probably just a coincidence (but interesting!)

[Greep]

Anyone think the author was reading "1984" while writing the first couple comics? There's three things that are bizarrely similar, all shown in the beginning of the comic.

1) Stanley speaks in that speachbook with "quacks". There is a term in 1984 called "duckspeak" in which a person speaks such idiotic drivel it could merely be thought of as the perosn going "quack quack" (the quacks actually make sense in this light. Idiodic? Stanely? yeah.)

2)On literally the next page of the book, the character Parsons shows up- a middle aged fat man with a boyish face (ring a bell? :))

3) (a weak point but still a point) just the general play on words with "dwagon" being dragon, etc, is like 1984 with newspeak.

[DevilDan]

I applaud your out-of-the-box thinking.

Sounds on eyebook messaging seem to be personalized:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0033.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0136.html
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0112.html

[dr pepper]

Anyone think the author was reading "1984" while writing the first couple comics? There's three things that are bizarrely similar, all shown in the beginning of the comic.

1) Stanley speaks in that speachbook with "quacks". There is a term in 1984 called "duckspeak" in which a person speaks such idiotic drivel it could merely be thought of as the perosn going "quack quack" (the quacks actually make sense in this light. Idiodic? Stanely? yeah.)

2)On literally the next page of the book, the character Parsons shows up- a middle aged fat man with a boyish face (ring a bell? :))

3) (a weak point but still a point) just the general play on words with "dwagon" being dragon, etc, is like 1984 with newspeak.

I totally disagree.

Every eyebook call has a different sound, quacking is just the setting for Stanley calling Wanda.

Parson does not resemble Big Brother at all.

Newspeak is not about changing the pronunciation of words it's about controlling the meaning of words and thus limiting what thoughts people are able to express.

[SteveMB]

Every eyebook call has a different sound, quacking is just the setting for Stanley calling Wanda.

So far IIRC we've seen Wanda's eyebook with messages from Stanley ("QUACK") and her reply ("PLOIP") and Parson's eyebook with his own messages ("EEP") and messages from Sizemore ("CHOO") and Charlie hacked in ("TA-DA"). From Sizemore's comments about "modding your eyebook" (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0036.html), it's likely that these settings can be customized.

[Greep]

I totally disagree.

Every eyebook call has a different sound, quacking is just the setting for Stanley calling Wanda.

Parson does not resemble Big Brother at all.

Newspeak is not about changing the pronunciation of words it's about controlling the meaning of words and thus limiting what thoughts people are able to express.

Ah sorry you mistook me on the first two, and yeah the last was a weak point anyways.

1)Yes of course, stanley is the only moron, thus he gets duckspeak, eveyrone else gets other sounds ;)

2) I meant to say Parson resembles Parsons (a minor character, but directly following duckspeak)in 1984, not big brother.

Anyways, I just thought it was a very neat coincidence, I'm part-way through reading the book, that's probably the only reason I thought of this.

[Promakhonas]

I just assumed it was all a reference to ICQ.

[zillion ninjas]

2)On literally the next page of the book, the character Parsons shows up- a middle aged fat man with a boyish face (ring a bell? :))

Middle aged? He's about 26 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0038.html). Granted, his physical condition has probably taken a few good years off his life (not to mention the years that Ansom would like to remove!) but that's still pretty far off from middle age by the standards of the U.S. midwest.

Also, Parson first appears on page 14 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0014.html) (not including nonspecific references to a "perfect warlord"), which is not immediately after the first eyebook appearance (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0002.html).

The eyebook sounds themselves seem to be the default system sounds on older Mac (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh) computers, circa late 80's to mid 90's, I think. I'm not sure whether they still sound like that, but I'd bet you could still get those sounds if you wanted.

Having said all that, I have no doubt at all that Rob Balder is familiar with Orwell, based more on his other webcomic (http://www.partiallyclips.com/) than on Erfworld. And maybe some of the specific details were inspired by 1984.
- Choosing QUACK for Stanley rather than one of the other possible Mac sounds.
- Parson's name and appearance, but definitely not his personality or intelligence.