All Infopages

[Jitter]

This thread is intended for all of the infopage comments and considerations notwithstanding where in the story they are. To make it easier to use, please include the page number, and why not even the link!

Like all of the reread threads, also comments for the info pages can be discussed here.

[Jitter]

Photo collage from Y0 (Adv1 pages 46-47) http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=46

The photograph spread is one of my favorites, and one of the pages I return most often to (after the Map of rhe Known World and the family trees). I like all the photos a lot but especially the one where Berit* is teaching Aksel to shoot. I suppose this will be discussed in the comments, but I haven’t read them yet: how did the photo from North Dakota come to be in the possession of the Icelandic government(?? some Icelandic party holding records)?

* Did you know that Berit fought the Nazis as a young resistance fighter during the WW2 occupation of Norway?

[tehta]

This is one of my favourites as well! And it's such a clever way to convey (part of) the future fates of the characters.

I have now read the comments! There is still a lot of theorizing that cats are the carriers, but very little about the American dog. (My headcanon is that it came with some American refugees. Who probably did not make it.) And I have another question: who took that picture of the Finns?

[dmeck7755]

I love the "photo info pages"

It show the intrepid ancestors starting to make a life outside of all of the sadness and horror.

The Swedish one where they are putting up the plastic with tape.  Is that to protect them from infection or seeing the windows against cold for the winter?  When I lived in Northern Maine, we did that because it got so cold and the windows were crap.  It really works.

For the Finnish maybe they set a timer?  Though it *is* a really weird picture regardless

Plus the sad one where Bosse succumbs to the illness. on the next page.

Love grandma teaching the kids to shoot!!

[thorny]

I don't think that's Bosse. Doesn't that pic say it's in North Dakota? (small print, bottom of pic).

I do wonder how a picture from North Dakota managed to make it to archives in the Known World.

[dmeck7755]

I don't think that's Bosse. Doesn't that pic say it's in North Dakota? (small print, bottom of pic).

I do wonder how a picture from North Dakota managed to make it to archives in the Known World.

I had to crank the zoom way up to be able to read it!! You are right.  I was thinking the wrong thing for so long!!.

It is day 40, so maybe the internet did not fall down dead yet and it is a picture taken by someone and posted.  it could also be distant relatives sending it before the world collapses.

[wavewright62]

Actually, the Fandom Wiki has the complete collection of links: Special Pages collection

There are lots of links on that page, to all kinds of special pages, not just info pages.

Spoiler: disclaimer • show

I admit that I am rather proud of that page.  JoB started it, and I followed his template to update it for the last few years, to the end of the comic.

[tehta]

Wave, thanks for sharing that! What an amazing fic-writing resource!

[tehta]

So, any thoughts on the map on page 66?

I am shocked by the extremely small populations of all the non-Icelandic countries. They seem far too small to support much of any sort of industry, especially if half the people are in the military!

Also, there is a comment thread about how, if there were any other survivors, the Nordics would know about them because of radio contact. And of course we know now that there is a good explanation for why this would not work: the DARK VOICES interfere with radio.

[lwise]

I am shocked by the extremely small populations of all the non-Icelandic countries. They seem far too small to support much of any sort of industry, especially if half the people are in the military!

I don't believe they do.  I think they have lots of tools and weapons (and even houses and clothing) left over from before the Rash, which they maintain and repair, and they have electronics that they cannibalize to keep others running, and beyond that, they just farm and fish and raise livestock.

[JoB]

So, any thoughts on the map on page 66?

Lots, but I already commented on that back then, mostly.

I am shocked by the extremely small populations of all the non-Icelandic countries. They seem far too small to support much of any sort of industry, especially if half the people are in the military!

The military having priority use of a lot of the technology available (e.g., vehicles) likely means that the people producing/maintaining/operating it probably do qualify as "military" (e.g., Tuuri), rather than "the military" having an extra-high percentage of people who primarily are combattants.

Also, there is a comment thread about how, if there were any other survivors, the Nordics would know about them because of radio contact. And of course we know now that there is a good explanation for why this would not work: the DARK VOICES interfere with radio.

I would not exactly call it a good explanation, though. Survivors would have a pronounced interest in finding out how barren the planet actually is (that's what the expedition is about, at least officially, after all), and if it's just a matter of The Voices accumulating around signals, sending only a short burst (say, at noon UTC) with nation and place name in Morse and hoping for a random listener would still serve. That emission just being heard, even if the receiver cannot read it in its entirety, just once in 90 years would still get the message across.

[wavewright62]

A bit off-thread, but: A very common reaction to technology that doesn't work is cussing at it, sometimes vehemently. 
(admit it, you do too cuss at it)

Lalli even got the reception to clear up once doing just that!  The fact that he knew suitably poetic imprecations just reinforces that it's a tried-and-true tactic.
(shoot, now that would have been a funny way to fill the Tried and True prompt in last year's YoinkTober....)

[thorny]

Page 66 (map page) in comments, Rufus Saltus:"But what about the Saami?"
   one upvote, no downs, no replies
and then a brief discussion started by bergljot
"I keep looking for Faroes, Faroese, the language is not there the flag is not there...so is it about linguistics or about politics????"
Hrolfr replies all extinct; Joseph Kossmann that there's Faroese in the language family tree.

page 67, why is everybody white? comment from marikunin; gets slapped down by other commenters as "SJW pls go" and as "just about everyone [in that region] IS white". Minna doesn't answer it at all.

I don't think it's so much a matter of people not noticing the problem because of the time -- it was only 8 years ago, and at least three people did bring it up. I think those who did notice didn't get well received.

-- there are getting to be too many comments for me to keep reading them all.

[Róisín]

Wavewright, cussing at things in the proper poetic/magical structure and usage is indeed a thing in many magical traditions, including the obvious example of the Celtic Satirists, who could use Bardic invocations to physically affect the thing or person being sworn at. Both the verse form and the precise boundaries of the satire needed to be very carefully defined, as is wise with any magic - limitations are very much a thing in most our-world traditions of magic. For example, you might want to curse somebody with uncomfortable blisters or itches, but you needed to make very sure that the effect would go away once the victim modified their behaviour, and would affect only them and not their family or clan, would not cause permanent damage or scarring, and such like limits.

Several of the Arabic traditions also have very elegant magical verse cursing traditions.

[LooNEY_DAC]

It might be a little too early for this (as we haven't covered Iceland yet), but I just realized that the comments contain filks for all the prologue sections: here! I decided to post the link before I forget.

I didn't want to bring it up until we got there, and I don't like blowing my own horn, but I honestly think that this version is better.