proofthatihaveaheart

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what if we fell in love forever under the plastic desk tarps

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helly just learned how to bike and she's already speeding to places 🫣 (costco probably)

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The work is mysterious and important

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What a fun field trip

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we’re the circle in the square

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i do think it's interesting how the primary misstep people seem to make when it comes to analyzing severance is seeing the innies and outies as entirely separate characters. when i think the coolest thing about the way the show has gone about doing its doppelganger concept is the way it so thoroughly problematizes any attempt to do that. normally when stories do a doppelganger, that character is either an unambiguously separate character who is only metaphorically the same as the protagonist, or an alter ego who represents a piece of or exaggeration of the protagonist. or a literal twin, or clone, or double. in all cases the story is usually about that which we consider falsely other to ourselves. and maybe the story plays the monstrous otherness straight, or maybe it's about the consequences of seeing parts of yourself as a monstrous other. but regardless of what exactly the story is doing the doppelganger in question is in some sense made literally other, whether physically (frankenstein's creature) or in terms of character (mr. hyde, tyler durden).

whereas in severance the only difference between the innies and outies is their memories. no one's been possessed, or lost their soul. repeatedly, elements of the innies or outies bleed through. and yes of course, philosophically, you can argue about whether--by having different memories--this does make the innies and outies as separate of people as say, clones might be. ie, people who also have different physical existences. and i don't think the show is running away from that discussion or something. clearly, given the whole conversation about "do innies and outies have separate souls" from 2x06, it's a question that's on the table.

but the point i'm trying to make is that for the purposes of metaphor, by making the innies and outies share a body and a selfhood, it immediately and viscerally becomes painfully obvious that severed characters really are otherizing themselves. they are punishing themselves, ignoring themselves, betraying themselves, fighting themselves, dehumanizing themselves, abusing themselves. they are doing that to someone who is a person, because the person is them. the false otherness isn't a surprise, it is deliciously plain, almost pathetic or mundane. and that is a different and interesting kind of horror.

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This desk used to have four seats. Our friend Irving is gone, and they want our whole department gone. If he gets out, we're dead. They're gonna turn us off like fucking machines. You've seen them do it. I know you've lost friends too. And you could be next. You could be next.

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More intimate

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🙉🙈🙊💖

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Please state your name and occupation.

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I found photos of those Pallas Cat kittens born this year and bye I'm deceased

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I love auto-selecting camp supplies, it’s too funny

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i love them

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Bring the light!

My Rook, Dawes Mercar