A Blatant Plug

[packbat]

Looking back through my journal archives, I realize that I never mentioned how good a writer chanlemur is. I first found his writing through Narbonic (he wrote (is writing?) "A Brief Moment of Culture"), but he has consistently impressed me in his other ventures, both comic and serious. Even those which are triggered by such a minor thing as a little meme that's been going around.

Yesterday, for that meme, he wrote The Thousand and First Paper Crane. It is a gorgeous story.

That's all I came to say.

Disclaimer: Chanlemur has this journal friended, and I have his journal friended. These facts had no bearing on the above – his work stands on its own merits.

Comments

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

You're too kind, Packbat, but thank you.

In answer to your brief and tangential question, "A Brief Moment of Culture" is in fact complete and has been for some time. In an immensely flattering move, shaenon decided to illuminate the text and release it, part by part, as an occasional Sunday feature. With only somewhere in the area of forty Sundays left to go (ed.: *sniff*), and plenty of other material jockeying for position, it is quite possible that the entire text of "...Culture" will not make its way to this serialization, in which case I will probably release the remaining text to the Narbonic forum and mailing list.

Short question, long answer.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thank you for the clarification. I do hope that it will get released before too long – I was quite enjoying it.

(P.S. Is it canon? I do remember some reference to it in the main plotline.)

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

I think that it counts as canon, as Shaenon made reference to it at a couple points elsewhere in the strip. This is, of course, one of the most awesome possible things to happen to a fanfic. Unfortunately, there is one really glaring error in it that was only revealed to be a problem in later strips: Artie's a vegan, not a lacto-vegetarian, and as such would never have had reason to learn how to make yogurt in the first place. This point is so central to the story that I think it puts its canonicity in jeopardy, and unfortunately, I don't feel like going back and retconning a half-assed fix for it, especially since the work's already out there. Ah well. :)

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Ah, but did the vegan revelation come before or after Dave became unstuck in time (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?name=narbonic&view=archive&chapter=4471)? After all, Dave was around when Artie was born (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=166&name=narbonic&line=229)....

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

Hm. Clever, Mr. Zimmermann. Very clever.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Bingo! The canonicity of "Brief Moment of Culture" is confirmed here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6271&name=narbonic#strip3), and the first instance of Artie veganism is here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=7368&name=narbonic#strip4)! It works!

Or, at least, I think it does. I'm only up to the intro to Dave-Con – might be still a reference I missed.

Powers of Geek, activate!

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

Great! Now all we have to do is figure out how exactly the specific changes made to temporal continuity in "...Unstuck in Time" might have affected Artie's genesis in such a way that he changed his moral and dietary preferences, and we're golden! Wahoo! Why, I bet it's just like--

Wait.

How long did you spend searching the archives for this?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Three hours, I think. Why do you ask? ^_^

Maybe the key is that he never made the writing on the wall (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6271&name=narbonic#strip5). Synchronicity occurs before he gets to the bathroom (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6765&name=narbonic). My hypothesis is either that he was supposed to write the note to himself and did in the original timeline, or he wasn't supposed to, and didn't. After all, the original timeline did have Dave time-traveling (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?name=narbonic&view=archive&chapter=206#strip3).

My money is on him having written the note to himself in the original timeline. After all, that way he's merely bouncing around in the original timeline until he hits synchronicity, and it explains why his future self thought they would fill a swimming pool (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?name=narbonic&view=archive&chapter=6275#strip3) for synchronicity.

Of course, it's also possible that Dave was supposed to learn about the synchronicity here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6756&name=narbonic). But I like other theory better.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Wait a sec, the details of why the timeline changed don't answer why Artie became vegan. Maybe it's the smoking (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=166&name=narbonic&line=229#strip6).

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

(Incidentally, some obscure Narbonic trivia that I don't think Shaenon would mind me sharing: There is a early version of this strip where the problematic item Helen is considering is a bottle of Bac-Os. When I wrote to Shaenon and mentioned that Bac-Os are in fact wholly vegan, she changed it to yogurt to, I think, take a jab at me in return. ;) )

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Heh. Cool. :D

(Incidentally, in reading through the archives, I noticed who wrote the Madblood Battle Anthem (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=2852&name=narbonic). You just keep proving my thesis, don't you? :D)