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KimLuster on Aug. 31, 2016
What? You thought Kimber Lee might finally have a peaceful resolution to a challenge…?!! This is the goddamn Godstrain…!! ;) (sorry, came across Batman quotes while searching Superwoman images…)
Things look dire for my heroine again…! The way I've had her beaten and bruised, molested and humiliated… Maybe I need to see a therapist…!! :D And now she's facing something that can make her a child and cause cancer recurrence in less than an eye-blink…!! *sheesh*
If the Godstrain didn't seem like such a jerk, maybe it has a point… But it is a jerk (lots of god-type beings seem to be that way, don't they, claiming their ‘privileged view’ gives them rights we ‘lower beings’ don't have…). If you don't remember all the points Kimber Lee is bringing up, here they are:
Forced Blackouts: pgs. 49, 152, 224
Possessed: pgs. 194 thru 215
Soccoro believing it's God: pgs. 292, 294, 310-311
Seeming to try to enter Eli: pgs. 223-224, 275-276
Cancer: beginning of story
When the Godstrain calls Kimber Lee a ‘feedback loop’ I'm referencing a book I've read called I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter. He tries to explain consciousness in a purely physical universe, saying the ‘thing’, that sense of self, ‘Me’-ness, that we feel up there between our ears is really a type of feedback loop. When you think feedback you probably think of a microphone too close to a speaker - the looping sound gets louder and louder until it's painful… But when you hold a mirror up to another mirror and see the ‘infinite hallway’, that also is a feedback loop. Perhaps the most interesting example, though, is when you point a video camera at a screen that's showing what the camera ‘sees’…
These loops are a good example of how something ‘emerges’ when physical matter ‘observes’ physical matter, and Hofstadter believes our consciousness is ultimately composed of loops like these (much more complicated ones, but all the same…) I'm not fully convinced but it's compelling reading..!!
Well… however this resolves, it's seem pretty certain Kimber Lee won't ever be the same - thanks for sticking around!
And thanks for reading everyone!
KimLuster at 12:19PM, Sept. 2, 2016
@Paul: well, it's bonded with Kimber Lee and a few other humans - maybe certain human traits from them did bleed over to its 'personality' (esp. a particular uncle's propensity to think he can just take what he wants... Kimber Lee suggest as much in panel 2). Next page: tantrum continueth!!
PaulEberhardt at 10:05AM, Sept. 2, 2016
Still, the Godstrain isn't completely non-human, no matter what she says, since she seems to be vulnerable to the usual hypocrisy humans get when they come into too much power: She accuses Kimber of being childish, yet who's the one throwing a typical tantrum? WAAAAH! Momma, this mean stupid woman won't let me have any more ice cream!! Perhaps she'd have more success by holding her breath, even if being a timeless and thus immortal being might make it a bit unconvincing? --- Anyway, the whole situation made me smile. :)
KimLuster at 4:42AM, Sept. 2, 2016
@Peipei: I think you encapsulated the situation perfectly!!
Peipei at 8:48PM, Sept. 1, 2016
So all of that stuff the Godstrain was trying to sell Kimber these past few updates seems to have been a sales pitch of some sort, and now that Kimber still doesn't want to continue playing host to it even after its little 'infomercial', it's all or nothing now! What a crappy situation to be in, that's for sure x.x! Be a host and aid the Godstrain in permanently altering the universe or shrivel up and die of cancer...It's hard to say what's right here!
KimLuster at 5:05AM, Sept. 1, 2016
@ghostly: that it is!
KimLuster at 5:04AM, Sept. 1, 2016
@plymayer: And once it's done, who would be 'most' in control, and could renege on the deal at any point...
KimLuster at 5:02AM, Sept. 1, 2016
@bravo: Haha well I guess I just stick with Solipsism!! ;)
ghostrunner at 2:24AM, Sept. 1, 2016
thats a heavy concept
plymayer at 10:36PM, Aug. 31, 2016
Still seems to me the "Godstrain" gets more from this than she does. A place in the "real" world maybe?
bravo1102 at 9:27PM, Aug. 31, 2016
That's why I stick to the original Tao Te Ching and the original commentaries. Denying and Losing self is Buddhism. The highest form of egotism is total denial of self.
KimLuster at 8:58PM, Aug. 31, 2016
@bravo: well... you're so spot on it's kinda scary!! And I get the acceptance of limitations that Taoism espouses... And its goal of becoming one with the Tao (reality, nature...) seem admirable... but I've just read about what I'd call 'extreme' Taoists whose ideal seems to be to stop thinking completely, to just do, to just be... I'm sure I'm overthinking (how's that for irony) what they're saying but the idea of giving up thinking is abhorrent to me... Still, I love the idea of loops, circles... things in nature that seem self-referential... It's why the ouroboros symbol (which is kinda a western equivalent to ying-yang) features in the story so much... Anyway... hope you like the coming pages...!!
bravo1102 at 5:14PM, Aug. 31, 2016
But Taoism is anything but a cop-out merely an admission of our own limitations. We can understand and know but cannot and should not explain. Kimber Lee should embrace the Godstrain because it is her reflection. It doesn't realize that it IS part of the feedback loop. One reason it decided to take on Kimber Lee's face when speaking to her...
KimLuster at 2:16PM, Aug. 31, 2016
@Jerrie: I listen to you... I'm trying to get Kimber Lee to listen more...!! ;)
jerrie at 1:24PM, Aug. 31, 2016
see...this proves what happens when Jerrie is ignored. I said break her neck...Kimber flipped me the bird, and didnt do it...now..its too late...Now shes jammed up!
KimLuster at 11:43AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@tupapayon: always say YES!!
tupapayon at 11:40AM, Aug. 31, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb5-LLQ3FjY
KimLuster at 10:22AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@El Cid: that's a good way to put it! But yeah, either way... Poor Kim!!
KimLuster at 10:22AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@Banes: Temperamental for sure.. And yeah, I get ill fast when salesmen get like that with me... and they do!! ALOT!! Because I ask zillions of question, and hold them to things they said earlier!! They end up liking me in the end... usually! ;)
KimLuster at 10:20AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@FC: hehe see my thoughts about the Tao in my response to Bravo :) As for the Godstrain... It's belittling Kimber Lee, saying she's an ignorant infant, but... It actually may have less experience dealing with other conscious, willful beings than she does... when it comes to that - who's the baby?!!
KimLuster at 10:17AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@Aubrey: compromise means agreeing to everything I say - just ask my hubby!! :D
KimLuster at 10:16AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@Bravo: but... what you said about the Godstrain and Kimber's relationship with it... That's really good stuff!!
KimLuster at 10:15AM, Aug. 31, 2016
@Bravo: Haha that's pretty good stuff... I love the way the Tao sounds, the sayings, the idea of just being... But it's never really appealed to me personally... at least as a way to live one's whole life - feels like putting one's metaphysical head in the sand... sorta... I dunno... :D I'm loopy!!
El Cid at 7:09AM, Aug. 31, 2016
To call this thing mercurial would be a massive understatement! She's right not to trust it... but she may still need it, as much as it needs her. Yeesh! Poor Kim!
Banes at 7:00AM, Aug. 31, 2016
Kim is a great character; she's got some serious guts, to verbally slap a Cosmic Being in the face like that. That turn the Godstrain makes from "selling" to the fury under the surface is quite frightening! It also reminds me of superficially 'nice' salespeople who quickly turn nasty if you question them or suggest you're not buying.
fallopiancrusader at 6:42AM, Aug. 31, 2016
Hmmm, I wonder if the godstrain, by inhabiting humans, has acquired some human foolishness of its own. How does one really explain or understand the universe, consciousness, etc? To mangle the old Taoist saying: Those who know don't say... Those who say don't know. (And the fact that I'm saying anything at all is proof positive that I don't know a damn thing)