Contra the apocalypse with Ozy and Millie · 5:38pm May 13th, 2014
I'll get back to my reviews in a bit, but I finally found something I've been seeking.
I speak out a lot against apocalypse stories, with specific targets and in general. I do this because in a certain sense writing Pony Apocalypse stories requires one subscribe to the "God of the universe" view of writing, as opposed to the "simple revelation" view. A lot of elements need to be invented and set off, which requires some very potent puppetmastery.
So, one looks at a happy world and says, "I want the blood of billions smeared across the stones and the survivors to be agonized mutants or amoral drunks with guns." It puts one in the same shameful category as other cruel gods like Zeus, Thor, Huehueteotl the Aztec fire god and Yahweh the mass murderer. And after the slaughter, the savored misery. Focused on the suffering of the world, the dragging pain of the population who have been left with nothing, their culture reduced to ash and dust.
But here's what I finally found. I remembered something in an old Ozy and Millie strip. Millie coming to a revelation about the apocalyptic setting. She and Ozy are deciding what to play, and she suggests "Post-Apocalyptic Dystopia." Her realization follows in the next three panels. "Everybody's dead except you and me! Um, well, and our families. And our friends. And our friends' families. And our families' friends. And our families' friends' families. And Michael Stipe. And... uh..."
There follows a panel of silence and realization.
And at last, she says, "Let's play "house.""
That moment always resonated with me. The interconnectedness of us all, the cruelty of having to see those we love die, and the sheer pointlessness of it all. It's one of my favorite little "non-focal" moments. They're not in a story arc, they're not making big, complicated speeches, they're not specifically intent on making a huge point. But Millie does.
Since there are no dates on these strips I can't tell you how to find it. I found it in collection number four "Authentic Banana Dye." Based on the design of the characters I'm estimating around 2001/2002. Millie has her little fangs but not all the time. And it came a short time after the "Standardized Testing" arc, if that helps.
Sorry all, back to DVD commentary reviews.
Considering "Heavenly Nostrils" is one of my favorite web comics (Chatting with Dana Simpson and having her sign my cardboard wings [including a small picture of Marigold] was one of my happy moments at BABSCon), I really ought to explore Ozy and Millie. I'm afraid the backlog is a bit intimidating though.
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It's a lot, yes (though there are worse, like "Kevin and Kell" or "Schlock Mercenary.") But worth it.
Dana is... so awesome. I met her before the transition and got my O&M books signed. Knowing her is a great treasure because she is a monumentally sweet woman.
I don't remember that specific comic, but talking about Ozy & Millie takes me back. Llewellyn, Ozymandias, Millie, and her mom. The sheep bully was amazing in the later strips as well. I'll always remember Millie's surprise when the girl took their joint project seriously. It was always kind of poignant, I think, and still some of the best child characters since Calvin & Hobbes.
My current favorite, at least as far as humanity goes, would be Octopus Pie, although it's got a teen and up rating. It starts off average and eventually becomes freaking magnificent. The archives are sometimes a pain in the butt to navigate though, unless she's changed that. And then there is always Lackadaisy, because it may or may not be a revelation of the human condition, in feline form, but dear heavens anywhere is it fantastical.
Sneaky addition: More on topic, in some respects yes. The apocalypse isn't truly interesting until after the dust has settled and life is returning to normal. The mass hysteria, the ravages of civilization, and the future of the human species means nothing in the hands of one lone survivor. It isn't even the shock value and the sorrow that comes from losing everyone you love. It's the striking notion that the world continues on and humans are far more interesting when scheming, rather than looting and destroying.
But then, I never really liked horror stories that much, even though, for instance, The Walking Dead (well particularly the comic itself and things besides the tv show; I haven't watched the latter but I know a good bit about the former and at least one of the games) does a great job of exploring how the true horror stems from the people themselves. I can enjoy that, but it's having multiple groups of people ignoring the apocalypse as best they can to revive life as they know it which is really interesting. When they conflict, it's suspenseful, but in some respects its the inherent irony behind the truth that humanity is its own worst enemy that makes it so.
The point is, having one of something is generally not the impact that you want. It almost never is. People focus too much on the singular and not enough on the whole.
Or maybe I'm babbling. I'm not sure. I didn't really get any sleep last night.
Or Huehuehuehueteotl, the Aztec god of trolling. :V
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I used to look at O&M as K&K's wonderfully cheery counterpart. There was seriousness, but it was balanced with a joyous abandon. Muck like MLP. Dana was a natural pony fan, and she smoothly slid into that role when it came.
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No, it makes perfect sense. I used to think my socialistic nature made me think ill of the morally vomitus lone hero who loved to commit genocide and other crimes. Then I figured it was because those types are basically Ayn Rand fap fodder. But you provide another, very true, view.
Cooperation is always more interesting to me. Reaching for that unity is the best.
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But he'll still pull your heart out after making you DIAF.
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Funny thing is, I knew of O&M way back when, but didn't find K&K until a few years ago. I would agree with that assessment (though I like K&K more for its world-building and themes than its comedy and tone.) I'm not at all surprised to hear Dana is an MLP fan. It's definitely right up her alley!
Has she made any MLP fan comics?
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She actually has done some MLP works, along with her roommate Nikki, AKA Ribnose.
She's on dA, I think as Pedantia. Her OC is Pedantia Pixel and Nikki's is Tater the dragon. If you've seen my "Hearts and Hooves and claws and paws" story image, that picture of Trixie and Gilda was drawn by Ribnose. She's an expert at Gilda.
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It's not even Ayn Rand. Inexperienced writers put too much emphasis on the one special hero and this leads to "the sole human" in Equestria so much. The problem is it becomes a narrow view that gets old really fast. The same can be said for an apocalypse with a single survivor. Outside of that one episode of the Twilight Zone, it doesn't really get good until you add in more people. I mean, it's not that it can't be interesting, but the dilemma isn't even loneliness or being solitary. There's a limit to how well this idea works and it's not an extended plot by any means. There's someone trying to live in a harsh environment and survive, which is very fascinating, but removing the civilization for him or her to return to makes the struggle inherently joyless and depressing beyond belief, as you pointed out.
Even in a situation where it's a single human surrounded by ponies, there is an element of sadness and loss. People tend to want wish-fulfillment in this vein, so it's almost never as bad as it truly is in these stories. Even then, there's usually no plot because these characters have rarely anything to strive for. Giving them a random adventure or turning them villainous helps pad out the plot, but then you have to ask, why did they even need to be human?
To me, there's just something more awe-inspiring about viewing the world after Pompeii erupts and seeing how it carries on into the future. The devastation is real and heart-breaking, but it's when you start examining it on the level of people and not just one person that makes it that way. In part it's because of the ripple effect of those affected, but it's also the appeal of humanity over the appeal of the harrowing circumstances of one lone person. There is no character that is less interesting than one who is technically in a vacuum and that logic gets dangerously close to that.
Spike is all the more interesting because there are other dragons in the world and he will probably never want to live with them, but they exist. More importantly, we know that pony society is what truly matters to him. It's not his individuality that is key, it's how he fits in and how he wants to do so. The same can be said for Discord. While he was interesting as a lone trickster, he must be inexplicable and distantly seen until he attempts to become a part of something else. He is more inherently interesting when contrasted and compared with the ponies. We as humans, with the exception for those born with a different mindset, can't really think in the manner of a truly non-social creature and thus society is what develops the most interesting situations, even in the case of asocial characters.
Sorry, I think I'm actually making more than one point and muddying them terribly. I don't even know what my core statement is anymore.
I guess it's the interconnectedness of our actions that makes a story a gold mine, so removing those connections turns it kind of one note and devoid of a certain amount of feeling and poignancy. I suppose many of these apocalypse stories have more than one survivor out of necessity anyway, even Fallout Equestria would have to, and Fallout does show how humanity had to adapt, but the problem is I can easily see such stories devolving into "the reader as player" scenario. While that works in a game context (because inherently any one-player game is about the player, at its heart), it can have a debilitating role when it comes to plot within a literature context. The "human in Equestria" model falls into this category, more often than not, in much the fashion of a player "falling" into the world of their favorite game.
Edit: At the same time, delving into "statistics" territory never helps. That's the opposite side of the problem, when the number of deaths simply becomes a number.
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I may have it wrong but I think it's "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." I's a real thing based on the evolved human limitation of empathy when numbers beyond the typical tribal band are considered. Viewing ancient works through that lens becomes disgustingly logical. If you say your band killed 50,000 enemies they seem even less human and it becomes more laudible.
I think you made the point quite well and explained it properly, HiE included. But you may have "rubbished" the good part of HiE, which someone like, say, Chatoyance does directly and which I do by implication. It's to introduce a human mind to eutopia (not a typo.) They are allowed to see a genuinely good place. Bad for conflict, good as... fantasy travelogue. There was a class of literature during the Romantic period which consisted of famous sorts (like Daniel Dafoe, Mary Woolstonecraft-Shelly, Percy Shelly, William Wordsworth) would travel The Continent, often to little-visited areas as well as significant locations like Rome, Florence and Paris, and write about the places and people, with attention paid to local colors and customs. This is actually how "Dracula" opens, more or less. I also wanted to reference one of my favorite stories here, "Gulliver's Travels." He has adventures more as a consequence of happenstance than because he wants them. IF an HiE story was done as something other than a travelogue and it wanted to be good, it would have to be like Gulliver's Travels. One story has been. "Lone Ranger." It even included one of my favorite elements, having both sides learn each others' languages. I think other Gulliverad-type stories would be an excellent thing. I have half a mind to write of Gulliver's son being whisked to Equestria and first thinking he has come to the land of the Huynnums.
(I rambled too; when I say my stories are a passive travelogue I mean I want the human reader to experience this very lovely world AND see how they handle threats to their harmony and beauty. I like tonemphasize that love and peace are paramount but they don't just roll over when threatened.)
I made this comment on a journal, just today, and it seems to fit in here somehow. As I recall it's a paraphrase of GK Chesterton.
"Fairy tales are not written to teach children dragons exist; they already know they do. Fairy tales are written to teach children that dragons can be killed."
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The fantasy travelogue is a lovely idea and I agree this is one of the strengths of HiE. I didn't mean to suggest that there was no good potential in the idea. I believe there is, for the reason you pointed out and some others. There's nothing wrong with an actual human as the viewer perspective. I meant to suggest that so many of the HiE stories seem to take the narrow view of First Person Player and this diminishes the idea drastically. It's better when the human is put into the more realistic perspective of just being human, even if they have some form of magic or technology that might give them an advantage.
That sounds very interesting.
Incidentally, your comment on the travelogue makes me think a human traveling with Trenderhoof could be kind of amusing too.
In general, it is that sense of wonder of getting to explore Equestria that makes any fanfiction like this really awesome. Especially if they bother to examine some of the details that tend to get glossed over or never get explored in the show.
The problem is when that sense of wonder gets transplanted onto the human themselves, instead of the world they're visiting, without any give and take or learning. Then it goes wrong.
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A new human arrival traveling with a pretentious fake, learning of Equestria through his warped perspective of trends and insincere appropriation of the trappings of other places. Wow. That actually does sound interesting. I only wish I had confidence in my ability to write Trenderfoof.
The sense of wonder, and the sense of allowing the human character to be the human character rather than the avatar of the human reader/"player" who has uberpowers and of course cannot lose or fail or die because humans are metal as buck, that's important.
Wow! On a whim I typed in "Ozy and Millie My Little Pony" into Google and this blog popped up. It's nice to see another fan of the great, though somewhat obscure, comic strip.
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