The coexistence of multiple meanings to a word or phrase.

Defining something by what it isn't? This part reminds me of Saussure, because I think he said something about being able to create distinctions between different words by knowing what they aren't, or rather that it creates meaning? So we know how a text works or how to classify not by its own characteristics but what limits it?

The deal: Orpheus has to actually exit the Underworld completely before he can turn around. At the end he only sees the end of the tunnel.

He gathers the trees around him by singing... is it a later story where he gets torn apart by maenads and keeps singing?

No other women after Eurydice.

Some of Orpheus's musical power. Music so beautiful it has the power to pause the punishments of Tartarus.

He'll lose her anyway to natural causes, so it shouldn't be a problem to revive her now. He isn't sad she died in general, it's that she died too soon. Always liked the ancient Greek view of death--nothing matters after death. Life is finite.

He's appealing to Hades and Persephone by bringing up their marriage. I guess Hades could relate since his wife has to leave him for six months out of the year. Is he saying it wasn't the kidnapping that joined them, but love? "I know you understand because you also know what it's like to love someone."

Relating to shadows?

God of marriages

This is a statue of the biblical Lillith, often tied to the serpent, though she's by herself here.

Ponytail looks like a snake? Still trying to make her more feminine.

The Worm Ouroboros is apparently the fantasy precursor to Lord of the Rings. It was the benchmark pre-Tolkien, which is pretty cool. I always liked this symbol of the snake swallowing its own tail. Pretty nail on the head as far as the cycle of life and death goes

It's sad that toxic relationships don't stop existing when we graduate high school, but it would be naive to think they don't. Are toxic friendships considered a YA only trope?

It's interesting how, as a preteen, there's this kind of ambivalence towards sexuality and sex where you're both repulsed and attracted to it. But it's hard to express those feelings because at that age, you don't know enough about it to talk about it.

I think most YA authors try to avoid using lots of slang so they don't date their work. This One Summer pretty much sticks to non-age graded slang like "cool" and it kind of adds to the timelessness.

Teenager defined by being more than a child and less than an adult, being on the cusp of maturity. Girls especially set ourselves apart during this time with the whole "not like other girls" ideology.

This was what I found most frustrating about Ozymandias's plan. We see people can learn to connect with each other, that they can go beyond themselves, but the attack ends up erasing that. Instead of untangling the Gordian knot, Ozymandias goes the Alexander route and cuts through it. Smart, yes, but the lazy way out.

Once you've gone through a traumatic event, you can suffer anxiety that it will happen again. Then there are triggers, anything that reminds a person of their trauma, which can pop up without warning, so you have little pockets of fear and maybe even practice avoidance so you don't have to come in contact with them

For some of the pages when Dr. Manhattan is on Mars, I took in the whole page first, then went panel by panel. So it was kind of like seeing all of time at once. You can really only do that with images, not with pure text.

Dr. Manhattan always stood out the most on Mars, not just with the pink sand but the black background. It definitely showed that loneliness.

Watchmen is very intertextual with all its references to poetry and songs, as well as history. Also uses comics within comics. It repeats symbols over and over

Another way of explaining that juxtaposition? Saying "competition" makes me think of ironic humor where the way the words are written purposefully contrasts with the images

It's good to know that there are elements of comic humor that are older than we realize (character getting stuck in a thing at high speed). Oldbuck looks like he was doing a grand jete through that haystack.

Sometimes repetition can be funny. This is definitely a place where it works.

I love the back and forth between the rival getting ducked by the water wheel and Oldbuck chilling with his ladylove in the mountains.

Apparently the rival can just live in torment for all he cares. You gotta do what you must to stay ahead, Oldbuck. Look out for number one.

Uh oh. Do you think Oldbuck will be the bigger man and help him out?

The way this is narrated just kills me.

Please tell me they're stuck on the roof...

That's how you get the girl. I like the way her legs are peeking out of the chimney.

Hahaha! The sense of comedic timing is excellent. Love that we got a payoff for escaping from the hermit cave.

I'd love to see this scene acted out. We don't really get to see Mr. Oldbuck's face when he first recognizes the robber. I can sort of imagine it though. He's giving the robber a hard side-eye in the 2nd panel.

I can just imagine that this guy is so dramatic he thinks he's going to go out like Socrates.

This is reminding me of a story about two guys who didn't know to turn a couch sideways to get it through a door... I like that we're left to determine how long it took Mr. Oldbuck to come up with this cunning plan.

I like that the captions don't just describe what's happening in the panel. They're bare bones enough to let the images speak for themselves. It's funnier to say "he was stopped by invidious fate" than to say "the beam got caught on some trees."

How inept do you have to be to screw a simple stabbing-yourself suicide? And not even realize it didn't work? This is probably one of the only ways to make suicide funny.

The contrast between the first and last panels is so stark. Makes him seem pretty sympathetic. He's so excited while he's writing to her.

I might be an odd one here, but there's something funny about the way his "ladye-love" just disappears. Especially with the way the panels are arranged. It makes it seem like she warped out of existence.

I wonder how often we'll be updating it. Biweekly or weekly? Or will that be up to the groups to decide? The webcomic is probably what I'm most excited about. I like to write and to draw, so it sounds really fun!