Page 40. Real Talk.
This week I’m running a reblog contest on my Tumblr – if you reblog this post, your name gets entered once for the chance to win all of the rewards at the Kickstarter’s $100 tier. If you reblog the post with something creative that you did for OHS, be it a piece of fan art, a costume, a playlist, etc. – your name gets entered 5 times. The contest closes on Saturday, midnight CST!
Oh my god, the framing in that ladt panel. You are amazing, Blue.
O.O Oooooh. Things just took a turn xD
Oh. Oh, shit, Blue. “Do you see any other woman in this room” and Al is framed by their bodies in the center of the panel. I die.
also want to say it’s really, really sad that Brendan can’t tell his friend who he’s dating.
Keep in mind with Brendan that telling Lucille about him and Al would out Al. And Al does not want to be out. He likes his closet. So it may be more about respecting Al’s wishes than anything else.
I know. I just think Al’s wishes are really sad, inasmuch as they stem from deep self-loathing and shame
True. But you can’t make people be comfortable with themselves. Also…not everyone is willing to try to be open minded. Something I think Al has experience with :/
This entire page (this entire discussion) is so real, I’ve got chills. That last panel! Lucille’s expression is really nice.
brendan, indeed, did not deny that alistair hates lucille.
but, i’m a tad perplexed, RE: ‘the commentary about the framing of the last panel.’
pat, and Si, appear to be under the impression, that lucy’s statement comprises a certain sort of “hint,” in reference to Al.
?
Maybe a better word for how Al feels about Lucille is envy. She has what he wants…and maybe doesn’t want it. That would piss off Al, no? But it is obvious from what Al has said about Lucille that he at least respects her. His blunt comment about what she can do to the General shows he thinks well of her ability.
I think it’s fear. He’s not completely sure she isn’t competition for Brendan’s affections, and she is getting closer and closer to his secret. Al has been burned badly by someone in his life.
I suspect we are going to find out who and why along the way.
Hmmmm. Not sure I agree, but it is an interesting point. Can’t rule it out so lets include it and see what evolves from the coming series of events ^^
I’m kinda thinking parents, probably Dad. Or maybe he had it rough in high school.
hmmmm
Hmm. The confusion, as far as I see it, and please correct me if I’m wrong, is this:
Rex is making the perfectly reasonable assumption that Al is a man.
Si is making the perfectly reasonable assumption that Al is a woman.
Personally, I’m not willing to commit 100% to either of those perspectives, but we’ll see how Blue plays this out.
I’m actually still unclear on how Al himself constructs his gender at this point in his life. It’s clear that in a certain set of circumstances – like, if he’d been raised by someone as supportive as Brendan, and if sex reassignment were physically as simple for humans as it is for robots – he would be female. Sulla is proof of that. But this gets us into some really profound questions about the innateness of gender. The truth is that even in sets of identical twins, sometimes one twin will be transgender while the other isn’t (Laverne Cox and her identical twin brother are one example). What’s clear is that Al is deeply uncomfortable with himself, and that the mere existence of Sulla is like a weird spotlight highlighting all the things he’s most uneasy with.
He gave Sulla good advice about the other kids, and knew he was on the mark. He recognizes her. But this doesn’t tell us if he’d rather change genders himself. To Sulla it was simple; “I like boys so I must be a girl.” And so she just switched. Al’s got a lifetime of adaptation and adjustment, and may just be ok as-is. Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like boiled okra. People are funny. One thing for sure, Al can change into anything he likes now.
Was it? I mean, we don’t have the progression of her thought lined up like that, and considering the place where she grew up I find it hard to believe that that’s what’s really what happened. The thought that she changed her body because it is what society thinks makes her desires acceptable rather than what she felt most comfortable in is, well, unsettling to me, and a vast oversimplification of the shades of gender identity.
Wow, “I like boys so I must be a girl”? Where, exactly, is this train of thought mentioned in the comic? Are you aware of the existence of trans people who are not straight? I hope you don’t think this is how people actually arrive at the conclusion they are not their assigned gender. (Also, who says Sulla likes boys, anyway? The only character she has shown any interest in is neither a boy nor a girl.)
I… seriously… you are applying a prehistoric understanding of gay and trans identities to this comic. I think if you enjoy this series, you’re going to want to really read up on gender identity theory, because if you’re operating on “trans people change gender because they are attracted to people of the same gender they were assigned as birth”, the majority of this story is going to go way over your head. Like, really, if you’re invested enough in this story to be leaving multiple comments on a single page, you owe it to yourself as a reader to educate yourself.
What the heck? Where did you get that idea from? I don’t know a single trans person for whom that was the thought process to alert them to their being such, and considering I am trans myself I know quite a lot.
And Sulla was interested in the kid I temporarily forgot the name of while she still thought the entire group was girls, so I’m really not seeing this.
Remember Sulla was fairly young when she wanted her gender changed, and apparently didn’t make a huge deal out of it. Stuff is simpler for kids. You are totally correct about it being a major deal for ordinary people, like Al. I’m just saying we don’t know what it is with Al yet, and that we may get clues from Sulla’s behavior but she is being raised guilt-free. I’m not trying to downplay anyone’s struggles in the real world by speculating on characters in a webcomic, though.
I think it’s worth noting that she is in the closet about being an AI, but not about sexuality.
I think the server ate my reply. For Sulla, it was no big deal; she was a child. It was as simple as flipping a switch. For Al, for any adult, a huge traumatic thing, but for Sulla, just a detail. And they are headed for a future where a hop to an immortal robot body, your choice of sex, is going to be easy as flipping a switch. Gender will have a whole new meaning.
Yeah, I’m just gonna have to say I think you’re solidly and COMPLETELY wrong on that front.
you’re correct about me, rosie.
for, if allie does want to be a woman, he’s certainly doing a good job of not showing that desire to us.
one “flaw” (i lack a better word — my apologies) in this sort of narrative is, we readers just can’t know what’s what, until the narrator is ready for us to know.
if Narrator does ever want us to know.
we’re not-at-all freely-privied to the Peripheries of this story, while the narrator prepares, for our viewing, what she wants us to see.
so, i am content to assume that alastair wants to remain male.
or, that if alastair wants to be female, he’s expressed this to absolutely no one.
it is enough that he’s [a sexy daddy {cockmuncher}]; it has been.. ..quite some time, since O Human Star‘s begun.
yeah?
i know i’m a little obtuse, in deciphering symbolism, and between-line reading; but i don’t think it’s too much to ask, that such a major ‘thing’ might have been made more evident, even through only one simple line (or, maybe, a Dream) by now?
i know about the poster, and the dancing doll, but any standard gay male may have One Feminine Quirk to his name (no matter how butch he naturally is).
last night, i had worked on a smart, insightful response (one which i had meditated on for several days)..
..so of course. some funky thing happened, that apparently ate it.
i know that my comment was submitted, because i got the “hey! dawg!! this is a Duplicate Comment you’re tryna push through!” sctick when i (of course) tried re-submitting when i didn’t see my thoughts show up, per usualum
blue..
..i’m gonna be shedding tears here. . . . .
Al is lonely.
I am hoping to see him rise like a phoenix by the end of this story. He’s a new Prometheus, complete with something eating him.
I just read this entire comic in one sitting and now all I can do is keep pressing the next button in the vain hope that more will magically appear.
Seriously, this is so fucking good I am in love with all these characters.
Some of you commenters absolutely nailed this: yes, she’s the only woman there with any power or agency.
No, she’s not.
Lots more than an employee of a catering company. She can tell the moneybags to go to hell, and all it means is a lost contract. They’d be looking for another minimum wage job. I mean, for all we know the server is writing the Great American Novel in her off time and will one day be famous, but right now she needs the paycheck.
. . . although it would be cool if the server turned up in the future again. It’s a small world.
SMALL TYPO/GRAM ERROR (well, not technically): “Any other woman” really sounds like it would be “women” although neither are wrong.
Someone says something like: [I’m the only woman at my company’s party who is not carrying a tray].
Ugh. Doesn’t that statement just make you look at your company, and say:
Ouch.
Ow. I don’t think Al hates Lucille fwiw. I think *Lucille* instinctively dislikes and mistrusts Al based on the same face value assumptions about the kind of person Al is that’s getting him positive traction with the Military guys.Brendan.
Lucille is scary smart and has x-ray eyes. She serves it straight up to everyone, and she knows Al’s not showing all his cards. “And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, Which I am forbidden to see.” -TS Eliot
If she knew what his holdout card was, she’d also become his defender. But he is locked down really tight.
‘do you see any other woman in this room?’
that was lucy referencing herself, specifically, i know.
but, lucy was—by proxy—also empathizing with al’s own predicament.
lucy’s the Main Brains of her enterprise.
just as Al (was currently) is.
brendan’s. . .not quite there, yet.
they’re both Irregulars.
These comments are amazing.
Yeah, I’m…
I’m not gonna touch that.
F-R-A-M-I-N-G