Yeah I Got Links

In general I'm the sort of person who is simultaneously flabbergasted by women who remain in abusive relationships but also who thinks endlessly interrogating them as to why they don't/didn't leave (sooner) is unlikely to be productive or helpful to the woman abused, because I don't think rationality plays into it very much, and I also believe that as the abuse goes on for longer periods of time, psychological conditioning subverts what other people would consider to be normal reasonable behavior and response to that kind of treatment.

Anyway, I found this, from the estimable Hilzoy, to be an excellent consideration of a difficult topic. (So did, apparently, everyone else in the blogosphere.)

In less serious territory, I'm going to humbly suggest that you check out - I will provide the links at the end - the most recent week of Penny Arcade, the online comic that's ostensibly "about" gaming. Despite being roughly a decade out of date with their supposed subject matter (they deviate a *lot*, and the jokes are almost always gettable even if you're not a gamer, I think), I usually love this strip, because I have an affinity for their sense of humor and I also enjoy the writing style of Tycho, the writing-alter-ego of the comic's creative duo. However, one of the most interesting things about Penny Arcade is the evolution of the art, provided by Gabe. The first strip, from (wow) over ten years ago, looks like this. (It also isn't really funny.) A few years later it looked like this. (I'm not selling you on the funniness of the strip, I know; it's gotten better writing-wise as well. I picked this one because I stumbled across it accidentally and it conveniently introduced the Cardboard Tube, which will be relevant later.) Which eventually evolved into this, which is more or less what it looks like today. Except for when they take advantage of Gabe's vastly improved artistic skills to deviate from their normal format and stretch their legs and do things like:

This, and

This. That's from the middle of one of the adventures of the Cardboard Tube Samurai, which is a silly joke they've used to present some surprisingly lovely art and elliptical storytelling. Which brings us to:

(And, yeah, I'm aware that I'm lavishing many more words on a webcomic than I am on domestic abuse.)

The most recent three-part tale of the Carboard Tube Samurai, which is like the one I linked above completely wordless but offers up an unexpected punch at the end. As Tycho said in the accompanying blog post, it's apparently about fatherhood. Shit.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

So.