So…if Shadowchild had EATEN that shadow…y’know what, I think that line of thought should be dropped, quarantined, and locked very far from anyone who might ever discover it.
The locking away part doesn’t work so well with gods, according to Digger, so maybe it would also be a good idea to take the thought apart and lock the pieces away in different places.
No, wait a sec Jon… that’s interesting. the hyenas wanted Skull Ridges power to return to the tribe with the funerary cannibalism…. but how would they feel about a creature that could actually detect bits of “shadows” or souls and feed of them?
then again, The Shadowchild is not part of the tribe, so i guess she’s not entitled to eat any part of Skull Ridges, material or immaterial.
I don’t think that it’s the shadow of Skull Ridges, Raevis, like a dead person’s shadow, so much as a way of expressing something that’s wrong in someone’s body. If you’re crazy, you have a shadow on your brain, if you ate something funny that doesn’t agree with you, you have a shadow on your stomach.
TS, please assure me that no sentient slime mo(u)lds of our acquaintance are ever going to be in a position to do ANYTHING LIKE THAT! Excuse me, but that’s a hurky thought that man just had.
“Shadow on the liver” also reminds me irresistably of the kind of bad news you get from an oncologist.
To the best of my knowledge, the aforementioned slime mold has not (yet) had any such opportunity to witness a placental birth, let alone comment on it. (You’ll probably see something about that over there, if you get my meaning, if he ever does though.)
I think the shadow has nothing to do with evil/good or dead/alive, it’s just a thing cast by other thing. Like shadowboy called the orb of darkness in murai’s head a shadow
The Shadowchild has twice referred to guilt as a shadow on Digger’s heart, not her liver. I thought this was interesting as it implies that Shadowchild’s perception of sentient beings conforms more with Western ideas of the heart as the center of emotion, rather than the Hyena belief system.
@TekServer, and @jaynee: I don’t know. Lets just say that Every family has it’s resident Bloodmare and I’m surprised that doctors would let some of my… less cooperative relatives into a birthing room without autoclaving them first. I’d hazard anyone searching for sentient slime moulds need only to turn their head at Christmas dinner of a family wedding or funeral to find them.
I agree, Lemming, and have thought so at least since the oak tree with the termites. I feel that shadow is what happens when living things have a wrongness (usually emotional). What that implies of the statue god and the veiled being bright and making shadows stand out clearly, I know not (perhaps that faith is the opposite of dis-ease, especially since people always feel more guilty, etc., when in the presence of someone with the “right” to judge?).
@TekServer: and All others: Sorry for the double post, but his year’s Ig Nobel awards are out, and apparently slime-moulds can navigate mazes with extreme efficiency to find food and from communication and transport grids mathematically very similar to the Tokyo transport system. That research scooped the transportation science prize for Toshiyuki Nakagaki at this year’s Ig Nobel awards (he got the cognitive science award in 2008 for working out they could find the most efferent path though a maze).
@Clay Pilgrim: Or perhaps it just means that the shadow, being a metaphysical phenomenon, forms where the bearer expects it to. So Digger and that human bandit would have shadows form on their hearts, while a hyena would have shadows form on its liver after something comparable.
Ursula, you are a goddess. I adore you.
So…if Shadowchild had EATEN that shadow…y’know what, I think that line of thought should be dropped, quarantined, and locked very far from anyone who might ever discover it.
The locking away part doesn’t work so well with gods, according to Digger, so maybe it would also be a good idea to take the thought apart and lock the pieces away in different places.
No, wait a sec Jon… that’s interesting. the hyenas wanted Skull Ridges power to return to the tribe with the funerary cannibalism…. but how would they feel about a creature that could actually detect bits of “shadows” or souls and feed of them?
then again, The Shadowchild is not part of the tribe, so i guess she’s not entitled to eat any part of Skull Ridges, material or immaterial.
I’m going to have to ask… I thought the dead didn’t have shadows?
Probably not. Which makes it an entirely moot point.
Digger just hurked up a shadow! Along with whatever little might have still been in her stomach …
Now THAT’s a serious hurk!
😉
I don’t think that it’s the shadow of Skull Ridges, Raevis, like a dead person’s shadow, so much as a way of expressing something that’s wrong in someone’s body. If you’re crazy, you have a shadow on your brain, if you ate something funny that doesn’t agree with you, you have a shadow on your stomach.
…and evil is a shadow on the heart. Very good.
Liver. Evil is a shadow on the liver.
Do I even WANT to know what Shadowchild just did?
I don’t think Shadowchild actually did anything, other than observe what, for it, was a fascinating and totally mystifying biological process.
You could liken it to a sentient slime mold watching (and trying to figure out) the birthing process of a placental mammal …
(Of course, if you did so you might get some odd looks and raised eyebrows … )
😉
“Evil is a shadow on the liver.”
Even the comments section has great quotes!
TS, please assure me that no sentient slime mo(u)lds of our acquaintance are ever going to be in a position to do ANYTHING LIKE THAT! Excuse me, but that’s a hurky thought that man just had.
“Shadow on the liver” also reminds me irresistably of the kind of bad news you get from an oncologist.
To the best of my knowledge, the aforementioned slime mold has not (yet) had any such opportunity to witness a placental birth, let alone comment on it. (You’ll probably see something about that over there, if you get my meaning, if he ever does though.)
😉
I think the shadow has nothing to do with evil/good or dead/alive, it’s just a thing cast by other thing. Like shadowboy called the orb of darkness in murai’s head a shadow
Digger’s eye in panel four is priceless.
The Shadowchild has twice referred to guilt as a shadow on Digger’s heart, not her liver. I thought this was interesting as it implies that Shadowchild’s perception of sentient beings conforms more with Western ideas of the heart as the center of emotion, rather than the Hyena belief system.
::shrugs::
@TekServer, and @jaynee: I don’t know. Lets just say that Every family has it’s resident Bloodmare and I’m surprised that doctors would let some of my… less cooperative relatives into a birthing room without autoclaving them first. I’d hazard anyone searching for sentient slime moulds need only to turn their head at Christmas dinner of a family wedding or funeral to find them.
I agree, Lemming, and have thought so at least since the oak tree with the termites. I feel that shadow is what happens when living things have a wrongness (usually emotional). What that implies of the statue god and the veiled being bright and making shadows stand out clearly, I know not (perhaps that faith is the opposite of dis-ease, especially since people always feel more guilty, etc., when in the presence of someone with the “right” to judge?).
“Liver Shadow” would be a good name for a band or album… as would “Digger’s Eyes”
@TekServer: and All others: Sorry for the double post, but his year’s Ig Nobel awards are out, and apparently slime-moulds can navigate mazes with extreme efficiency to find food and from communication and transport grids mathematically very similar to the Tokyo transport system. That research scooped the transportation science prize for Toshiyuki Nakagaki at this year’s Ig Nobel awards (he got the cognitive science award in 2008 for working out they could find the most efferent path though a maze).
Just thought you all might need to know that…
This page is also a contender for my favorite …
@Clay Pilgrim: Or perhaps it just means that the shadow, being a metaphysical phenomenon, forms where the bearer expects it to. So Digger and that human bandit would have shadows form on their hearts, while a hyena would have shadows form on its liver after something comparable.