Endtown by Aaron Neathery for December 16, 2016

We are assuming beans are edible. I’m willing to bet you could find more than a few folks in Endtown that would dispute that… ;-)

Oh man, we are back to one of THOSE points where you read the days offering and go “Huh? Just where the heck is THIS headed?” :-/

This comic makes an excellent metaphor for the Munchhausen trilemma of epistemology, with Marx playing the role of Baron Munchhausen, and Doc Chase being the truth seeker. Left with three ultimately insufficient options, all we can do is attempt to bootstrap our way through analysis for partial truth. That’s the unsavory bean. Check out the Wikipedia article on the Munchhausen trilemma for the three options and an image of the Baron yanking himself and his horse out of a swamp by pulling on his hair. Marx loves to play with the anxieties caused by the inaccessibility of absolute truth. Philosophy is fun, as long as you can draw relatively sharp lines between the serious and frivolous. Hint: the game of philosophy is best seen as a process, not a goal, though the latter is still important..

“I’d prefer a lie I can live with.” Happens every day in reality.

Epimenides the Cretan says, “All Cretans are liars.”

Is Epimenides telling the Truth?

Because a simple “Yes” or “No” would be too simple. Happy Friday, everyone!

It might help if you’ve seen The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a 1988 British adventure fantasy comedy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam.

Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0p9W47frhI

You might be surprised at how the movie has the same feel of Endtown, especially the comparison of Marx with the Baron.

Holly will not be coming back. It’s most likely that she disappeared when they were on the Fitz. The simplest explanation is that Marx’ story is true. Even if there were embellishments made she is still gone, and it happened at the Fitz. (Though I wonder how Endtowners took the “there is no plague” statement.)

Are we talking about the past? How far in the past does the story go? Or was this story a “window” of events that were happening now?

So how far back does this “little saga” go? When Holly and Wally left Endtown on a “scientific mission” with the dittos?

“I’d prefer a lie I can live with.” Does this mean the current story is a lie he CAN’T live with, (I’d PREFER a lie I can live with) or does he mean as opposed to the truth (I’d prefer a LIE I can live with)?

Well, lets see…Doc confirms that the part that involved him was accurate. Therfore either his history is either common knowledge or a repeated secret in endtown,or Marx was able to come up with the information about Doc from whatever source the rest of the story came from (dittos, other timelines, Clive)So the issue is what happened before they arrived at the Fitz and AFTER the elevator arrived.The Unity half of the story could have been told as a moral fable to stop the fascistic bent of Jack, or it could have been true to the same end.After the elevator arrived it becomes a lesson on dittos. So how much does Marx know about them and how much does he want to let other people know?

What we DO know: 1. W & H left Endtown (or else Doc’s question is moot) 2. W & H haven’t returned (or else Doc’s question would be unnecessary) 3. Marx has found gainful employment as Endtown’s wandering storyteller. Everything else appears to be open to interpretation… Just another day in Endtown. ;-)

I know how he feels.

I’ve actually seen this story from Marx’s point of view for some time now. Marx might be the Endtown equivalent of a time lord, but he’s no more “all powerful” then his inspiring Doctor. When he sent Wally and Holly out, he intended to create an element that could aid Endtown. Instead, the two chose their own lives with no desire to tackle the preservation of their own reality.

This is a problem for Marxim, because he’s running out of options. So he once more uses his connections and influence to create an otherwise impossible connection with someone who gives a damn. Doc Chase is as good a candidate as anybody, and so Marx is luring his newest recruit in now.

Now what I’m wondering is just how “careful” Marx needs to be in his pursuits. If dead-eye was remotely cannon, people like him aren’t exactly… liked in most of the realities of Endtown fiction. He might be serving a good cause, but he’s got head hungry opposition. So I wonder is if he’s “backwatered” himself or is actually being hunted. My guess is the former, but I’m not him.

HHMMMMRRRGGHH

Gosh dang it Marx…lol

Pretty certain the story is indeed true.

Since, I think, it’s clear Wally and Holly did leave, I think it makes sense it was true.

It’d be interesting if there were mostly true with small subtle differences in the story.

I’m actually not sure what I would do if I where Marx in this situation. Clearly he needs some fairly influential cogs in the wheel, but one’s “interested” in becoming that asset. The guy probably has his reasons to be careful. But even if he told it straight, he’s got no insurance doc chase, or anyone else among this traumatized and/or self-centered group will accept the call to adventure.

Marx is going to have to take a risk at some point here. A leap of faith that makes him vulnerable, even if only partially. That’s the price a manipulator pays for refusing to field any “direct” agents to trace back to him. He can only create something general from what exists, not direct a very precise course of action. That might be why he’s taking the step he is now. He needs someone in this fold to actually “understand” what’s at stake and act on that knowledge.

As for not knowing what to do.. well I answered my own question, didn’t I? heh

Two thoughts -

Marx is an animal – Coyote.

The creator (Aaron) is close to the fourth wall with Marx – he’s chosen to skip over the wall into his own creation rather than have a creation bust out.

And two recommendations for reading -

The Butterfly Kid by Chester P. Anderson

The Battle of Disneyland by Thom Keyes

- I suspect Aaron and a number of the readers might enjoy them.

Homeopathic food preparation! That’s what Mallard needs to get people to eat the beans! Dip a pre-apocalyptic pork chop in a vat of beans and they’ll accept it’s all pork! Or at least that it’s pork flavored. It worked with the spicy rat… sort of…

Poor Doctor Chase… Holly was the only family he had, especially after the mutating and having to go underground for what will no doubt be for the remainder of his life. Then Wally comes into her life, then the Milk Trial… And now he hears that she has chosen to live in an illusion in a spaceship in another dimension. If that’s not a crazy pill to swallow, then what is?

This is the dilemma posed at the end of “The Life of Pi”. Which would you prefer, the reality of broken people who traveled through horrible places, met horrible people, and did horrible things they don’t want to accept they did, or the metaphoric magic realism of the story, that may or may not be the true story? Did Holly really retreat into a fantasy world, or did Wally kill her when she attacked Kirbee in deranged jealousy? Did the woman on the bus kill a chicken or her baby to keep it quiet? Is Buffy really in an asylum? Is the Maxx a rabbit or a man or a superhero? There are levels of reality that are all true and all metaphor and all self-deception. Holly is still alive… in a manner of speaking…

The Truth is the safest lie.

For Doc, the worst part was waking up from his exhaustion while tending to the wounded following the Milk Trial riots, only to find Holly and Wally missing, and no goodbye note. Then weeks of wondering how they were doing. Since Marx knew who Holly was prior to the Trial, he also knew what Doc would be going through. Marx’s Holly-and-Wally ditto show was probably more for Doc’s benefit than it was as intended entertainment for random kids. It marks “closed” to Doc’s sense of pain, too. The question, then, is whether this makes Doc’s job in Endtown any easier, or harder to deal with.

Marx can act as the writer’s surrogate and fourth wall breaker without breaking it. (He studied Bruce Lee )

I’m finding it difficult to move on to this new story. I feel we had so much invested in Wally and crew that just leaving them like that feels quite deflating. I think I would have liked to wander the wastes with them for a long, long time. Hope we see them all again, but remembering Al and Gustine, Flask and other Endtown denizens, perhaps we won’t.

This talk could lead them anywhere. The future can be amazing, but not what we expect.

If you see his ear as an eye, his hair sticks up at the top, big rounded snout that seems to be hovering in front of his vest, but seeing faces in things not intended, is a protection built into us.

I can understand Doc questioning the veracity of the tale, especially if Wally has never returned to Endtown. Without his corroborating the tale, who knows how Marx could have found out what he knows? Or whether it’s simply all invented.

I don’t think we’re done with Wally yet. When other “protagonists” adventures ended, we left them after a resolution of some kind (or they went back to Endtown). We haven’t yet followed Wally, Chic, and Irving to such a spot. Holly has had a resolution, and moved on. I think “the Unity story” is “real”, otherwise, where did Chic and Irving come from? It makes no sense for all (or any) of what we’ve been seeing to be a fabrication by Marx. We’ve seen too much that helps define the Endtown world in all of that. But that’s just how I see the story.

I think part of Mark’s problem at this stage is things didn’t go as he had intended. He’ s been “too in the shadows” up to this stage, and he’s running out of room to make any difference. Like I said, now he’s going to have to take a risk. I wish I knew what those risks imply. Aka, Who if anyone is hunting him. But if that is the case, the guy’s not exactly in a comfortable position no matter how powerful he might appear.

But we can say one thing for sure. Marx doesn’t operate in a vacuum as the only “time lord” out there in any manner. People are traveling the dimensions. There is a “tax” involved in that travel, which means there’s an organization. There are rules, dictated by whatever force initially condemned this reality, only to realize there was a fairly sizable survivor factor. And Marx isn’t a “by the rules” guy. He wants to save the Endtown reality, and is backed in doing so. (Reference the “oracle” scene after the flask and first ship arch.) But I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if he and his backers aren’t also opposed.

I looked back at the end of the “Flask” arc and it looks like there is some organization dedicated to protecting some of the doomed realities. The other Marx was working with “The Dutchess” to establish another reality’s Endtown. We’ve also seen Erin Marx lead a calvery of some sort against whatever that red stuff was. Don’t forget that Marxish fox who brought Doc and Holly to Endtown. There may be a Marx Underground of some sort, a group of interreality travelers who are doing what they can to protect some of the doomed realities. It could be that the Marxes are breaking some sort of law and may be hunted by the “Deadeyes”. We don’t know much about that organization beyond what we learned reading “Ed Deadeye” but this MIB like organization may exist to enforce interreality travel rules. They may be gunning for the Marxes.

After reading this again this morning, it makes me wonder; could Marx be hinting at the possibility that things didn’t really occur as we were led to believe. What if W&H and Co never really escaped from Unity? What if they never escaped from Albion West? What if they never got out of the elevator? We assume so much here, but we are really at the mercy of the author. Hopefully we move a little toward an answer or two soon, instead of more questions. ;-)

It’s my guess that Doc feels he’s been fed a bucket of BS and since Marx seems disinclined to relate the truth, he would prefer a more palatable lie.

Remember, you have to tell just enough truth to make your lies believable.