And does one allow a knife the same latitude?
Knives at least have other uses. What else is a whip for?
Take jobs as they come -- and we'll never be under the heel of nobody ever again. No matter how long the arm of the Alliance might get, we'll just get ourselves a little further.
Mal ,'Out Of Gas'
Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Jesse - Aug 06, 2004 9:24:45 am PDT #2220 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
sumi - Aug 06, 2004 9:25:10 am PDT #2221 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!
I think that the Dean Cain series is something about a baseball team.
Sean K - Aug 06, 2004 9:25:38 am PDT #2222 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
It's kinda how you're supposed to do it. Not startling. Appropriate.
Right, which was what I was trying to point.
But you seem to already know that.
So I'll shut up now.
Nutty - Aug 06, 2004 9:25:55 am PDT #2223 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
Well, but a lot of the time, whips are used to make the noise, and the noise only, to startle. Alternately, whips are used, without making the noise, to sting the skin of cattle and make them react.
I don't think very many cowhands intentionally crack their whips and carve chunks out of their cattle, because (a) hello to the infections and inferior meat and (b) a bellowing, rageful cow is nobody's friend.
I think also that cattle have much thicker skin than humans (which would explain why briefcases are not made of people skin). So, it hurts a cow less to be hit with a whip than it does a human. Same again with cattle prods. In both cases, I would call them herding tools, until they were being used on me.
Sean K - Aug 06, 2004 9:26:46 am PDT #2224 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Also, I'd be pretty startled if I sprouted a bullet hole too, so I'd argue that they're both pretty startling, properly used.
Sue - Aug 06, 2004 9:27:19 am PDT #2225 of 10001
hip deep in pie
I think that the Dean Cain series is something about a baseball team.
He plays a pro baseballer who be-friends and possibly (memfault) adopts the new orphan batboy. (Not that kind of batboy.)
tommyrot - Aug 06, 2004 9:28:00 am PDT #2226 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
(b) a bellowing, rageful cow is nobody's friend.
I dunno. Sometimes they run and crash into things in amusing ways.
§ ita § - Aug 06, 2004 9:28:44 am PDT #2227 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
In both cases, I would call them herding tools, until they were being used on me.
Do guns firing rubber bullets fall under this exception?
Mostly when I think of whips outside the bedroom I think of recalcitrant slaves strapped up and beaten, so I don't need (or want) one to be used on me to appreciate their potential for death and damage.
JohnSweden - Aug 06, 2004 9:28:54 am PDT #2228 of 10001
I can't even.
It's kinda how you're supposed to do it. Not startling. Appropriate.
I tend to think whips have more of a nudge, nudge, wink, wink place in the public consciousness rather than a "you could put an eye out with that thing" kind of place. What was the last mainstream movie where a whip was used primarily as a weapon, rather than a threat? Even the Indiana Jones movies generally used the whip as a batbelt.
§ ita § - Aug 06, 2004 9:34:23 am PDT #2229 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Also, I'd be pretty startled if I sprouted a bullet hole too, so I'd argue that they're both pretty startling, properly used.
Startlingly lethal, though? You'd really think "Wow. A gun killed a person. Didn't see that coming!"