2837: Odyssey

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Odyssey

Title text: Ugh, it says they attempted delivery but "Nobody was home."

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a LOTUS BUTTON - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The comic is about how technology slowly addicts us and develops irrational behaviors that we don’t notice, such as ordering a sequel before reading the first, or clicking a refresh button to check delivery rather than accepting the delivery, and that this human problem has been discussed in our oldest texts.

In this comic Cueball receives a present from Ponytail: a translation of the Iliad, by Emily Wilson. The Iliad is an Ancient Greek epic poem authored by Homer about the Trojan War. Wilson published her translation of the Iliad in September 2023, several weeks before the release of this comic.

Cueball then orders the Odyssey, Wilson's earlier translation of another well known epic poem of ancient Greece. In the story, a Trojan War hero named Odysseus journeys home. Wilson published this translation in 2017, to great acclaim.

One of the events in the Odyssey is that his return voyage was blown off course before they could reach their home, and instead arrived at the island of the Lotus-Eaters. It would be another 10 years before Odysseus would make it home. In the comic, the same fate befalls the book delivery; 2033 is 10 years after Cueball ordered the book.

• Package delays are not uncommon, but anticipated 10-year delays due to weather conditions and blissed out islanders are a bit more rare. The implication is that the package carrier was at sea after departing the warehouse and found themself swept onto the island and ate of the lotus flower, causing them to not want to leave for years.

The title text refers to a moment in the Odyssey when Odysseus escapes from the Cyclops while identifying himself as "Nobody". After Odysseus has drugged him with drink and blinded him, the Cyclops cries out that "Nobody" had attacked him. Since "Nobody" was attacking the cyclops, his neighbors have no reason to help and return to their homes, allowing Odysseus and his remaining crew to escape. Similarly, if "Nobody" is home, then obviously no packages should be delivered.

• This scenario presupposes that in 2033 the package carrier (or automated delivery robot) approached the front door, asked if anyone was home, heard that "nobody" is home from someone other than Cueball, and decided not to deliver the package, much to Cueball's chagrin.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[Ponytail, Cueball and Hairy are standing in a room, each wearing a party hat. Ponytail is to the left of Cueball and Hairy. Cueball is holding something, presumably a present.]

Ponytail: Happy birthday!

Cueball: Oh cool, Emily Wilson's Iliad translation!

[Cueball is now alone, sitting at a laptop. He has taken his party hat off and put it onto a book on his desk.]

Cueball: I never read her Odyssey. I should read that, too.

[Arising from computer screen:]

The Odyssey (2017)

Emily Wilson

Arrives Friday

Order

[Cueball clicks order]

[The computer now says the book has left the warehouse and will arrive on Friday by 8pm.]

Package Tracking

Order Status:

Departed
warehouse

Expected: Friday by 8pm

[Cueball clicks refresh]

[The computer now says the book has been swept by winds to the island of lotus eaters and might arrive around 2033.]

Package Tracking

Swept by winds
to the island of
the lotus eaters

Expected: ?? 2033 ??

[Cueball clicks refresh]

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Discussion

oh boy! first comment + no explanation! did i sign this correctly? 162.158.186.23 21:37, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

yes 162.158.186.23, yes you did. Me^{[citation needed]} 22:38, 5 October 2023‎ (UTC)

added transcript, probably could be done better but i don't have the time right now to look at formatting guides Me^{[citation needed]} 22:03, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

ok maybe i did but someone can make it better Me^{[citation needed]} 22:16, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

messed with transcript more, it has divs now Me^{[citation needed]} 03:19, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

im removing the divs Me^{[citation needed]} 14:28, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

In Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey (paperback edition), she writes that Odysseus says, "My name is Noman. / My family and friends call me Noman" (9.366-367). So given that the comic is about Emily Wilson's translation, shouldn't the title text say, "Noman was home," not "Nobody was home"? AoPS is superior (talk) 22:35, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

It would depend upon how the original fit within the language. "Οὖτις" ('Outis') is "no one"/"nobody"/"not somebody" rather than "no man" ("man" is "ᾰ̓νήρ", roughly 'aner' and led towards "andras" in less ancient Greek, but I don't right now know how to inflect the "ou" prefix for "no"). Wilson's translation is probably borrowing the general "might be a name"ness and combining it with modern "Norman"-like names to go beyond the literal and give it 'ear-feel'.

The trouble with that is the Macbeth/Witch-King thing whereby "no man" (of woman born, in the case of the former) is said to be able to defeat them, only for a caesarian-delivered individual to get the chance to overcome the resulting hubris in the former case and a tag-team of hobbit and woman (and arguments about which was most important!) in the latter. "No man" has baggage. (With getting hit by an exploding sundial also maybe another unforzeen Achilles' Heel for such fate-determined individuals!)

Yes, possibly by letting these specific translations be canon, I could see it being inportant to stick to their term but... there's so much detail and the rest of the multivolume works probably differ (if you're being exact) from the rest of the paradoic reference here. So not sure it's worth worrying about this. ;) Any more than we don't describe people as having a "swollen foot complex". ;p 172.71.242.21 00:52, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

It could Randall hasn’t read the book either, but instead ordered the sequel rather than reading it. It could also be an editor was trying to help us think about the causes of these things. Criminals can force victims to deny their existence, stimulating psychological dissociation where you actually think “nobody” is causing your addiction; small things can help people connect the dots more safely. 172.70.126.211 13:28, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Maybe Cueball has a dog named Nobody, and the courier refused to complete the delivery for fear of being bitten. 141.101.68.249 16:28, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

It's the 21st century. He should have ordered it as an e-book. Barmar (talk) 23:51, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

"This file type was not recognised. It may be protected by BeggarDRM."172.70.85.219 08:28, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

The current transcript text describes the "Refresh" click as coming after the displayed screen contents. I could be wrong, but I thought the clicks on "Refresh" actually caused the display presented in the panel. Anyone else think the same thing? Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 01:44, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

I initially agreed with you, but noting the "order" process appears to happen at the end of one panel and its result in the next, I feel it's appropriate to maintain the refresh as "after" the content. But it sure does feel unnatural. 172.71.166.66 02:24, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

I thought about that as well, which is why I didn't go ahead and change it without asking. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 03:13, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

i put them at the end because they're lower than the rest of the text in the panel Me^{[citation needed]} 03:23, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

More likely it's happening before, after, and several times subsequently - i.e. it's a single 'Refresh' that stands for repeated refreshing.141.101.99.85 08:32, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Not why the explanation suggests that buying more books than you read only happens because 'technology and marketing slowly addicts us'. Clearly whoever wrote this hasn't met many bibliophiles or book collectors. It's not a new phenomenon -- or a bad one! I suggest looking up the concept of an antilibrary.... Zoid42 (talk) 14:35, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

This antilibrary thing is a strange and vaguely unpleasant concept to me. Preservation of antique texts or something is one thing, but a collection of standard-edition books you have no intention to read feels... perverse feels close to the right word. Like having a collection of paintings you lock in a closet and refuse to show to anyone, or a workshop that you refuse to use. Scorpion451 (talk) 18:40, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

The Odyssey is just the most elaborate "Why were you so late getting home from work?" excuse in history. 172.69.247.43 14:45, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Anyone else think XKCD has kind of gone downhill? This comic doesn't quite seem as high quality as some of his work a few years ago. Is there any reason for this that could be added to the explanation? 172.70.162.19 23:10, 5 October 2023 (UTC)

Not really. I enjoyed this one - laughed out loud (literally) at it, in fact. Different things are always going to appeal to different people, and occasionally you'll get a run of them that don't speak to you. 172.71.242.218 08:26, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Given that this opinion would be entirely subjective (not every comic's a winner, certainly, but different people would suggest different non-winners), probably not going to be a valid Explanation addition.

Some might want a lot more Map Of The Internet-type things, rather than Gravity/Escape Velocity things. I'm sure there'd be fans of Barrel Boy, or Time or even further Up-Goer Five stuff (which, after all, spawned a book!) in returning.

But something new is something new. And it's not all 'classicist' humour. Or the latest Exploits Of A Mum/Blackhat/White Beret/... It'd be boring if it were, or chasing Erdoz/Euler jokes incessantly. But part of the fun (for me... YKmMV) is never quite knowing what the next comic might look like. 172.70.90.2 11:15, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

To the person whose edit I just reverted: First off, sorry, I hate reverting edits. But if you really think that the reason the cyclopes don't help Polyphemus is because they think Nobody is the name of a god, rather than just meaning nobody, please offer up a citation of some sort, because that is not the standard interpretation of the text by any means. We can certainly include it as an alternate interpretation, but some sort of source would be good.172.68.3.11 19:57, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

Everyone: Nobody can defeat Super Mario.

The guy named Nobody: Y'all sure about that?! Z1mp0st0rz (talk) 15:30, 24 April 2024 (UTC)