Eee, love so much that you're doing this. Thank you!
I'd probably be open to it being posted somewhere with credit, though.
Let me know if wildspeak.com counts as one of those places. It wouldn't be for a while anyway, but I've been thinking about slowly expanding the 'other spirituality' section again. Well, you know, as actively as I ever do anything on that site. *hangs head.*
I like the term awakened to indicate a spirit that is able to interact / communicate. I also like the concept of dormancy, though I have also met items where the majority of the functional soul is simply gone, or dead or has moved on. That's not just restricted to artefact spirits, but also to land spirits. The local Nyungah even have a term for it, which is 'mootch' land. Or land where the primary genius locii is essentially dead and waiting for new spirits to take its place.
Why would, for example, a plastic spork, wish to awaken when it was created impersonally to be identical to millions, used once, and then sent to a landfill?
I don't know this from experience (i.e. I haven't talked with a spork, though I have with other short-lived plastic objects), but I don't see why it wouldn't.
I mean, there are tiny animals that live only for a day, and they still take the time to awaken and then die. Just because we can't relate to the lifespan, or the purpose within the lifespan, doesn't mean that an item (or animal's) purpose is pointless because it is limited.
There are millions of flies and butterflies and lacewings and even smaller creatures that experience their winged life for a truly limited amount of time, sometimes only a few hours, but clearly there is enough of a point that it happens.
A spork might be sitting in a packet in a box for months of years (i.e. the 'larval' stage of a spork), to come to life for the minutes it is used to help enrich a person's nourishment, and then its end-stages when passed onto landfill. To me, that is just as meaningful as the tiny insects that we never see or notice, that come to life briefly and pass on again.
We might not understand the point because to us a life so short might seem pointless, but that strikes me as projection. It always used to seem a 'waste' to me that some cicadas spend far longer in their larval phase than their active winged phase, to be born in the millions, to just die after a brief mating period. But if it evolved, it has a point, even if that point is as simple as 'to exist for a few hours for reasons unknown to us'. The perception of time probably seems very different to a being with a tiny lifespan, compared to say, us. Just like we seem very different to a land spirit with a longer lifespan than ours.
We might want to keep something for a period of time because of our attachment to time and longevity and media's emphasis on 'living forever.' But what if sporks and other short-lived beings actually *don't* want that? Why do our goals need to be the same if we are not the same? I wouldn't ask a winged cicada to live for 10 years because I thought that might be more meaningful; and I'd still want it to awaken to its brief winged life. A few hours living out a purpose is still sacred, not wasteful, and certainly not pointless imho. I would say from the amount of pop culture that has derived from the spork, plenty of sporks do awaken and share their energies with others. They are one of the most popular and comically-viewed cutlery items in the market.
It is extremely common for children's plushies and toys to awaken.
This makes so much sense to me, and also goes a long way to explaining why there are so many narratives - both indigenous, entrenched in fairytale, and even now through the Toy Story movie series - about toys. So many profound books about plushies (The Velveteen Rabbit).
It also makes a lot of sense that technology is easy to awaken and often born awakened. Especially given how much interaction they get.
I love the clip, too. It's one of my favourite scenes in the movie.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-10-21 10:28 am (UTC)I'd probably be open to it being posted somewhere with credit, though.
Let me know if wildspeak.com counts as one of those places. It wouldn't be for a while anyway, but I've been thinking about slowly expanding the 'other spirituality' section again. Well, you know, as actively as I ever do anything on that site. *hangs head.*
I like the term awakened to indicate a spirit that is able to interact / communicate. I also like the concept of dormancy, though I have also met items where the majority of the functional soul is simply gone, or dead or has moved on. That's not just restricted to artefact spirits, but also to land spirits. The local Nyungah even have a term for it, which is 'mootch' land. Or land where the primary genius locii is essentially dead and waiting for new spirits to take its place.
Why would, for example, a plastic spork, wish to awaken when it was created impersonally to be identical to millions, used once, and then sent to a landfill?
I don't know this from experience (i.e. I haven't talked with a spork, though I have with other short-lived plastic objects), but I don't see why it wouldn't.
I mean, there are tiny animals that live only for a day, and they still take the time to awaken and then die. Just because we can't relate to the lifespan, or the purpose within the lifespan, doesn't mean that an item (or animal's) purpose is pointless because it is limited.
There are millions of flies and butterflies and lacewings and even smaller creatures that experience their winged life for a truly limited amount of time, sometimes only a few hours, but clearly there is enough of a point that it happens.
A spork might be sitting in a packet in a box for months of years (i.e. the 'larval' stage of a spork), to come to life for the minutes it is used to help enrich a person's nourishment, and then its end-stages when passed onto landfill. To me, that is just as meaningful as the tiny insects that we never see or notice, that come to life briefly and pass on again.
We might not understand the point because to us a life so short might seem pointless, but that strikes me as projection. It always used to seem a 'waste' to me that some cicadas spend far longer in their larval phase than their active winged phase, to be born in the millions, to just die after a brief mating period. But if it evolved, it has a point, even if that point is as simple as 'to exist for a few hours for reasons unknown to us'. The perception of time probably seems very different to a being with a tiny lifespan, compared to say, us. Just like we seem very different to a land spirit with a longer lifespan than ours.
We might want to keep something for a period of time because of our attachment to time and longevity and media's emphasis on 'living forever.' But what if sporks and other short-lived beings actually *don't* want that? Why do our goals need to be the same if we are not the same? I wouldn't ask a winged cicada to live for 10 years because I thought that might be more meaningful; and I'd still want it to awaken to its brief winged life. A few hours living out a purpose is still sacred, not wasteful, and certainly not pointless imho. I would say from the amount of pop culture that has derived from the spork, plenty of sporks do awaken and share their energies with others. They are one of the most popular and comically-viewed cutlery items in the market.
It is extremely common for children's plushies and toys to awaken.
This makes so much sense to me, and also goes a long way to explaining why there are so many narratives - both indigenous, entrenched in fairytale, and even now through the Toy Story movie series - about toys. So many profound books about plushies (The Velveteen Rabbit).
It also makes a lot of sense that technology is easy to awaken and often born awakened. Especially given how much interaction they get.
I love the clip, too. It's one of my favourite scenes in the movie.