arc
Original: arc on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Two people walk together up a snowy mountain at night under a starry purple sky.
Panel 1
Person with reddish hair: Do you think the arc of history bends toward justice?
Person with dark hair: Of course.
Panel 2
Person with dark hair: But then again the moon bends toward the earth constantly, and still gets farther away every year.
Panel 3
The two have climbed higher; the dark-haired person sits atop a snowy peak.
Person with dark hair: The dwarf planet Eris has a highly eccentric orbit, so it bends closer and closer to the sun before flinging off for eons.
Panel 4
Person with dark hair: Some comets go almost directly toward the center of the solar system then fling outbound never to be seen again.
Panel 5
The scene is now a vast dark silhouette of the mountain with a tiny figure standing atop it.
Reddish-haired person (from off in the dark): You're saying rhetoricians ought to be more careful when they use math terms.
Panel 6
Dark-haired person: No no, I'm saying it's accurate.
Votey:
"The curve of history bends non-monotonically toward the relatively less unjust portion of the domain of discourse."
Panel 1
Person with reddish hair: Do you think the arc of history bends toward justice?
Person with dark hair: Of course.
Panel 2
Person with dark hair: But then again the moon bends toward the earth constantly, and still gets farther away every year.
Panel 3
The two have climbed higher; the dark-haired person sits atop a snowy peak.
Person with dark hair: The dwarf planet Eris has a highly eccentric orbit, so it bends closer and closer to the sun before flinging off for eons.
Panel 4
Person with dark hair: Some comets go almost directly toward the center of the solar system then fling outbound never to be seen again.
Panel 5
The scene is now a vast dark silhouette of the mountain with a tiny figure standing atop it.
Reddish-haired person (from off in the dark): You're saying rhetoricians ought to be more careful when they use math terms.
Panel 6
Dark-haired person: No no, I'm saying it's accurate.
Votey:
"The curve of history bends non-monotonically toward the relatively less unjust portion of the domain of discourse."
Alt text
A six-panel black-and-white SMBC comic. Two people hike up a snowy mountain at night beneath a starry purple sky. One asks, "Do you think the arc of history bends toward justice?" The other replies, "Of course." But then the dark-haired person keeps qualifying it with astronomy: the moon bends toward the earth constantly yet drifts farther away every year; the dwarf planet Eris bends closer to the sun before flinging off for eons; some comets dive toward the center of the solar system then fling outbound, never seen again. As they reach the summit, the panels become a vast dark silhouette with a tiny figure on top. The reddish-haired person says, "You're saying rhetoricians ought to be more careful when they use math terms." The other answers, "No no, I'm saying it's accurate." The votey (aftercomic) is a single panel of text reading: "The curve of history bends non-monotonically toward the relatively less unjust portion of the domain of discourse."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.