12/11/19 – Emily In Charge

Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, December 11, 2019.


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Cat herding at its best.

19 Comments

    1. ronald

      The situations aren’t entirely parallel because Emily doesn’t want any “recruits” in the first place. I’m not sure Nogg has ever had people join his crew AGAINST his wishes although I could easily be in error.

        1. ronald

          Sorry, my error, I mean that Nogg had never had people join his crew against’ NOGG’S wishes.

          Even when Nogg learned Dustin wasn’t the guy he wanted, he let Dustin stay on the ship. Nogg came to regret that, true (at one point he even apologized to Dustin for not returning him to Earth as soon as Nogg realized he’d gotten the wrong brother), but Dustin didn’t go into space of his own free will. Which, perhaps, explains why, unlike most of the characters, Dustin never really learned from his experiences: because he didn’t WANT to experience them. Much like J.K. Rowling’s Pansy Parkinson, there was AFAIK no “redeeming moment” for him.* Which I presume was Mr. Baldwin’s intention exactly. 🙂

          A stowaway who boarded the ship without Nogg’s knowledge would qualify as a “crew member” that Nogg didn’t want but nevertheless got. I don’t recall any of those, although the fact that I don’t recall something isn’t nearly as conclusive as it should be…

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          *And some of Pansy’s fans actually resent Rowling for not allowing her that; I think that insisting upon a “mean girl” with no redeeming traits (I suppose that she genuinely cared about Malfoy but AFAIK that was about it) who doesn’t change throughout the story arc is more of a British thing (not a *uniquely* British thing, mind you, just MORE of a British thing), much like the phenomenon of British aunts, uncles, and other relatives mistreating orphaned children, a theme found in Rowling, Dickens, Saki, Dahl, and others. When you think about it, it’s little short of miraculous that Harry turned out as well as he did, since spending the first eleven years of his life entirely without any emotional bonding as such — a result of having virtually no contact with the magic community — should have made him hate Muggles even more than Voldemort did (Muggles mistreated him since infancy, wizards and witches welcomed him right away, the math is not hard); seriously, that kind of upbringing appears in the biographies of more than one real-world serial killer. So don’t think about it. 😉

          1. Meran

            Take it from someone who had a life similar to Harry’s ~without the special school ending: he read. That saved him.

            (By every psychologist’s views, I should have been a serial killer, as you point out in your post.

            Reading Black Beauty affirmed my love of animals, and suspicion of human nature; Jack London gave me back a bit of that; Dickens taught me that starting out destitute (not “poor”) is still a beginning; comics taught me that there is an inner, secret life that could become a strong point; I could go on, but I won’t.
            If you’re a reader too, you already know where I’m going. ????)

  1. Pete Roullard

    Notice how Ruddock, the coyote, is getting a complete education via the translator chip which Emily zapped into him. Whenever Emily speaks, the chip provides him with the knowledge needed to understand all about whatever she is saying. You can see him in all the bottoms of these frames, wide-eyed but just silently soaking up all that knowledge!!
    Sure beats the 11 years of college that I had to go through to become an aerospace scientist!

  2. Pete Rogan

    Chipu is starting to get on my nerves. Leaving aside his reasons for joining this gig, he doesn’t seem impressed with Emily in the least, which tells me he’s got a problem with authority to start with. Which might explain why he was trying to sleep in a Murcian alley and is still clutching his blanket.

    More and more I think he’s on the run, if not from the law than from somebody he double-crossed, somebody with connections. But he can’t shake his odious self, which means shortly hereafter the stench will become identifiable to all.

    So much for getting a little time alone to think. Way to pick your world, Emily.

  3. Night-Gaunt49

    Emily is being very passive right now. She could keep them all off the ship if she wanted to. Maybe she sees a good idea to give them some kind of protecting by being with her somewhere in the back of her steel trap mind?

    Now she has to find out if they will follow her orders. Otherwise they won’t survive this ad hoc mission.

    Are visions of Nogg dancing in her head yet?

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