BREAKER OF INFINITIES 4-144
Prim came to a part of the road that was well worn. The path split and furrowed into pleasant little runoff trails, that twisted and snaked their way through groves of gently rustling trees. The undergrowth was thick and green and warm with insects and flowers. Prim felt some of the tension drain from her body and she rested a while under a tree, feeling quite relaxed.
After a while, she took a short and refreshing nap, and awoke to the distant voices of travelers a short ways down the trail. When she went out to greet them, she saw them clothed in white, and their faces and features were quite nondescript, as though washed in the ocean a while.
“Hello sister,” said they, “Who are you?”
“I am called Prim, who was the slave of Hansa, and now slave of the road,” said Prim.
“You are in luck, sister,” said the white-clothed people. “This is the end of the road. You are free!”
Prim gazed past the travelers through the treetops to see a broad and verdant valley, spotted with the trim rooftops of innumerable houses, each sporting a neat little plume of smoke. It looked like a very nice place to be, and Prim’s heart burned with a certain kind of longing she had not felt in a long while.
“What is this place?” asked Prim.
The travelers looked at each other, as if it was an odd question. “This the valley of Eternal Life,” they said. Prim was taken aback, as Immortality was one of the Three Forbidden Punishments. Seeing her expression, the travelers laughed stupidly, as though they had stumbled across a small and confused child.
“Don’t be so shocked,” said one of the travelers,”it’s true! Nobody knows want, hunger, or sickness. Our days are spent tending our gardens, talking to our neighbors and families, and praising God, who has granted us this boon. Death does not touch us here. People are neither born, nor die in this land. Our needs are cared for and the land is pleasant and green. What else could we want?”
“You should join us, sister,” added one of the travelers, “as God is good, you will know nothing but happiness in this valley.”
“Can you leave?” said Prim, who had an expression like she had tasted something sour. The travelers looked at each other in confusion. “Of course not,” said they, “why would we want to? It is impossible to leave the valley.”
“What else do you get up to?” said Prim tentatively, “Other than praising god, tending to your gardens, and talking to your neighbors?”
The travelers were very confused indeed, and seemed to think this was a very odd question. “Are you happy?” added Prim, as if this would help.
“Yes, of course,” said the travelers, smiling blithely. The expression on their faces was hard to read, but to Prim their words came out like a warm paste. “You will know nothing but happiness in this valley.”
“This land is terribly cursed,” said Prim, and moved on.
“Because it pleases me, bitch.”
One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said YES?
“O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden from my heart!”
WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON’T SOUND WELL.
“I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe.”
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
“But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it.”
OH. WELL, THEN STOP.
There’s an important and unfortunate distinction between “What people want to do” and “What people want done to them”. And so such misery will persist, until people cease to distinguish between themselves and others.
While No reason at all can be an answer to almost everything, so can Because I want to do it regardless. And in both, it’s mostly how it is said rather than what is said what matters.
If everything is pointless and Allison is doooomed, there’s no reason to put so much effort into convincing Allison everything is pointless and she’s dooomed.
Exactly. As I said in my own comment, I think Abaddon’s writing is really falling off here. I expected something other than basic bitch nihilism from Jadis.
the sent of imminent disregard for causality is about
perhaps the future may be written in stone, but the past is not
Well, now ain’t that depressing.
Looking at how Allison looks/feels right now, I think none of this is designed to help her, but rather help Jadis… or perhaps Jadis (being very jaded) just feels better spreading the misery.
“I’ve given up… so should you so I don’t feel bad about giving up”
I… I caught up? I already caught up? Oh man, I blasted through this whole comic in, like, 3 days. Well, while I wait for another… perhaps I’ll reread it all?
I’ll bet you didn’t read most of the comments???
Amazing how the lesson being served up here by corpse-woman is almost exactly the same as God’s in Sindy Anna Jones’ One Human Being–8. The sole difference being her slithering nihilism giving highly opposing futures.
It feels like we’ve had an art change… like Abaddon has gone backwards in style and skill…
Am i the only one wondering if this feeling is purposeful?
Shit, man. Have you ever had a really nice bowl of soup? It’ll change your life.
Because what else is there to do? Lay down, do nothing and wait for death? Is it not also human, if not all life´s, nature to struggle, strive and fight?
Death may be inevitable, the enemy monumental but yet every being has the urge to take up the sword and face it.
Why, Ms. Allison? Why, why? Why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting?
Do you believe you’re fighting… for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love?
Illusions, Ms. Allison. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Wheel itself, although… only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.
You must be able to see it, Ms. Allison. You must know it by now, you can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why, Ms. Allison? Why? Why do you persist?
Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.
Okay? Free will is a lie. Sure.
Why does it matter? It’s not like we can do anything about it. Most of us will not see the shape of the universe. Even if we know free will is a lie, if we haven’t seen the Shape, then we will nonetheless feel free.
Everything is a lie anyways, so say YISUN. You have already chosen the Fool, or chosen the Shape. Ignorance is bliss, and ignorance of the Shape of the Wheel the most blissful of all.
Okay you said what I wanted to say much better than I could, props
Abaddon’s writing is really falling off here. This is what we get? Basic bitch nihilism from the most knowledgeable person in the multiverse?
Come on.
Your options are absurdity or truth. What would you prefer?
Maybe it’s a test of some sort?
Having ruminated in a brownian motion solution I’d have to say “You need to get out more, I’ve seen smarter and educated people speaking “basic bitch nihilism” than you can shake a split infinitive at. And way more of it than your bog standard corner standing idiot such as myself ever spews.
Demon Lord Eleanor Shellstrop: What’s the answer? You know everything. Crunch the numbers. What’s the meaning of life if it ends? What’s the importance of love if it just disappears?
Stolen Good Janet: If I gave you the answer it wouldn’t be special. The universe would just be fulfilling its cosmic design; a big dumb food processor. But isn’t that the fun? When you find something or someone that does make sense, that’s euphoria.
Eleanor, who is Arizona shrimp horny: Then I’ll just have to take pleasure in the unique insanity of being here.
Big brain: Alison is in a coma, and all characters are just her real world friends. You heard it here… probably 58th or whatever.
Makes sense to me. This story is all just her dream, which is in perfect alignment with Yisun’s teachings.
“Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination” -Brandon Sanderson. She might of been shown the destination but its the Journey that counts.
no reason at all.
a lack of reason
or a lack of need
for my hands are tied in chains to an orchestrated rithmic dance.
and yet the movement is matched with my will, and what else would i want?
to be free of this dread is what i want, but until then to do nothing is more futile than to do.
YISUN declared that the only thing that matters is Their ‘opinion.’
Aesma asked, awed, if Their ‘opinion’ was ‘correct.’
YISUN then praised Aesma for ‘being observant.’
The Parable seems pretty clear.
YISUN laid out Existence, both its members and its fate, and called it an ‘opinion’ rather than a ‘fact.’
YISUN also called Themselves a consummate liar, and repeated, again, again, and again, that the best way for others to worship Them is to prove Them wrong.
Thus, Free Will exists, and Determinism is just another thing to Cut.
Either the process that you use to make decisions is causal, or it’s random. Either way, what is the “I” that makes those choices?
As One who committed Divine Suicide, Yisun’s True Name became both the Syllables making up 77,777 worlds and “I.”
Yisun bore Creation and Everything and Everyone in it, and became a part and apart from All.
So, the “I” who makes those choices is both the I, who speaks to you, I, who speaks to me, I, who is still Yisun, I, who are not any already mentioned, and I, who I did not think of.
Since “I” has a chance of being the Creator of All, Yisun, then the process you use to make decisions can be seen as ‘random.’ After all, Creation is but one of Yisun’s opinions.
Of course, I am sure that I and the ‘I’ that is You, not I, believe that We are not the All-Powerful, and thus Our decisions must be causal, for we are but slaves of the Great Wheel of Creation.
Personally, I would prefer to be the “I” that lets Me have Free Will, but that is just My opinion.
Misery loves company.
It is a thousand times harder walking down the mountain than it is to run up it. Why continue? Why not, might see something ’round the next turn I’ve not seen twice. Except for that bird. I’ve seen that one somewhere else before.
Just because you’re correct, Jadis, doesn’t mean you’re right.
How I interpret this last page. The part of our brain that is ‘rational’ if nothing matters why do you do the hard thing. Our brain responds, because it is easy than doing the ‘wrong’ thing. see Chapter 14 of Robert Sapolsky’s Behave.