@Rimbo:
I’m a little flummoxed about how your reading supposedly differs from mine. You say yours accounts for the details of the work, while mine doesn’t… which ones did I leave out?
what matters is that it be something horrible, to highlight the supposed callousness of the hero… that act is one on a very, very short list of horrors worthy of making the satire work.
the hero* is indifferent, and for that to be funny, he needs to be indifferent to something so-awful-it’s-funny
So I think everybody agrees about the mechanics of the joke. Where the interpretation diverges is in how we see rape as being used. You see it as a step to get us to the primary punchline about MMO quest design. I see it as an intermediate step as well, but considering the subject matter, the volume on that gets cranked up so loud and drowns out the commentary on MMOs. Your position is based on the idea that
That’s because the specific offensive act, in the context of the strip, doesn’t matter
and mine is based on a dismay that someone could think that. Rape isn’t something you can strip the specificity from. “Oh, they could have picked any really horrible crime.” Yes – but they picked rape. And that’s something you can’t really repurpose. It’s just too loaded, like the n-word.
I believe that words and fictions have incredible power. I believe that anyone with a fully-functioning sense of empathy would immediately see this is wrong. If you don’t believe words and fictions matter – it’s just make believe on the internet, no biggie – and if you can’t get into the headspace of a rape victim, it makes sense why this doesn’t seem like a big deal. As someone who’s been privileged in every sense due to the accident of his birth, I try not to write off people with life experiences I can’t fully comprehend. If a rape victim says “this is over the line,” I’m going to believe that person – it’s hubris to think you know better.
Your defense of PA as latter-day Swifts hangs together fine, and I could absolutely buy it provided I knew nothing else about Penny Arcade. But it doesn’t tally with their track record or response to the controversy. Gabe said, “Hey, this is a comic with a fruit rapist – and you’re surprised we’d go here?” With that in mind, your explanation doesn’t satisfy Occam’s Razor. If I hear a 7th grader call his friend a ‘fag,’ it’s possible he’s ironizing societal expectations of his own homophobia, and holding a mirror up to the rest of us for tacitly permitting this kind of thing. It’s more likely he’s a 13-year-old and thinks his friend is a fag, and never thought much about the ramifications of his language. If “The Sixth Slave” was meant to be some kind of PSA about rape awareness, how would you explain the hostile response? If PA was on the side of the offended, wouldn’t they say, “You know what, we were going for something here and you misread us, but really we’re on your team. Sorry for the mix up.” Instead Gabe grabbed a bucket of gasoline and antagonized those who complained. Which makes it hard to buy them as making a “plea for more sensitivity, not less.” Because that’s what they complained about – people being over-sensitive.
I’m not sure how you can impute an agenda to someone like Courtney Stanton, who is a rape survivor and suffers PTSD. “Agenda” feels a little too calculating in this circumstance – it’s not like she’s got some ulterior motive. She underwent trauma and PA poked that with a stick.
Anyway, this probably marks the point where we come to that impasse. If you feel like there’s anything more to be gained from further discussion, you’ve still got my full attention. If not, I thank you for your thoughtful response, and let us never speak of this again.
@BlueJackalope: Just remember that nobody’s calling PA rape advocates. That’s a simplifying distortion which is not fair to those you disagree with.
