: Are you kidding me? The entire visual language of the image is telling us
: that this isn't an arm being ripped apart.
: That's not four pieces of an arm; it's one arm at four different stages of
: construction. You're scrolling through the four images from left to right
: and as you do the arm becomes bigger and more complex in its structure.
: This implies that we're watching a progression of growth. It's like four
: frames in an animation.
: So how do we know that those are four images and not four pieces in one
: image?
Interesting interpretation. Back in Mar 17, 1997 Randig (ydnar) Reddig (the creator of the Final Screen graphic) asked me the following question on IRC:
ydnar: hamish
ydnar: can you identify the plant in the final screen?
The conversation that followed was rather bizarre and to this day I still don't fully understand its significance. I posted the whole transcript on the What's New section and that's where it has stayed and no doubt has been lost and overlooked over the years. It certainly received little or no discussion at the time it was posted.
Perhaps someone might have an epiphany when reading this now. I have posted the whole thing below.
ydnar: hamish
ydnar: can you identify the plant in the final screen?
Godot: yeah
Godot: plant?
ydnar: yeah
Godot: canabis?
ydnar: nope.
ydnar: :)
Godot: Randy: you mean the bamboo pen?
ydnar: it's not bamboo
ydnar: that's a cross section sketch of a stem
Godot: looks like a bamboo
Godot: no mistaking it
ydnar: nope.
ydnar: want to know?
Godot: the far right one is the tip of a Japanese writing brush/pen
ydnar:
ydnar: they're all sketches of one particular plant
Godot: ok what's the planet?
Godot: err.. plant
ydnar: earth
Godot: :-)
ydnar: magnolia
ydnar: :)
Godot: gimme a break
ydnar: ::raising eyebrow::
Godot: what's the third drawing?
Godot: before the arm
ydnar: hmm..
ydnar: don't have the picture up
ydnar: what's it look like
Godot: the tip of a Japanese writing brush/pen
Godot: has a bamboo like notch
Godot: the hairs are tied together in the form of a brush
Godot: that's what it looks like to me
ydnar: ah
ydnar: the base of the magnolia bud
Godot: the stem looks just like a bamboo stem IMHO
ydnar: ::nod::
ydnar: it's similar
Godot: if you slice it, it would look exactly like that
Godot: so what's the significance of the magnolia?
ydnar: birth
ydnar: what's the first picture?
Godot: looked like creation to me
Godot: magnolia = birth?
ydnar: the seed
ydnar: it progresses
ydnar: from seed to stem to flower
Godot: why does magnolia signify birth?
Godot: <-- not into flowers much
ydnar: that's all i'm going to say..
ydnar: :)
ydnar: hehe
ydnar: it's hardly a flower
ydnar: that particular one was 30 feet high
Apparently this particular flower grows in Alexandria (in the US) and this also has some bearing on the matter. I'm not absolutely positive but I think Randy originally hailed from there or lived there.
Ah the mysteries that are the Marathon's Story.
Cheers
Hamish
