Keskustelujen arkisto

Lifetime of ducks:

Or this scenario - the ducks live. They are mortal, they lived at certain
times, they live 'now' where now is the now of duckburg. They are going to
die, as that is what living stuff does, but it doesn't matter when. I
mean, duck universe is not so much about planning in advance, looking into
the future, but more about living at the moment, in the *now*. So who
cares when they died/will die, the important thing is that they are
alive in their universe, living in the now...

(don't want to offend anyone by this, that's just my feelings about it :)
)

Cheerio!
/T
_
('> ---------------------------------------------------------
/ ) Theresa Wiegert theresaw at oso.chalmers.se
/ / Onsala Space Observatory +46(0)31-7725522
//" SE-439 92 Onsala, Sweden home: 031-811364, 070-4831211
/ http://www.oso.chalmers.se/~theresaw
---------------------------------------------------------

> Just draw it? Not including the writing part?
> 3 or 4 weeks. More like 4, including all the unavoidable lost time, like
> problems with tools/materials, matters to deal with in e-mail or on the
> phone, visits from plumbers, chopping firewood, etc.
>
>

& with writing part ? ;-)

On Friday, February 14 at 06:01 AM, - Paolo
wrote:

> And on sunday morning he could go to Porta Portese, a flea market
> where to lookfor second-hand comics (beware of pickpockets!)
>
comment in return:
sounds like a place I'd like to be, my dog would chew & spit out
"footpads," etc. But I'm in Florida which is not quite next door to
Italy. " Rapa Nui" stands between me and there.

I've not been long enuf in Fla. to know the area well. Does anyone who
cares about Ducks'n'Mice live in Tampa, St. Pete area? I'll buy the
lunch for a chance to chat duckstuff.

Does anybody know a good secondhand comix place that actually has
disneys around here? I've gotten so burned out on sticking my head in
a comix store's door, asking "any ducks or mice?" No, no, never are
any, no. Pointless anymore to even look, it seems --mary obe.

Sigvald wrote:
<Just like many other DCMLers I see Donald,
Scrooge, etc. as humans drawn like ducks. They
are thus born just like the rest of us >

Barks said that he thought of the ducks as humans who just happened to look like ducks. Maybe he meant that they were like ducks PHYSICALLY, but acted like humans. In "That's No Fable" (U$32), $crooge says that if he had swum across the Fountain of Youth "I knew I'd reach the other side (as) an egg".

Nils from Norway

This is not the fact from a comic, it's from DuckTales episode "Sweet Duck
of Youth".

In this episode, Scrooge sets out on a search for the Fountain of Youth.
His search takes the ducks to the eerie Okeefedokie Swamp, where a hermit
and the ghost of a Conquistador wait for unsuspecting visitors. (from:
http://www.chapelcard.com/chunksoffunk/ducktales/list.htm)

When Scrooge looks at his image in the water, he see young Scrooge. But when
the nephews look into the water, they see three eggs.

Best wishes,
lis

And so, we have our answer: As Barks had Scrooge mentioning that he would turn
back into an egg halfway across the "Fountain of Youth Pond", we can assume
that the Ducks came out of eggs (not live births (as mammals). I seem to
remember the Donald Duck book by Marcia Blitz also shows Donald coming out of
an egg, as does Marco Rota's story of Donald's life. I have seen many other
official Disney media productions showing that Donald hatched from an egg. I
have never seen EVEN ONE reference to the Ducks being born live, or being
mammals. They have been referred to as "persons" and "people", but I don't
believe they have been referred to as "humans". Therefore, I think it is more
reasonable to assume that they share characteristics with humans (such as high
intelligence, ability to reason, abstract thinking, understanding of abstract
concepts, awareness of passage of time/history, etc.), but not the physical
traits. if the 2-dimensional portrayals of them in films and on paper drawings
is reasonably accurate, they are neither animals nor humans from our planet.
They must exist in a "parallel world", and be lifeforms that have developed
from filling similar niches in the ecosystems of their world, to some of those
filled in our world by animals and humans. The varying conditions that formed
their bodies were later no longer factors in their evolution, but it is clear
that for all of the species of our intelligent characters, natural selection
later stopped being a factor (just as it has for most humans on our Earth), as
thvarious civilisations rose on the parallel Disney planet. The difference
between that world and our Earth is that on the parallel world, many, many
different species have evolved into bi-pedal walking, and into intelligent
beings; developing civilisations, science and thus removing their species from
the chain of natural selection. Even the weak can now live to breeding age. On
Earth, it is only humans who have done that. Mickey, Minnie, Mortimer and the
other mice are of one species, the "Ducks" are another, dog-like "people" are
another, and so on. The large ears of the mice could have come about as a means
to regulate heat in a terribly hot desert enviornment. By the time civilisation
developed, all the genomes for small ears had been weeded out of the
population. But now, as most of the "mice" now lived in cooler areas, or
hadthe benefits of air conditioning (or other benefits of civilisation), the
heat is no longer a factor in their development. By the same token, as natural
selection no longer operates on that population, they will not lose any of the
traits they've had since that time. If a new mutation pops up in the breeding
population, it cannot take hold, because the changing environment cannot be
better adapted to by one trait or another, as the population now uses only uses
scientific knowledge of society to adapt, rather than physical traits of
individuals. The German Donaldist theory of the Ducks and Mice being future
post "nuclear holocaust" mutant forms of current Earth lifeforms (Ernst Horst?)
is another reasonable posibility. That assumes that "humans" died out, and
fowl and mammals mutated into more intelligent species, who developed
civilisations. It is interesting that so very many differentiated species could
develop from lifeforms of lower and middle levels of intelligence; to species
with high level intelligence (that of our humans), at a similar rate-and then
all join together to form a single planet civilisation or society. Any
Zoologist or biologist would find this to be highly unlikely.

It is also extremely unlikely that the Mice, Ducks, Dogs, Pigs, etc. are just
different "races" in the same species. They are far too different in physical
characteristics to have developed that way. They came from VERY, VERY different
conditions, and are likely MILLIONS of years apart from the time when they
could have interbreeded. So, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow can date if
they want to, either in "innocent, friendly companionship, or in a physical
relationship which is a "sick, prurient form of bestiality", but their physical
union CANNOT result in offspring. Daisy being aroused by Deltoid Biceppa, is
the equivalent of the farm boy misusing the sheep. Donald should not be
jealous, he should be worried about the condition of his girlfriend's psyche.
The same should be true of Daisy, when Donald loses his heart to all those "dog
people". Because of the need for procreation to continue the species, there is
a natural instinctive attractiveness to members of the same species. It is
conceivable that, if several (effectively)unrelated species mutate enough to
become intelligent, and by some biological miracle (VERY, VERY unlikely), reach
a similar level of intelligence at nearly the same geological age; that they
could potentially participate in the same society. The odds of such an
ocurrence are actually billions to one. But, for the sake of argument (and
interesting fictional stories), let us accept that it is, at least "possible".
If such were to occur, the members of this society could be colleagues, friends
and companions,- but biologically, they could not mate, -and should not
physically be attracted to eachother!

Don't take me wrongly. I have not brought up this topic for prurient reasons,
or to start an X-rated discussion. I merely want to point out that there is
aminimum "threshold of believeability" that is necessary to provide enjoyment
of the stories in the "Duck universe". It is much easier to go below that level
for the scientist than for the layman "fantasy fans" whose taste can be
described as "anything goes". Relating back to the original point; I can
believe that in this "Parallel Universe", that the Ducks can be intelligent
beings, who developed physically as "ducklike beings" due to wet conditions,
and an original diet of seeds and insects. I can believe that, even though they
have developed into intelligent beings, that they still hatch from eggs. The
fact that Barks tells me that Scrooge says he, himself did come from an egg,
proves that for me. There is no indication that Scrooge was joking, in that
statement. As we have NO EVIDENCE of live biths (like humans), I cannot believe
that the Ducks did not hatch from eggs. Barks' comments that "he always
thought of the Ducks as humans" was referring to their characters (not their
physical characteristics). They are intelligent beings, who have developed to a
similar level of intelligence to that of humans on our Earth, and have
developed a similar level of civilisation and planet-wide society. Therefore,
they perform similar actions. but, they have come from highly different
environments, and thus, have developed in a quite different manner. Thus,
physical comparisons to those of Earth lifeforms cannot be extrapolated.

The amounts of knowledge of the laws of nature we are willing to suspend,
separate the "pure fantasy fan" and "fairy tale fan" from the "fantasy fiction
fan", "science fiction fan", and finally, from the "stodgy, stuffed shirt,
scientist".

Rob Klein

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Mary O'Benar wrote:
> In the Ponce de Leon story (story told by Scrooge to Grandma Duck)
> there's the pond full of youthful water to swim. Scrooge's reason
> for not swimming 'I'm a slow swimmer, by the time I reached the other
> side, I'd be an egg?' I haven't got comic here to reference, so, is
> that right, he says egg??? Somebody know? Seems like there's other
> egg-mentions too.

In "The Fountain Of Youth" (D 3133) drawn by Vicar, not only an egg is
mentioned, but Uncle Scrooge is actually turned into an egg by accident.
However, this story was not written by Rosa or Barks, so we better
consider it pure fiction ;-)

S?ren