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Cockroaches
Monday, September 5th, 2005 by joelWhy cockroaches? I have, in an article lost in the mists of time, explained what brought about the cockroaches within the comic. I regret they do not appear more often, but I promise you in the future we will get plenty of cockroaches.
My constant fear is that someone will misinterpret the subtle meaning behind the cockroaches within the comic strip. Their name can be misread in a number of vulgar ways that I assure you they were not meant to represent. I also have the fear that someone will take them as a representation of minority groups with college, which I also assure you they in no way represent.
Story-wise, the roaches represent ‘bugs’ in the program. Free-radicals, if you will. Unintentional AI that have spawned, reproduced and cause unpredictable results beyond the direct control of the shadowy overlord within Mulligan.
Existentially, they mean something else entirely. To me they are a comment on the status of college living. A life so debase that cockroaches and guys are practically equals. They are both nocturnal, they both eat food off the floor, they both wallow in their own filth, they are both communal creatures, and they both fear the light.
