Kids like to play with war toys. Cartoonist hopes you’ll think it is ironic.
Are Dean and Heart taking the war play to its logical conclusion (or taking it too literally)? In addition to all the carnage there is mourning for the lack of peace?
And to save everyone the bother, https://xkcd.com/735/ for the “taking play too literally” reference.
Both Dean and Heart have a flare for the dramatic. In Dean’s war play, this leads to him imagining a excessive amount of violence and damage, but also with a turn toward redemption. Heart is skeptical– if even big-hearted Dean is willing to imagine such carnage, perhaps the human race is doomed.
I’m just curious what weapon makes a “KRAAMMM” sound.
(Warning: Stereotypes follow!)
As a little boy on the playground, I used to see my female classmates play with baby dolls, while pretending they were married. I kind of felt bad for them because, as a boy, I thought that playing with cars, warplanes, soldiers, spaceships, aliens, and robots was clearly more fun.
Many young boys just can’t imagine that many pursuits like getting married and having babies can be all that fun. However, as many of them become young men their thoughts turn more towards the female gender, and some eventually settle down and start a family, hoping that war and alien invasions never become a reality in their (and their children’s) lifetimes.
Some men are perfectly content to have this, but some aren’t. They still want to play with violent toys, only when they’re older it’s not always for play.
The passage from Isaiah is giving a sense of hope for humanity that we will eventually (perhaps in the far future) give up our war-like ways. But both Heart and Dean are musing about how boys and men like war so much, that they find that idea hard to grasp.
I can’t say I’ve never struggled with this as well.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” – 1 Corinthians 13:11
John Quincy Adams — ‘I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.’
I don’t think JQA understood that merchant and poet toys and video games wouldn’t quite catch on.
How can Isaiah 2:4 catch on when Yahweh himself created evil? And what’s more evil than war?
Isaiah 45:7 ” I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
Well, it seems to me there are certainly “merchant” games (Monopoly and its ilk, sort of, and I believe some simulation games where the, or at least a, winning strategy is to prosper per trade and setting up routes and support measures to make that trade happen). Of course, in the latter case another winning strategy may be ‘kill off all your rivals.’
Poet games are tougher, but I’d think that games where one is encouraged to play with language might be getting there (MadLibs,”Chinese telegram” paper and pencil party games, or those ‘magnetic words one is encouraged to move around into new combinations when someone else has already stuck them up on the refrigerator door etc.’ sets).
” And what’s more evil than war?”
Well, for some of us, the Designated Hitter rule runs it pretty close.
LOL! and now my neighbors are wondering why I’m sitting on my porch laughing out loud.
S’okay, they already know I’m crazy, they just don’t know how much.
There ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter…
On one hand I like that the DH keeps players in the game and gives the game more action. On the other hand I’m a geezer and I liked things how they used to be.
One of life’s little jokes: at age 27, my son was going to see a no-DH game for the first time (he’d only ever been to American League and minor league games). I explained the extra strategies involved in having pitchers bat.
So of course bases loaded, tie game, and the pitcher (who’s batting exactly .000) comes to the plate, he swings away and singles in the winning run.
Designated Hitler? Wasn’t getting rid of the first Hitler hard enough enough, and now we have to designate his replacement? For what? There’s not enough totalitarianism in the world that we now have to designate people to the role?
What…?
Never mind!
Woozy, you know Bill doesn’t want us discussing He Who Must Not Be Named.
@ B.A. – I think woozy was just channeling Gilda Radner.
@Kilby – Yes, but not also referencing anybody in particular? Too obvious a target.
I was merely explaining the geezer part of the joke. The topical reference is so blatantly obvious that it doesn’t need explanation. Unfortunately, it remains ineffectual, because the D.H. has managed to inherit the Teflon that was stashed away in a big jar of jelly beans.
I think BA got my reference and was adding to my joke. But no I was not referencing president soilstain.
I actually did read that as “Designated Hitler” and I thought it was about the board game “Secret Hitler” (which despite its dubious subject matter, is a fun game). Then I realized “designated” and “secret” were different words and a that a different version had been released or that we were talking of a computer shooter game or… and then I figure I didn’t have any idea what we were discussing so when finally someone started talking about a game and there were …. baseball?? references?….
Woozy, are you saying that I’m… no different from the @$!# Squirrel???
I should have stated “be as exciting to kids as war toys” instead of “catch on”. I didn’t even think of Monopoly, Maybe some venture capitalist game out there has the KRAAMMM sound? Possibly as a part of the comeback comment on what to do with the deal just proposed?
Saying the cheesed one’s name is enough to get one’s comment into moderation?
Oh well.
Is it okay that I don’t have a clue as to what anybody is talking about? For at least the last 8-10 comments.
Chak: Bill doesn’t like us talking about . . . Lord Voldemort. His name is even in the moderation filters.
Oh. If you mean who I think you mean, I think of him as The Childish One.
Well, I had one comment still awaiting moderation because I named President Spoilstain.
Which is what my “cheesed one” was about.
I don’t know if mine was the only one moderated.
FWIW, here’s a poet collectible (if not strictly speaking a toy):
J-L – yes stereo type (doesn’t bother me). I had the dolls and tools and played army with the boys in elementary school. After being told I had to “just” be the nurse as I was a girl – I told the “Sargent” that was fine with me. After it was agreed that I could play – I pointed out that nurses were lieutenants and of course lieutenants are higher than Sargents… He did not like that idea. Oh, I read way beyond “grade level” too.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Kids like to play with war toys. Cartoonist hopes you’ll think it is ironic.
Are Dean and Heart taking the war play to its logical conclusion (or taking it too literally)? In addition to all the carnage there is mourning for the lack of peace?
And to save everyone the bother, https://xkcd.com/735/ for the “taking play too literally” reference.
Both Dean and Heart have a flare for the dramatic. In Dean’s war play, this leads to him imagining a excessive amount of violence and damage, but also with a turn toward redemption. Heart is skeptical– if even big-hearted Dean is willing to imagine such carnage, perhaps the human race is doomed.
I’m just curious what weapon makes a “KRAAMMM” sound.
(Warning: Stereotypes follow!)
As a little boy on the playground, I used to see my female classmates play with baby dolls, while pretending they were married. I kind of felt bad for them because, as a boy, I thought that playing with cars, warplanes, soldiers, spaceships, aliens, and robots was clearly more fun.
Many young boys just can’t imagine that many pursuits like getting married and having babies can be all that fun. However, as many of them become young men their thoughts turn more towards the female gender, and some eventually settle down and start a family, hoping that war and alien invasions never become a reality in their (and their children’s) lifetimes.
Some men are perfectly content to have this, but some aren’t. They still want to play with violent toys, only when they’re older it’s not always for play.
The passage from Isaiah is giving a sense of hope for humanity that we will eventually (perhaps in the far future) give up our war-like ways. But both Heart and Dean are musing about how boys and men like war so much, that they find that idea hard to grasp.
I can’t say I’ve never struggled with this as well.
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” – 1 Corinthians 13:11
John Quincy Adams — ‘I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.’
I don’t think JQA understood that merchant and poet toys and video games wouldn’t quite catch on.
How can Isaiah 2:4 catch on when Yahweh himself created evil? And what’s more evil than war?
Isaiah 45:7 ” I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
Well, it seems to me there are certainly “merchant” games (Monopoly and its ilk, sort of, and I believe some simulation games where the, or at least a, winning strategy is to prosper per trade and setting up routes and support measures to make that trade happen). Of course, in the latter case another winning strategy may be ‘kill off all your rivals.’
Poet games are tougher, but I’d think that games where one is encouraged to play with language might be getting there (MadLibs,”Chinese telegram” paper and pencil party games, or those ‘magnetic words one is encouraged to move around into new combinations when someone else has already stuck them up on the refrigerator door etc.’ sets).
” And what’s more evil than war?”
Well, for some of us, the Designated Hitter rule runs it pretty close.
LOL! and now my neighbors are wondering why I’m sitting on my porch laughing out loud.
S’okay, they already know I’m crazy, they just don’t know how much.
There ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter…
On one hand I like that the DH keeps players in the game and gives the game more action. On the other hand I’m a geezer and I liked things how they used to be.
One of life’s little jokes: at age 27, my son was going to see a no-DH game for the first time (he’d only ever been to American League and minor league games). I explained the extra strategies involved in having pitchers bat.
So of course bases loaded, tie game, and the pitcher (who’s batting exactly .000) comes to the plate, he swings away and singles in the winning run.
Designated Hitler? Wasn’t getting rid of the first Hitler hard enough enough, and now we have to designate his replacement? For what? There’s not enough totalitarianism in the world that we now have to designate people to the role?
What…?
Never mind!
Woozy, you know Bill doesn’t want us discussing He Who Must Not Be Named.
@ B.A. – I think woozy was just channeling Gilda Radner.
@Kilby – Yes, but not also referencing anybody in particular? Too obvious a target.
I was merely explaining the geezer part of the joke. The topical reference is so blatantly obvious that it doesn’t need explanation. Unfortunately, it remains ineffectual, because the D.H. has managed to inherit the Teflon that was stashed away in a big jar of jelly beans.
I think BA got my reference and was adding to my joke. But no I was not referencing president soilstain.
I actually did read that as “Designated Hitler” and I thought it was about the board game “Secret Hitler” (which despite its dubious subject matter, is a fun game). Then I realized “designated” and “secret” were different words and a that a different version had been released or that we were talking of a computer shooter game or… and then I figure I didn’t have any idea what we were discussing so when finally someone started talking about a game and there were …. baseball?? references?….
Woozy, are you saying that I’m… no different from the @$!# Squirrel???
I should have stated “be as exciting to kids as war toys” instead of “catch on”. I didn’t even think of Monopoly, Maybe some venture capitalist game out there has the KRAAMMM sound? Possibly as a part of the comeback comment on what to do with the deal just proposed?
Saying the cheesed one’s name is enough to get one’s comment into moderation?
Oh well.
Is it okay that I don’t have a clue as to what anybody is talking about? For at least the last 8-10 comments.
Chak: Bill doesn’t like us talking about . . . Lord Voldemort. His name is even in the moderation filters.
Oh. If you mean who I think you mean, I think of him as The Childish One.
Well, I had one comment still awaiting moderation because I named President Spoilstain.
Which is what my “cheesed one” was about.
I don’t know if mine was the only one moderated.
FWIW, here’s a poet collectible (if not strictly speaking a toy):
http://fantagraphics.com/flog/the-allen-ginsberg-beat-poet-figurine/
J-L – yes stereo type (doesn’t bother me). I had the dolls and tools and played army with the boys in elementary school. After being told I had to “just” be the nurse as I was a girl – I told the “Sargent” that was fine with me. After it was agreed that I could play – I pointed out that nurses were lieutenants and of course lieutenants are higher than Sargents… He did not like that idea. Oh, I read way beyond “grade level” too.