43 thoughts on “Chapter 5: Lit, page 2.”

  1. I begin to wonder (in RL, not TAZ) if ‘faggot’ (which has so many meanings) has moved on from “homosexual male” and is currently residing at “weak or troublesome male; see ‘berk'”. Most of the recent uses I’ve heard center around obstructive idiots. (Back in the 70’s, my fraternity used the term “baggot” to refer to an annoying person. Maybe there’s something about that doubled gutteral consonant and dental stop that gives ‘aggot’ a lot of punch — like the assertion in “The Sunshine Boys” that words with ‘k’ are funny and words without ‘k’ are not.)

    Or maybe I’m just a crypto-homophobic fascist with delusions of erudition. Hard to tell :-)

    1. According to the late George Carlin, “faggot” hasn’t always necessarily had to do with sexual orientation. Most guys EJ’s age just have one multi-purpose word they use to refer to any male individual they dislike to any degree for whatever reason.

        1. This is probably just urban myth, but I heard when I was much younger that the word faggot, defined by my dad’s old dictionary as a bundle of sticks used for kindling, was first used to describe homosexuals in nazi death camps, as they were supposedly sent to the gas chamber/incinerator first, in order to get the day’s mass murders started. I have no idea if any of that’s true, and even if it’s b.s. it still scares the shit out of me.

          1. I heard it was the bundle of sticks, which in turn became slang for an old housewoman, which in turn meant a gay male–presumably a womanly male.

            So… yeah.

          2. Fred Phelps claims, apparently, that it derives from a passage in the bible where sinners are “cast like faggots into the flames”, and claims that the sinners there are homosexuals, so its biblical. Course, that man would claim that the rainbow is a sign that God hates homosexuals if he got the chance. He probably claims that homosexuals are a sign that God hates homosexuals…

        2. Nah, faggot isnt slang for a smoke. Just ‘Fag’. A faggot is a rather gross meat ball made of liver and other things, quite often heavily salted.

          1. When in the Army we were cross-training with a British unit; you could have heard a pin drop when one of them said, “I’m going outside ta suck on a fag.”

        3. Oh, I forgot, it’s also the old, old, really old school name for a bassoon. Seriously. Ask any trained musician.

          1. According to Peter Schickele, “The Italians call the bassoon fagotto, meaning “bundle of sticks,” because people who try to learn to play it often end up using if for firewood instead.”

  2. EJ’s face looks kinda funky in the first panel.
    Also, I just got a strong feeling Biggs won’t live to the end of TAZ. Bowie knife or zipgun related trauma seems plausible..

  3. I know EJ gets a lot of abuse… but I seriously think he is the most dangerous character in Templar. period. To wit:

    Setting things on fire
    Co-dependent personality
    Abandonment issues
    Sees violence as a solution
    Mood swings / quick to anger
    Confused sexuality (And subsequent anger)
    Lower than average intelligence
    No comprehension of consequences

    These things in combination = Dangerous.

    1. No, early in Templar there’s discussion of Horology–in Templar, rather than being the study of time, Spike describes it as a sort of flaky pseudoscience, kind of like astrology in ours? So I suppose it is a numerically based horoscope type of deal, with numbers standing for the star signs in whatever fashion.

    1. that’d be interesting, I heard almost everyone is born between midnight and dawn.

      and would it run on a 24 hour clock or time of day?

      Are their sidreal horologists (people who use the actual time of day as determined by the arc of the sun off the true noon for wherever you were born) arguing with the tropical horologists (people who just go by what the clock said, daylight savings time and all) over who has the better system?
      is it like astrology, where, if you don’t fit your sun sign you can go and find your rising sign and moon sign and see if those work better?
      horology buffs would care about the minutes and seconds, and thus would look down on newspaper columns that only give fortunes to people by what Hour they were born for being sloppy guesswork.

  4. EJ scares me a little simply because his attitude of “If you leave me all alone, I will KILL YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU” is very unsettling.
    Also, I have met people very similar to him in real life, and they are, ah…well, they’d make great serial killers.

    1. The “I will do something drastic if you leave me” is a big indicator of borderline personalty disorder. His quickly swinging moods and strong dependant attachment to Biggs also follows the pattern for BPD.

  5. “I’m a number three”? Is that enneagram? Because in *no way* is EJ a number three. BUT I would not expect EJ to be able to properly place himself on the enneagram. That requires a smidgen of self-awareness.

    Oh god I’m enneatyping fictional characters.

  6. Lesse…I know it’ll probably be withdrawal that’s making Biggs act like he seems like he is, but why do I have the horrible, sinking feeling that EJ beat the crap out of him for trying to get away? I dunno…EJ just seems like he’s in too good of a mood and it worries me.

  7. You know. When someone lists alla EJ’s traits, I think EJ has a mental condition.
    A Borderline Personality Disorder of some type. Hard to pin the exact one cause he’s got pieces from a bunch of them. Poor cute lil’ guy. *baby coos*

    1. Borderline Personality Disorder is its own disorder – it doesn’t mean you’re ‘borderline’ schizophrenic or ‘borderline’ manic-depressive or anything like that.

    2. Yeah, there’s really nothing ‘borderline’ about it. If you’ve got it, you’ve a full-blown condition. I suspect it may be called ‘borderline’ because people who suffer from it have a difficult time delineating acceptable boundaries between themselves and others regarding trust, intimacy, friendship, etc. I half suspect Pippi could be diagnosed as BPD as well. Especially after setting that fire after feeling betrayed by Scip. BPD is marked by an all or nothing attitude, esp. regarding trust: thus best friends can quickly become worst enemies with no chance of forgiveness for perceived or actual wrongs committed. After Scip confronts Pippi trying to get to the truth and despite his reassurances that he cares and telling her she can stay, she starts a fire that is likely to put ’em both on the street. This is not indicative of a stable mind capable of determining where she may have overstepped a boundary much less how she is hurting herself as much or more than she is hurting Scip by her impulsive actions. Scip on the other hand is quite aware that he probably overstepped several boundaries and is more than apologetic and attempting to have dialogue but Pippi will have none of it. Scip questions her version of reality and whoomp, there he is, untrustworthy and deserving of punishment despite the years he spent taking care of her and seeing to her safety and being a friend. It’s confusing for Scip that she can’t balance that sh!t out.

  8. EJ is just oblivious to what Biggs is going through because he doesn’t understand, he’s more like “We’ll just get you some drugs and you’ll be ok you silly goose.”

    1. I also don’t think EJ would intentionally go out of his way to harm Biggs, I don’t think he’s got the whole Misery thing going for him. I do think he is spiteful and desperate enough though to hold drugs over Biggs’ head to get him to stay with him. Which might also be why he’s cheerful.

  9. Just wanted to say, got surprised by my copy of TAZ 3 in the mail today! I’d ordered it last week when I preordered the fourth book, and kind of wasn’t expecting to see it until the newest volume was done, too. Definitely am NOT complaining! I was having a rough day and this just cheered me up considerably. Thanks for the speedy delivery!

  10. I had to read this 3 times before the terrible reality of EJ’s words hit me:

    “… Jakeskin faggit I did in the river.”

    Marcus is dead. Holy shit. If the Jakes weren’t gonna kill the Elliots already, they are going to now. And any minute now everyone’s going to be in that apartment building, robbing/being robbed, being chased by Jakes, and dealing with an apartment fire. Oh man oh god.

    Excuse me while I go re-read EVERYTHING.

    1. I’m still not going to be convinced until someone a little more qualified to tell whether someone is dead or not confirms. Unless he beheaded him or ripped out his heart.

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