First, have you read The Sandman by Neil Gaiman? If not, I think you would get a good deal of fodder from that series. Death and Dream are siblings there, though not brothers.
Second. I am glad you brought this up. I have fun with these things.
So. I don't like when creators renounce their creations with phrases like "it wrote itself" or "it just came to me". I encounter it most often with females and I wonder if it is perhaps some mutated form of feminine modesty. No, you created it. You wrote it. Your synapses, experiences, knowledge and aesthetics sparked and connected and you crafted the creation. You chose each brush stroke, each word, each note or whatever bricks you lay and you made it.
At best, this type of thinking is a fun sort of magical whimsy. At worst, it can absolve personal responsibility, and that's no good.
Now, I feel and believe in my characters. I ache when they ache and laugh when they do. I believe that they are as nuanced and experienced as myself. They even surprise me. But to accept the idea that you are simply "channeling divinity" rather than becoming more skilled through practice is, I believe, your choice and not something I choose to believe.
Consciousness thought isn't something that can be measured or faithfully transferred. We have markers like heart rate and brain wave patterns, but our thoughts and dreams are ultimately evasive. Does a rock have thoughts? We can only rely on our human-centric markers, and it says no. However, humans aren't anything more than a complex system of chemistries and atoms that we recognize as sentient life. And a rock is also chemistry and atoms. There are your dreams.
And death is a redistribution of those chemistries and atoms. Our human-centric markers signal "death, absence of life". Matter can't be destroyed so it is only redistributed. We are still there, but we lack the container and the measuring stick. I don't follow a religion and I don't believe ghosts are anything more than a manifestation of our imaginations. But I don't see such a thick line between death and life and I don't believe existence ceases at death. Simply put, we will probably return to the plants and animals that kept us "alive", of course. It's the great uniter, of course.
Wait, weren't we talking about a game? Hah. I believe FFX is a good story. In some ways, the world is actually a bit more logical than ours, as dreams and thoughts and deaths can be easily tracked through those weird little pyreflies. In other ways, it is completely full of holes. That makes a fertile bed for fanfic. :)
I actually think we do choose the characters that fascinate us the most. Like I mentioned before, all of our paths of experience and knowledge and aesthetics lead up to choices/preferences (and into each other as well), so it's not so easily traceable. We relate, we admire, we lust. The archetypes come into play and archetypes, are something of a reflection of the structure of human-society, as you said. You may not be aware of the choice until you have chosen, but in many cases, you can un-choose it the moment you are aware.
I think I've broken my record on comment length. So...time to end this silly little philosophic wank. I really should clean up after myself, but eh. :) Don't mind me. (But you really ought to check out The Sandman, if you haven't.)
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branchandroot
Re: Narny narny nar
Date: 2006-04-27 10:24 pm (UTC)Second. I am glad you brought this up. I have fun with these things.
So. I don't like when creators renounce their creations with phrases like "it wrote itself" or "it just came to me". I encounter it most often with females and I wonder if it is perhaps some mutated form of feminine modesty. No, you created it. You wrote it. Your synapses, experiences, knowledge and aesthetics sparked and connected and you crafted the creation. You chose each brush stroke, each word, each note or whatever bricks you lay and you made it.
At best, this type of thinking is a fun sort of magical whimsy. At worst, it can absolve personal responsibility, and that's no good.
Now, I feel and believe in my characters. I ache when they ache and laugh when they do. I believe that they are as nuanced and experienced as myself. They even surprise me. But to accept the idea that you are simply "channeling divinity" rather than becoming more skilled through practice is, I believe, your choice and not something I choose to believe.
Consciousness thought isn't something that can be measured or faithfully transferred. We have markers like heart rate and brain wave patterns, but our thoughts and dreams are ultimately evasive. Does a rock have thoughts? We can only rely on our human-centric markers, and it says no. However, humans aren't anything more than a complex system of chemistries and atoms that we recognize as sentient life. And a rock is also chemistry and atoms.
There are your dreams.
And death is a redistribution of those chemistries and atoms. Our human-centric markers signal "death, absence of life". Matter can't be destroyed so it is only redistributed. We are still there, but we lack the container and the measuring stick. I don't follow a religion and I don't believe ghosts are anything more than a manifestation of our imaginations. But I don't see such a thick line between death and life and I don't believe existence ceases at death. Simply put, we will probably return to the plants and animals that kept us "alive", of course. It's the great uniter, of course.
Wait, weren't we talking about a game? Hah. I believe FFX is a good story. In some ways, the world is actually a bit more logical than ours, as dreams and thoughts and deaths can be easily tracked through those weird little pyreflies. In other ways, it is completely full of holes. That makes a fertile bed for fanfic. :)
I actually think we do choose the characters that fascinate us the most. Like I mentioned before, all of our paths of experience and knowledge and aesthetics lead up to choices/preferences (and into each other as well), so it's not so easily traceable. We relate, we admire, we lust. The archetypes come into play and archetypes, are something of a reflection of the structure of human-society, as you said. You may not be aware of the choice until you have chosen, but in many cases, you can un-choose it the moment you are aware.
I think I've broken my record on comment length. So...time to end this silly little philosophic wank. I really should clean up after myself, but eh. :) Don't mind me. (But you really ought to check out The Sandman, if you haven't.)