History Analysis / GunnerkriggCourt

* You are very observant, however you have yet to look a little deeper. Look at the treatise. Above both girls there is a symbol: Annie has an alchemical glyph (the one around her neck) that is symmetrical (i.e. organized), while Kat has one that is asymmetrical. It seems to me that Mr. Siddell is suggesting that the essence of both worlds are reversed: nature is apparently chaotic, but has a deep underlying organization, an order (think ecosystems), while human society, which is apparently based around order, is actually flawed and decaying into chaos (I'm thinking of depression, poverty, crime, etc). Look again, at the suns to the sides of the picture. The human one is looking towards the forest (i.e. outward expansion, conquest, both human traits), while nature's sun looks down, or has its eyes closed (introspection, self-organization, evolution). Man changes through expansion, nature changes through evolution. Addendum: This is only a personal analysis; I'm trying to justify all the time I've lost in literature class instead of studying dark matter; I'm not trying to push any ideals, either. I'm deeply in love with the human side of the world.

GunnerkriggCourt embodies technology, winter, humanity, and order. Gillitie Wood embodies nature, summer, nonhumans, and chaos. This is basically summarized [[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=295 here]]. Reynardine/Coyote, Moon/Sun, [=TicToc=]/Alastair, Fire/Earth, ''Kat/Annie'' -- and in the middle the Ghost With The Sword and the alchemical symbol representing the bridging of opposites. Symbolism overload. This also corresponds with the bicameral model of the human brain, where the left hemisphere of the cerebrum works logically and analytically, and the right hemisphere works creatively and artistically. These two halves are physically separated by a deep fossa, and are linked by the ''corpus callosum'', a "bridge" of neural fibre.

** The chapter's bonus page features Tea educating the audience about swords, reminding us that swords "serve as a physical metaphor for humanity's eternal, savage thirst for destruction!" The internet, meanwhile, completely misses the point and talks instead about how "[[TruffautWasRight I think swords are neat do you think swords are neat!!]]"

* Other interesting alchemical symbols used: Reynardine, in Chapter 3 as he's about to jump into Annie, appears linked to a less-common symbol for mercury (a U-shape above a cross, rather than a horned circle above a cross). The symbol also appears on his fiery form before he's bound into the stuffed toy. Reynardine is indeed a mercurial fellow (clever, eloquent, temperamental). On the treatises, Kat is associated with a symbol that appears to be related to alchemy, but I can't find it linked to anything for certain.

This is also important in light of the Treatises (the art pages at the end of chapters 7, 14, and 22). On the First Treatise, it breaks down thus: Kat is on the left, next to a river, and surmounted by the Moon, Luna, a symbol of the feminine. On the right is Antimony, next to a fire, and surmounted by the Sun, Sol, a symbol of the masculine. On the second treatise, they are on the same sides and have the same close heavenly body associated (the Sun for Antimony, the Moon for Kat). Yet Annie wears a feminine dress, while Kat wears a man's uniform. Furthermore, while Annie carries a torch and is next to the Woods, fire, Kat carries a hammer (a symbol of technology and industry) marked with the symbol for Bismuth, associated with the Court, which she stands next to.