Editing 593: Voynich Manuscript
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | The {{w|Voynich manuscript}} is a very detailed book written in an unknown script, describing plants and recipes, most of which lack a real-world analogue. Over the past few decades, linguists and cryptographers have unsuccessfully attempted to decode the book | + | The {{w|Voynich manuscript}} is a very detailed book written in an unknown script, describing plants and recipes, most of which lack a real-world analogue. Over the past few decades, linguists and cryptographers have unsuccessfully attempted to decode the book. |
− | {{w|Tabletop role-playing game|Tabletop role-playing games}} (such as {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}) are fantasy games with extremely detailed descriptions of fantastical worlds | + | {{w|Tabletop role-playing game|Tabletop role-playing games}} (such as {{w|Dungeons and Dragons}}) are fantasy games with extremely detailed descriptions of fantastical worlds. |
− | After being shown the manuscript for the first time by [[Megan]], [[Cueball]] argues that it should be obvious that it's just an ancient role-playing-game rulebook, since the human tendency to invent fantastical worlds must have also existed in the past | + | After being shown the manuscript for the first time by [[Megan]], [[Cueball]] argues that it should be obvious that it's just an ancient role-playing-game rulebook, since the human tendency to invent fantastical worlds must have also existed in the past. |
− | After concluding this, a shocked Cueball then asks in the title text how Megan got her hands on the original manuscript | + | After concluding this, a shocked Cueball then asks in the title text how Megan got her hands on the original manuscript which is in the Yale University's ''{{w|Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library}}''). Megan unexpectedly suggests the prosaic activity of playing {{w|Druid|Druids}} and {{w|Dicotyledon|Dicotyledons}}, assuming such a game could be defined by the manuscript. |
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+ | Note that the use of the pronoun "your" in the last frame is anachronistic, as in early modern English it was only used as a plural pronoun; the proper pronoun would be "thine": "Thine Druid doth lose two points." | ||
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+ | Note also that it's ''{{w|glossolalia}}'' not ''glossolatia'' at the third panel. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
:[Weird root vegetables surround a strange script.] | :[Weird root vegetables surround a strange script.] | ||
− | :[Megan holding up book | + | :[Megan holding up book.] |
− | :Megan: This is the Voynich | + | :Megan: This is the Voynich manuscript—a book, allegedly 500 years old, written in an unrecognized script. It's some kind of visual encyclopedia of imaginary plants and undeciphered "recipes". |
− | :[ | + | :[Cueball opens the book.] |
− | :Megan: It could be a hoax, a lost language, a cipher, an alien text, | + | :Megan: It could be a hoax, a lost language, a cipher, an alien text, glossolatia—no one knows. |
:Cueball: No one? But it's obvious. | :Cueball: No one? But it's obvious. | ||
− | + | :Megan: ...Obvious? Linguists and cryptographers have been stumped for decades. | |
− | :Megan: ... Obvious? Linguists and cryptographers have been stumped for decades. | ||
:Cueball: They forget. Human nature doesn't change. | :Cueball: They forget. Human nature doesn't change. | ||
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:Cueball: Just imagine someone found a book from <u>our</u> time, full of lists, illustrations, tables, and long, dry descriptions of nonexistent worlds written in an invented language. What have they found? | :Cueball: Just imagine someone found a book from <u>our</u> time, full of lists, illustrations, tables, and long, dry descriptions of nonexistent worlds written in an invented language. What have they found? | ||
:Megan: ...Dear Lord. It ''is'' obvious. | :Megan: ...Dear Lord. It ''is'' obvious. | ||
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:500 Years Earlier: | :500 Years Earlier: | ||
− | :Person #1: Forsooth! I concoct an | + | :[Three people are standing around pawns and a die. One is holding a sheet of paper, another is holding a book, the third is holding a scythe.] |
+ | :Person #1: Forsooth! I concoct an elixir of courage. | ||
:Person #2: Nae! The source booke sayeth that requires some wolfsbane! | :Person #2: Nae! The source booke sayeth that requires some wolfsbane! | ||
:Person #3: Your druid doth lose two points. | :Person #3: Your druid doth lose two points. | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
+ | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
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