Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

The Educated Man's Chicken

Page: (1)2

twomenwalkingabreast

13:03 / 18.06.04

The opening page to 'Seaguy' has been driving me mad! In it, Seaguy and Death are playing chess outside a cafe on the beach. The cafe is called "The Educated Man's Chicken" and the mascot above has a graduation cap and is holding up a large egg with a crack in it.

EVERYTHING means SOMETHING in a Morrison comic...so what pray tell is going on here?

FinderWolf

13:39 / 18.06.04

does this really need its own thread?

And for the record, I figured it was just about the other foods being a classy, intellectual and hip alternative to fast-food chicken. Just like Red is the new Black, Wednesday is the new Thursday...Fried Koala is the new hip fast food thing to eat. And maybe it's better for your brain or something than chicken (the way people say fish is 'brain food').

illmatic

13:59 / 18.06.04

I don't think everything does mean something in a George Morrison comic. (You'd have a bloody nightmare with Doom Patrol). Like, there's no conceivable reason that Chubby was Seaguy's disembodied sex drive. No. he was just a levitating, talking, Tunafish - why is that hard to grasp? The Educated Chicken - can't it just be fun?

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:21 / 18.06.04

It's not a comic. Nothing George Morrison writes is *just* a comic. It's a crossword puzzle, and if you solve every clue you will be able to get girls to take their clothes off.

Even popular girls.

FinderWolf

14:43 / 18.06.04

um...once again, ....*George* Morrison?

Ganesh

14:46 / 18.06.04

It's Dada.

*nods smugly*

Grey Area

18:29 / 18.06.04

Admittedly I have not seen the item in question. But could it be an allusion to the old chicken and egg conundrum? The kind of thing that's mostly argued about by educated individuals?

FinderWolf

19:33 / 18.06.04

George Morriston's DOOM PATROL was the best.

Sekhmet

20:05 / 18.06.04

I figure it's gotta tie in somehow with the later scene with Mickey Eye breaking the eggs in the nest and then... choking the chicken. I just got that.

Hrrrrmmm...

Sekhmet

20:07 / 18.06.04

Oh - and then the sign on the building that says "the sky is falling, the sky is falling"... that being a reference both to Chicken Little, and to the moon meteorites.

No, Morrison does NOTHING by accident. The series may be over for five years before we figure it all out, though.

Sax

20:14 / 18.06.04

It's Dada.

Christ, now you think you're George Morrison's son?

The Natural Way

20:48 / 18.06.04

Silence, Sekhmet. Silence.

I'm pretty sure the above interpretation - it's a fun, conceptual gag - is the right one. It doesn't have to go any deeper than that. "Meaning" doesn't always have to = 5D suids bursting out of alchemical eggs at the end of time.

Haus of Mystery

21:26 / 18.06.04

You say that now. Wait till the end of time.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:36 / 18.06.04

I was gutted when George Morrison died.

Now Ringo's the only surviving Beatle I actually like. And that's sad.

Ganesh

21:48 / 18.06.04

Christ, now you think you're George Morrison's son?

Yes, I'm Stephen Patrick Morrison.

*sings, 'ever-ee guy is like Sea-guyyy, every guy is vio-lent and gayyy'*

The Falcon

14:47 / 20.06.04

It's a fairytale innit? Little chicken or whatever walked around saying 'the sky is falling'. Can't remember the end or 'moral'.

Maybe the sky fell?

---

17:45 / 20.06.04

I looked at it and instantly thought it was another reference to the supercontext, we're all inside the egg and it's hatching.

Maybe that's why Hank Morrisey did it.

■

19:15 / 20.06.04

No, the moral of Chicken Little (or Licken, if you're a Yank) was that the sky was NOT falling, and the acorn that fell on his/her head was in fact a tasty treat, so don't run around making a fuss about everything. Possibly a signal from George that we shoudn't make assumptions about what's going on too early.

Please note, I am only here because I am trying REALLY hard to avoid spoilers in the current Seaguy thread...

---

19:36 / 20.06.04

Please note, I am only here because I am trying REALLY hard to avoid spoilers in the current Seaguy thread...

Stay WELL AWAY from that thread. Yeah, i know what your thinking.

WAIT!

And get to the shop tommorrow to get it!

The Natural Way

20:34 / 20.06.04

Possibly a signal from George that we shoudn't make assumptions about what's going on too early

Arrgh! Look, this is just as bad as the other thing!

Stop!

Grant is not sending his readers "signals" or whiffling about cosmic barbe-eggs. He's just referencing stuff/cracking jokes - authors do it all the time.

Y'know?

Sax

20:53 / 20.06.04

*sings, 'ever-ee guy is like Sea-guyyy, every guy is vio-lent and gayyy'*

Y'know, Ganesh, you might be a delusional fool vis-a-vis your relationship to George Morrison, but I think you might have something there.

Every day is like Sunday - Seaguy and Chubby always go to an amusement park - every day.

This is the coastal town they forgot to close down - New Venice

And a strange dust lands on your face - not just dust, but whole lumps of the moon!

Come Armaggedon, come - oh, it will!

The entire comic is based upon that one song.

Genius, Ganesh, I don't know how you stumbled across it.

Let's fight crime. You can be my sidekick. Ganesh da Guppy?

---

21:48 / 20.06.04

Grant is not sending his readers "signals" or whiffling about cosmic barbe-eggs. He's just referencing stuff/cracking jokes - authors do it all the time.

Yeah he is Oxy, i'm having none of it.

Georgie's shop in the first page (also Stewie's shop B T W), is called the educated man's chicken, meaning that the educated man will know that he loves pointing the dupercontext out when he can, so that the superschmarangs don't f'gedabout it.

Also, if you take the measurements between each corner of the shop they add up to divine numbers and there's three buildings, that one included, that mirror a star system just like da pyimids.

It's all in there, all of it.

And of course the giant Xoo language was covert sigil bombing to make sure that we don't even think about not buying or reading the third episode when Chubby Da Choona turns into Schmimper.

Of course i totally love Grant and the story am probably just being silly here.

*Ouch*

The Natural Way

22:28 / 20.06.04

I love Grant, too (I'll never forget how, as a 14 yr old, he wrote Zenith just for me!), but that doesn't mean to say he encrypts every page with occult symbolism. He's an intelligent, funny man with wide ranging interests - there's more to his writing than the psychedelic, freak-out guru bit. And anyway, regardless, it's useful to try and distinguish between what's actually on the page and what you transpose across it. Or to put it more bluntly: the dimensions of the buildings have no occult significance whatsoever.

I'm sure you're fully aware of that, though.

However, you could be edging towards rightness re the XOO speak. There could be some sigil action going on there....

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:34 / 20.06.04

I'll never forget how, as a 14 yr old, he wrote Zenith just for me!

I'll fight you for it.

■

10:04 / 21.06.04

the dimensions of the buildings have no occult significance whatsoever.

Ah, but don't you see!

No, seriously, I feel the whole book is just Grant having fun with a very silly story, and having the occasional little poke at people like us who just can't help trying to decode everything.
That said, once he's written it and it's ours, it doesn't matter a stuff what he meant by it, and we are free to piss around with the meaning as much as we like.
I think the Chicken Little comparison is valid, and I'm sticking with it.

Please do not put and more spoilers about 'giant Xoo language' in this thread, though. LALALALALALALALNOTREADING [Fingers in eyes].

twomenwalkingabreast

13:59 / 21.06.04

Thanks to all. Reading this thread was just as much fun as staring at that opening page!!! Extra points go to Ganesh and Rob Frost, thanks at least for trying!!

And waddayaknow FinderWolf (Probably not TOO terribly much, I'd wager).... looks like this did need it's own thread!

"I Brake for George Morrison"

Ho-ho!

twomenwalkingabreast

14:08 / 21.06.04

BTW, Rob Frost. Your account of the 'celestial' meaning inherent in the measurements of the building sent chills up my spine.

It is the building itself that prompted my study of the page, if you must know. I too, found deep significance in its architecture. "It's all in there, all of it. We're all inside the egg, and it's about to hatch."

Oh, yes. Just "try to remember."

FinderWolf

15:33 / 21.06.04

I agree, this thread is wonderful and has some of the many reasons I love Barbelith and want to marry it!

FinderWolf

15:37 / 21.06.04

But why the implied potshot that I don't know much? I don't know much, but I know I love you... (sung in Aaron Neville voice) And I do know that George Foremanson's grill makes me some good eatins.

---

16:05 / 21.06.04

Or to put it more bluntly: the dimensions of the buildings have no occult significance whatsoever.

I know Marriche, i was being a twonk, maybe i should calm down.

Twomenwalking, i'm glad i give your spine chills though.

The Natural Way

21:38 / 21.06.04

Oh, Koala, I wasn't targeting you at all. I'm sure Grant intended the Chicken Little reference. It's clearly there. I never denied it.

I just don't want to go too far down the "it can be anything I like" route. Not unless we can unearth something a little more exciting than another round of supercontexed squid gods.

And, hey, I really doubt the Seaguy project's concerned in any way with ridiculing fanboy over-analysis.

The Natural Way

21:39 / 21.06.04

Actually, thinking about it, maybe the Chicken Little thing is streeeeeeeeeeetching it a weensy bit.

■

22:05 / 21.06.04

Well, no. I'm becoming more entrenched with my "kids-dream-with-kids-references" interpretation by the minute. I think he's leaving it all fairly open, but doesn't (don't) the appearance(s) of Death remind you of some of your young nightmares?

The Natural Way

22:30 / 21.06.04

The dreaming kid thing might hold some water.

But I hope not. God, the last thing we need is another jump into the supersquidtext.

■

22:46 / 21.06.04

The dreaming kid thing might hold some water.

[Ahem] Holding water? In a series called Seaguy? Sorry, couldn't resist. [Tries evry hard to withhold bed-wetting gag and fails]

Page: (1)2

Add Your Reply