There's a scientific theory that life has to exist on the border between order and chaos. Too orderly, and it is predictable and vulnerable to changes in its environment. Too chaotic, and it runs out of resources and dies.
I think fiction is like that, too. Too orderly and you get clichés and boredom. Too chaotic and the story is incomprehensible. And I know of no story that dances on the border better than 1/0.
In a way, it's a true story of the author, Tailsteak, and his Indy Ploy of writing a story with No Fourth Wall. Many stories without a fourth wall are wacky and only use the fourth-wall breaking for Lampshade Hanging. 1/0 starts out wacky as well, but it's self-aware. It doesn't force everything into jokes, or drama, or any goal that would serve the reader. It's free from stereotypes. It actually is made of the interactions between the characters, who are interesting enough to hold the story together.
And so you get a story about a telekinetic eyeball with fangs, multiple molecules and ghosts, a sentient earthworm and mud golems, all living on a landmass shaped like a dead bear in an endless plane of "horizonite", and it makes sense. It's not a joke, but the kind of lighthearted-yet-serious world that 1/0 lives in. Tailsteak is a good enough artist to carry all of this and make it work. The result is a mythical kind of tale where a world is created, lived in, and dissolved back into the wider world. It's profound and wise and funny and full of twists and a joy to read.
That's the Watsonian view, but the Doylist view is also awesome. The story took place over three years and showed some Character Development on part of the author, who matured through the writing process. And like all good stories, this one ends in marriage! Only it took place in Real Life, with Tailsteak eventually finding his wife through the comic.
And, well, if that story isn't worth reading, then what is?
Dancing on a Knife's Edge
There's a scientific theory
that life has to exist on the border between order and chaos. Too orderly, and it is predictable and vulnerable to changes in its environment. Too chaotic, and it runs out of resources and dies.
I think fiction is like that, too. Too orderly and you get clichés and boredom. Too chaotic and the story is incomprehensible. And I know of no story that dances on the border better than 1/0.
In a way, it's a true story of the author, Tailsteak, and his Indy Ploy of writing a story with No Fourth Wall. Many stories without a fourth wall are wacky and only use the fourth-wall breaking for Lampshade Hanging. 1/0 starts out wacky as well, but it's self-aware. It doesn't force everything into jokes, or drama, or any goal that would serve the reader. It's free from stereotypes
. It actually is made of the interactions between the characters, who are interesting enough to hold the story together.
And so you get a story about a telekinetic eyeball with fangs, multiple molecules and ghosts, a sentient earthworm and mud golems, all living on a landmass shaped like a dead bear in an endless plane of "horizonite", and it makes sense. It's not a joke, but the kind of lighthearted-yet-serious world that 1/0 lives in. Tailsteak is a good enough artist to carry all of this and make it work. The result is a mythical kind of tale where a world is created, lived in, and dissolved back into the wider world. It's profound and wise and funny and full of twists and a joy to read.
That's the Watsonian view, but the Doylist view is also awesome. The story took place over three years and showed some Character Development on part of the author, who matured through the writing process
. And like all good stories, this one ends in marriage! Only it took place in Real Life, with Tailsteak eventually finding his wife through the comic.
And, well, if that story isn't worth reading, then what is?