for alsoelsewhere

[ursula]

For all your metaphysical criticism, one can't help thinking you are very like the younger Ged: brilliant, confident, arrogant, and impatient with the usual bureaucracies of education. In fact, if I were you I would find it almost impossible not to read Wizard of Earthsea as a tract on the way people like me will inevitably come to grief, an argument which, naturally, inspires resentment.

I wonder also if the solipsistic alternative is less attractive to those of us who are naturally unperceptive: when one walks into walls, furniture, etc. which one did not believe existed on a regular basis, one is forced to accept either that one's will is very weak or that reality is very present, and I personally find it easier to believe in reality than to believe I am not strong-minded.

Comments

[reasie.livejournal.com]

love that last paragraph. Some day I hope I am up to the challenge of making you into a character. :)

[ursula]

You will have to make a version that is better at communicating in real life, or your story will never go anywhere :)

[jakemainstreet.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I love reading these even though I don't know any of the people you're writing to. And I think they give just as much insight into your character as into the person's your writing about. How can you call yourself unperceptive?

I wonder if you are practicing your character development skills with these memes.

[ursula]

So far these are all people whom I know largely through text-- that's true even of nobu, since her journal-self is quite different from her social presence-- and thus you are conflating my skill at textual analysis with my skill at not walking into things, which isn't at all fair.

This particular entry may be cheating by excess of self-analysis; but alsoelsewhere has the advantage of location, and can extort more compliments in person.

[aryky.livejournal.com]

Clearly, that simply isn't unperceptive enough. When I walk into walls and furniture that I don't believe exist, I don't believe that I walked into them, either. Pain is fleeting. Solipsism 4-eva!

[ursula]

Do you drive?

[aryky.livejournal.com]

Umm. . . yeah. Of course, in real life, I think I've successfully gotten over my solipsism. Not to mention the subsequent period of believing that nothing, including myself, existed. Sanity 4-eva!

[ursula]

Gosh, I had no idea these things were such a popular component of adolescence. You and alsoelsewhere should chat!