Comments on: Transhumanist Fables

By: Nancy Lebovitz

Nancy Lebovitz — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 15:43:41 +0000

Alternate way of protecting the curse from the “kiss yourself” attack: Kissing is defined in some way (maybe it needs flexible lips rather than just mouth/skin contact) which makes it impossible for a frog to do it.

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By: Herm

Herm — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 12:09:14 +0000

The setter of the spell conditions believed she (I’m assuming “witch” implies she, anyway) was doing as much by specifying a princess, because she didn’t anticipate the prince’s mental gymnastics.

Perhaps adding “and not yourself” would have been an appreciable extra effort and/or waste of power, but I’m running with the assumption that our witch is traditionally-minded and simply didn’t think of it.

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By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 06:09:36 +0000

cuuuute

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By: Paul Torek

Paul Torek — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 18:20:24 +0000

~~That last one, that’s~~ All of them are awesome.

FTFY

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By: Clinton J. Boomer

Clinton J. Boomer — Thu, 30 May 2013 09:53:18 +0000

Agreed; as a reader, I had to edit the ending to “and then, a few weeks later, an asteroid hit nearby. It killed many individuals — including Foxy Loxy” & also add-in some note about how the kingdom was historically VERY good at large-scale space projects, but had recently shuttered the majority of near-earth threat-detection programs due to controversial budget shortfalls.

… oh, also: the famously open-minded and science-loving king was especially unhappy about these cutbacks and was likely to listen to an amateur astronomer like Chicken Little.

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By: Creutzer

Creutzer — Thu, 30 May 2013 09:10:37 +0000

The one about the absurdity heuristic doesn’t really work. The fox behaved completely rationally because there is nothing that he or the king could have done to prevent the asteroid from killing people.

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Wed, 29 May 2013 14:25:31 +0000

I’ve always thought the moral of the Little Mermaid was “Just because you have feelings for someone, that does not put an obligation on them to return those feelings.” Added bonus moral “Doing crazy stupid excessive things to demonstrate your love doesn’t count either.”

I heartily wish all those obsessive stalkers who insist “You have to love me” could learn this lesson. All those accounts of men (and it’s generally men, though I’ll welcome any examples of women behaving equally badly) who assault and even kill their ex-girlfriends/wives/partners for breaking up with them means we as a society really should promote the whole “you have a destined soulmate out there” notion less and “nobody owes you a rose garden” rather more.

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By: Shmi Nux

Shmi Nux — Wed, 29 May 2013 05:54:42 +0000

Don’t forget the original Little Mermaid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid#Summary

Moral: Shut up (literally) and do the impossible.

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:29:11 +0000

But would kissing yourself work? Isn’t the point of the spell that it has to be another person, otherwise, any curse could be broken by the victim performing the ritual to break it?

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By: Deiseach

Deiseach — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:15:25 +0000

You have three beans, you get three plants. No, they of themselves won’t provide you with enough food, but you won’t starve if you can use them to eke out what other sources you have – and besides would they make enough money from one old cow to buy enough food to last the entire winter?

I think Jack’s Mother should try teaming up with the bazooka-toting wolf to hunt those pigs – maybe a combination of pork and beans meals they can produce as “artisanal cookery” and sell to keep themselves going – start up a new business

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