Saturday, December 19, 2009

SPOILER Hoo●Hoo●HAs & a Hoka●Hoka●HEY!





"Spoiler is slang for any element of any summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot element which will give away the outcome of a dramatic episode within the work of fiction, or the conclusion of the entire work"


Hoo●Hoo●HAs & a Hoka●Hoka●HEY! is a modern day online letter column for Beanworld fans.
Italics are me--roman font is you guys!
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Last chance...if you haven't read Here There yet...
it's probably a good idea to avert your attention elsewhere.

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Read further at your own risk!


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I believe it's easier to follow my comments if I address the questions as they are asked.

Anonymous wrote:

In looking at the Float Force effect on the slats and chips ridden by the adult beans and by Mr Spook, I notice that the b&w striated effect that takes place looks similar to that on both Beanish when he "jumps" and on the Float Factored Mystery Pods - but there is a significant difference - the chips and slats retain their solid outline... I'm wondering if this is significant? Is that a graphic indication that they are not "charged up" as much as the Mystery Pods? Or am I reading too much into this?

In my opinion, it is impossible for a Beanworld reader to inject too much meaning into his or her understanding of what he/she is reading.
What you get is what it is.
For you.


Sometimes I get to fool myself into believing that I'm making decisions purely for aesthetic (or even technical) reasons and then, at a later date, Beanworld lets me know the decision I made has a much deeper meaning than the visual solution I was going for at that date and time.

That was one of those moments.



(I did think it was kind of odd that the super-charged chips that the Cuties use are represented as solid black rather than solid white which would make them look distinctly different from regular old non-charged chips...)


This is another one of those decisions.
Over many, many, I mean many years I played around with designs, shapes, and patterns for the fully activated Chip Skates.
(I suspect some of those have showed up in Beanworld Archive postings and will continue to.)
Only when they were in black did it feel right.


Drained of power?
White chips felt right for that.


Black chips.
Striped chips.
White chips.

The Bean-made processes that put these changes into effect are many.
Only a few have been mentioned let alone revealed.
We all have a long way to go together on this.
But in Book Four there will be a lot more revelation in this particular direction.


Finally, and this is something I thought about a long, long time ago, but I'm reminded of it because of such a focus on making tools, etc, in the new volume - where do old tools, broken tools, old Look*See Shows, etc go? Recycling in the Beanworld? Where do used spears in the Hoi Polloi realm go? Do they just fall down forming Der Stinkle?


I always thought that this would be a questions Beanworld fans might ask a lot.
It's only recently that it has become a frequently asked question.


I've already scribbled out many pages of notes regarding this. I even have a (mostly) finished story regarding the Look-See Shows.

Oh, and the 2008 eight page color story for MySpace Dark Horse Presents #14 ? Even that was only half a story and the other half is still waiting to find an appropriate slot. And, if you remember the tale, it's conclusion will answer a bunch of your questions. This stuff will probably be explained in full in Book 4 (or Five).

As far as Der Stinkle goes.
We have hardly scratched the surface, literally, of Der Stinkle.
The only existing hint of Further Adventures in Der Stinkle is shown in the poster "YOO-HOO, MR. SPOOK."
It's a teaser of a very big moment in the Beans' future!

Next letter.


JohnH wrote:
I have to admit, I first picked up Beanworld by reading (gasp!) illegal copies on the Internet. I know, shocking! But it showed me how wonderful Beanworld is, and I have bought Book 2 in print since then and hope to get Book 1 soon, which hopefully I can then use to show other people why I am so obsessed with the beans.

This is the counter argument to piracy.
It leads to paying customers eventually.
It's not something I can condone, but, very few people can honestly say they've never made use of a pirated something-or-other at least once in their life.


It wouldn't be a Beanworld letters column without rampant speculation about what everything means, so here goes!

You got that right, John!

One thing I have noticed from the earlier issues and struck me is the nature of the Beanworld's ground. What I noticed about it first came when the poisoned Sprout-Butt landed after Mr. Spook's Pod'l'Pool emerged from Gran'Ma'Pa. The patterns on it seemed to change from poisoned to a more normal Gran'Ma'Pa pattern gradually starting from when it touched the soil of the Beanworld. Then, too, there is the weird shape of the Beanworld island, how it is lopsided, weighted down on the left, that it is literally out of balance! Then there is the effect of gravity, which only appears to affect the Beans, and then by drawing them to the surface of the island. Very interesting! Well to me anyway.

To me too!
This is a very perceptive observation.
Well worth speculating upon!

One of the things I wonder about the most in the new book is the strange image of Big Fish swimming by the worms that are too big to eat. Could those be important in some way?

How can they not be?

The Cuties are growing up nicely into full-fledged characters. There seems to be some differentiation between them in personality, with one acting as leader and another taking after Proffy. Could they become apprentices for Mr. Spook and Professor Garbanzo?

The answers to that are, in fact, a primary story arc of Summertime.
What's gonna happen as the Cuties grow up?

Will they become Chow Sol'jers or are they going to become something new?

Thanks again for Book 3. Hopefully we won't need to wait as long for the next cycle!

Nope.
My answer to this question is simple.
The last interval was 15 years.
The next will be more like 15 months.

Next letter.

Shawn O'Hern wrote:

Just devoured volume 3 in one sitting. Like catching up with old friends. While I like having such a huge chunk to read at one time, I'm sad to have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for new material.

Any hint as to when we can expect new single issues or web comics?
Pretty please?

See "State of the Beanworld" at New Years on this very blog!

As for Here There...literally gasped when Beanish invaded the Hoi Polloi ring to examine the hearts' effect on the sprout butt - it felt like such a violation. I wonder if there will be more ramifications from this. It definitely seemed to upset the natural order of things.

When that sequence wrote itself, I was shocked at Beanish's behavior.
My mind was on fire "Can this be right?" was my overwhelming concern.
It took a while for me to accept the direction this major development was taking the story.


But when I saw where it was leading, it started making sense.
A lot of sense.


Beanish's seemingly bizarre behavior challenging the social codes of his tribe is also one of the main story arcs of Book Four.

Very intrigued by the sister Cutie's Proffy-like savvy. And by their odd growth development. Also not sure I understand what effect Heyoka had on the bean template and why it reversed when she left it.

Check out pages 266-268 of Book Two: A Gift Comes . As you will see the change in Here There was actuaally a reversion to the original "factory specifications."

That she becomes the Cuties' teacher is not what I expected at all.

I'm glad you didn't see that one coming!

I also noticed that Mr Spook's reference to invaders from the sky could allude to that color Beanworld story from Asylum of years ago in addition to the Goofy Service Jerks' attack. Any plans to reprint that?

Yes.
It does allude to that.

There is even proof of the fact that the story occurred within the pages of Here There!
That story will be re-jiggered and appear somewhere, some day.
Maybe ome sort of special Beanworld Apocrypha Color volume ala Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai.

Thanks again for bringing back Beanworld!

You are welcome!


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, i didn't say/ask any of those things. hope the guy gets proper credit...
however, i do now have a question... what does it mean when heyoka says "maybe"? what's the opposite of maybe?

shawn o'hern

Rodneylives said...

Thanks for responding to my speculations. That image Codex Beanworld is great! To someone not immersed in Beanworld it is fun to look at, but to someone who is it is so loaded with implication it is hard to describe. Those hats, in particular, are very interesting to see there, as is the weird surroundings that seem most similar to the cosmic setting of the Service Stations.