Again on sinfest

[smalk]

I liked it a lot.

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4681

[WilloWisp]

I liked it a lot.

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4681

Wait... In previous comics, Tatsuya used fembots as a metaphor for domination and control over women. But by that standard, the scorn and regret the guy experiences in the middle part makes no sense - that only makes sense in the context of realizing that his relationship with his fembot is a facade. His disassembly of her is then a logical extension of that, as he now rejects the illusion.

But then the strip ends back with the implication that fembots are metaphorical abuse of women, and the active fembot is now heading to his house as an angel of vengeance.

Dubbayoo-tee-eff.

[D.Olivaw]

Aaaand you've already thought about it more than Tatsuya did (I would guess).

[dale coba]

I swear, Tatsuya has the most disordered mind. His fembot strips are without merit.

I'm tired of even trying to sort out what he thought he meant to say.
There's no value in the act.

- Dale Coba

[--NightBattery--]

I think he is venting his male guilt for not having real strong female characters :3

[Svengli]

I liked it a lot.

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4681

Wait... In previous comics, Tatsuya used fembots as a metaphor for domination and control over women. But by that standard, the scorn and regret the guy experiences in the middle part makes no sense - that only makes sense in the context of realizing that his relationship with his fembot is a facade. His disassembly of her is then a logical extension of that, as he now rejects the illusion.

But then the strip ends back with the implication that fembots are metaphorical abuse of women, and the active fembot is now heading to his house as an angel of vengeance.

Dubbayoo-tee-eff.

The first part of the comic strip makes perfect sense from a psychology sense. The guy both wants the fembot and is influenced by society's values. Blown by these various winds, he first chooses a fembot and deciding it's terrible, destroys it.

The second part of the comic is the usual narrative of fembots suddenly gaining "free will" and acting like humans when they're push hard enough.

But the fembot is, in the end, still a metaphor for non-robot male-female relations. I think this kind of phantasy has been told since the Greeks (remember ancient Greek tales usually aren't about fairness). Which isn't to say it's what I'd want. The more chilling (and appealing to me) scenario would be the new fembot discovering the old fembot, investigating the situation, then continuing its duties as normal, not bothered in the least.

All this is fantasy. In reality, destroying a fembot would too much money down the drain. Rock stars might smash their Maseratis but the average people will keep their cheap little cars till they run down to nothing.

[King Snarf]

All this is fantasy. In reality, destroying a fembot would too much money down the drain. Rock stars might smash their Maseratis but the average people will keep their cheap little cars till they run down to nothing.

Or, you'd sell it on ebay or craigslist if you really didn't want it anymore.

[darkbutflashy]

I think he is venting his male guilt for not having real strong female characters :3

Does Sinfest has *any* strong character? I doubt it. Still funny.

dark

[SNJ-14]

I swear, Tatsuya has the most disordered mind. His fembot strips are without merit.

I'm tired of even trying to sort out what he thought he meant to say.
There's no value in the act.

- Dale Coba

I'd just take it at face value. Robogirl finds broken 'bot. Realizes she got smashed up by her owner who took his anger out on her. Goes to teach him a lesson.

That's how I read the narrative and the characters. Sinfest does a fair bit of soapboxing; if you want to ask what issue is being brought up through this narrative, uh, you might want to look at the title of the strip. It's a sci-fi/comic strip retelling of a classic story of the abuse of power, and of vengeance taken against the cruel and callous. That story has manifested in countless forms, real and fictional, over the ages, with the strip's title ("Domestic Violence") being one particular example.

But I don't think the author intends it as a deep or compelling analysis of domestic violence so much as a chance to draw cartoon robot girls and try a sci-fi/comic twist on the idea of abuse/vengeance.

Of course, you're also free to just take it as it is, or to enjoy it for the "dismantled robot girl" and "robovision" ASFR components. I think that's how most of us are viewing it. It IS a comic, after all.

If you're thinking "but but it's not clear if that robot girl was meant to be sentient or alive or anything and doesn't it really turn on that" then I think you're raising questions that aren't really part of the strip here. It's a comic strip; it's naturally stylized and cartoony. It's not a treatise on the ethics of human-robot relations any more than Little Red Riding Hood is about how humans and anthropomorphic intelligent entities could or should interact.

If you're upset because you feel you're being attacked for fantasizing about breaking robot girls, then whoa, take a step back and realize that a LOT of fantasy kinks involve things that would not be at all okay in real life. People have rape fantasies and snuff fantasies and torture fantasies and all kinds of similar kinks. I'm sure that IRL you'd have qualms about smashing an apparently intelligent robogirl to pieces with a wrench, just like I'd hope most people who fantasize about strangling their partner to death as they orgasm would not actually do such a thing IRL. Sex fantasies exist in a very special and instinct-driven headspace.

[dale coba]

I find his messages both trite and contradictory.

This repeats with every fembot strip - it's almost interesting, the consistency of his failures to give me anything to compliment. I do generally like to show I'm not blind to contrary evidence, and a positive observation puts the (larger) size of my criticism in proportion; but there's nothing working for me here. I wouldn't even bother, but a number of others also have found it interesting to distill their dissatisfactions into a post.

[he wanted to] try a sci-fi/comic twist on the idea of abuse/vengeance.

He mixes that theme intimately with gender, and I'll tell you what results when an artistic fool blunders forward into a vast and complex real subject he obviously knows nothing about: He shows he has no perspective or insight to offer, and that he can't acknowledge or see that truth. He should go get a day job, travel, do anything to become SOMETHING.

Maybe for his next book, he'll offer his random, first-pass thoughts on race in some country he's never visited.
(gøD help us all.)

- Dale Coba