see it and it reminds you of other sorts of narratives you've seen or experienced, and your brain constructs a whole temporal sequence. 5/

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

Why does it, in spite of it's obvious absurdity, feel kind of right that there should be a dance before the cavemen and the mammoths engage in mortal combat? The reluctant fearful expression on the caveman at the bottom; is this his first hunt? etc. 4/

JP Babb @jpbabb.bsky.social · 9d

There's the obvious implication of what's going to happen in the future (there's going to be a hunt), but it also stretches into the past: what circumstances in the anthropology of this group of cavemen must have happened to establish a tradition of dancing with Woolly Mammoths? 3/