eternalfarnham - Tumblr blog

[eternalfarnham]

the difficulty of speech/language as a format makes me think about like... thoughts/direct experiences being the full, ideal version of something, and language being the only lossy, crappy way we have to share them with others (but it will never express everything about a thought or experience so that someone else can completely understand what it was like for you). i'm sure some philosopher has expressed that more succinctly... but these are the words i have to work with.

I think I get what you mean. It’s not uncommon to see people frustrated that they can’t just beam a story or drawing in its perfect form directly from head to page either, though I tend to suspect that the mental picture’s vagueness is exactly how it manages to feel perfect.

I ran a search on the phrase “fantasy of perfect communication” and found an excellent snippet that expands on the topic, though in a way that is more critical than sympathetic. From “Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism” by Toril Moi, talking about Ibsen’s character Brendel (bolding mine):

The image of the locked money-box spells out the idea that underpins the fear of having nothing to say: namely, the idea that the soul, the inner self, is something secret, is something secret, something hidden away, unavailable to others. From here it is easy to move to the idea that the human body is an obstacle to the understanding of the human mind. The next step is to consider language as a curse: as a highly flawed instrument we have to use to connect with others because of the opaqueness of the body. Brendel is a perfect example of this logic, for he dreams of being understood – even adored – without having to write a word: his is a fantasy of perfect communication without the intermediary of language.

Quintessentially skeptical, the fantasy of perfect communication between two souls devalues the body, but it devalues language, too, for it deprives words of all value: human speech can only ever be second best in relation to the true, wordless communion of souls. Again, Brendel is the perfect case in point, for he thinks of his ideals as treasures locked up in his inner moneybox, and imagines that sharing them with others will degrade them: “Why would I profane my own ideals when I could enjoy them in their purity and on my own?”

The fantasy of perfect communication of souls clashes completely with the idea of making speeches in public. Public speeches not only require words, they confront us with the freedom of response of others. We simply cannot take for granted that the audience will understand our words the way we do: speaking out, we run the risk of being rebuffed. In comparison, the fantasy of perfect communication from soul to soul comes to look coercive, for it does not open any space for the other’s freedom of response: beneath the fantasy of the harmonious merger of souls lurks a refusal to acknowledge the otherness of others.

Brendel, then, is a linguistic skeptic. “The tedious task of scribbling” may be good enough for Ibsen, but it is not good enough for Brendel. Simply by having precise meanings, words degrade and destroy: Brendel could never enjoy his thoughts were he to go beyond the “rough outline”. Brendel’s project is doomed by his own distrust in language; his fate is a perfect, and darkly comic, allegory for the meaning of Rosmersholm.

In addition to seemingly addressing the attitudes towards language we’ve been talking about, Moi’s model reminds me a bit of some comments about Rose from awhile back: her procrastination, in its own way, sustains her fantasy of omnipotence. (x)(x)

[eternalfarnham]

The Coffin of Vicky and Amy

[eternalfarnham]

"You feel sick" That one line you could get after waking up had me thinking hard about some things

[eternalfarnham]

"I'll save you!" I cry as swords begin to erupt from my body and I scream in agony (it's not really clear how this is helping you)

[eternalfarnham]

I Seriously Hope You Guys Don't Eat This

[eternalfarnham]

[eternalfarnham]

/x/ MLP succubus-summoning cumsock mages vs. tumblr bone-stealing witches vs. Clifford-traumatized tiktok shifters vs. r/paranormal "my sleep paralysis demon is objectively real" onieromonglers

[eternalfarnham]

[eternalfarnham]

chilchuck moment

[eternalfarnham]

fellow tgirls only

obviously reblog for sample size

[eternalfarnham]

[eternalfarnham]

Based off the wonderful post made by @cocoon2010

[eternalfarnham]

FYI: I've decided that my next fiction project will not be serialized. I'll release it all at once, in a completed state.

I'm not going to say much (if anything) about this work until it's been released, but I wanted to make a note of this fact.

In the past, what you saw was what you got: anything I wrote was posted online almost immediately, and if I hadn't posted any new fiction that generally meant I had not written any. This is no longer the case.

You will have to wait some time for this new work to appear. But the wait will be vastly shorter than the wait for Almost Nowhere (6+ years), and closer to the time it took to finish my previous two novels (i.e. months rather than years). I am very confident about this.

[eternalfarnham]

ttps://www.theregister.com/2024/04/18/novelty_flip_phone_strips_out/

[eternalfarnham]

Okay. Reblog this and tag with a numerical response for how many of these artists you listen to. It’s stereotypical “tumblr user” music.

Lemon Demon

Tally Hall

Death Grips

Jack Stauber

Mr Bungle

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

Devo

Oingo Boingo

Aquabats

Weird Al

My Chemical Romance

100gecs

Talking Heads

They Might Be Giants

Mitski

Girl In Red

[eternalfarnham]

i do have to admit you have made me actively mad that i don't get to live in the universe where i get to read toby fox's pact that shit would be tight as hell

At the start of ROSEQUARTZ, you're asked to provide a name for the protagonist as a boy and a name for the protagonist as a girl. This ultimately amounts to a red herring; late in the game, you find out that Rose and Greg had both names in mind before they knew the protagonist's sex.

RAZORQUEST starts with a similar character creation screen, but, to put it mildly, the boy-name-and-girl-name setup is not a red herring this time.