10/17/18 – Emily’s Analogy



|

2018-10-17-spacetrawler2

|

The thing, I think, that attracts me to writing the character of Mr. Zorilla is that he is universally mockable… and yet is almost entirely made up of my animalistic childlike base instincts which I still work to shake. Like always wanting cake.

22 Comments

  1. War Pig

    Cake is important. My maternal grandma’s Texas fudge cake could end a thirty-year war and my paternal grandma’s hummingbird cake could get Trump and Pelosi to kiss and make up.

    Mr Zorilla’s not so bad. He lives his life with enmity for none. His DNA gave us the hero Mauricio and he fathered and parented Mauricio’s sister, Martina, a great person and also a hero and beloved by so many. So he must have something on the ball, after all. We too often praise the hero and forget their roots. Abe Lincoln’s father, Mother Theresa’s parents, George Washington’s father. Who were the parents of Joan of Arc? Audie Murphy? Gandhi? Dag Hammarskjöld? Sojourner Truth? The families of Dekanawida, Jigonhsasee and Hiawatha (who all had quite an influence on the Constitution of the United States)?

    Cake and family are very important.

    1. reynard61

      “His DNA gave us the hero Mauricio and he fathered and parented Mauricio’s sister, Martina, a great person and also a hero and beloved by so many. So he must have something on the ball, after all.”

      Wouldn’t it have been *in* the ball(s)? (Given how human reproductive anatomy is structured…)

  2. 3oranges

    Mentioning always wanting cake reminds me a lot of Chuck Jones talking about the creation of Daffy Duck. An excerpt is here:

    http://blog.chuckjones.com/chuck_redux/2012/04/daffy-duck-75-not-possible-why-he-doesnt-look-a-day-over.html

    He goes on to to talk about how this makes him an endearing character, one where we can both laugh at his foolish greed and yet in some way respect his courage to own what the rest of us keep hidden. If Daffy ever won, this selfishness would make him awful, but he’s a loser, so it becomes perversely sympathetic.

    I think Mr. Zorilla is a good character made in this same way. Who knows, maybe there is something noble buried deep in him like we see in his children. But first, he needs more cake. After all, it’s a big universe, with a lot more cake to finish before you worry about the rest of it.

  3. Nezumi

    For reference, Chris, how often have you gotten upset that someone was forced to ride a dung ship to a planet full of aliens that were expected to eat them alive, equating it with laziness and cowardice?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *