Just caught up! Speculation/Questions maybe?
Jan 23, 2018 1:50:33 GMT
Brave Sir Robin, Oneiros, and 1 more like this
Post by Bartleby on Jan 23, 2018 1:50:33 GMT
I should preface this post by saying that not only am I new to this forum, I'm new to these kinds of forums in general. If all of this has already been said before or is otherwise already commonly known/debunked, I apologise for being late to the party. Likewise, apologies if I've violated any Thread formatting/submission etiquette, I promise it wasn't intentional.
That said, I've recently caught up on the podcast (thoroughly enjoyed it), and I had some thoughts with regards to the revelation of there being certain 'Powers' in/next to the world.
As I understand it, a number (though not necessarily all?) of the monsters and entities we hear of in the show are not isolated occurrences of the supernatural, but in fact are aspects and agents of certain Powers, with each of these powers embodying a theme or subgenre within 'Horror' as a whole. Thus, where the not-Them appear, what we are really seeing is the influence of the Power known as 'The Stranger' manifesting in our world.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but these manifestations do not always have a purpose. Some of them, like the not-Them, are just the result of a 'muscle spasm', so to speak - an involuntary twitch of the Power. These things embody and inspire the fear their power is associated with, but not because they have any particular agenda to further - it's just a part of their nature to be the way they are. Other entities appear to have been intentionally crafted to fulfil a role - these entities act in service to a bigger picture.
So, if I have all that right, I propose a sort of classification. We have Unintentional Aspects - the not-Them for example, which is quite happy to terrify and destroy lives at it's leisure - and we have Intentional Aspects - Michael, Jane Prentiss, The Archivist, any Aspect that serves it's Power directly.
That alone is really interesting to me to think about. But I also have a sort of theory on how these aspects might come about. Comments from the not-Them indicate that fear is good. That it intentionally let's some people see through it's disguise because the fear that knowing inspires is desirable. Now, you could chalk that up to the not-Them just being evil, or shortsighted, or unstable due to being an Unintentional Aspect of it's Power.
But I think there's more to it than that.
I think that, rather than cause it, these Powers and their Aspects are the result of fear. That there is some property to human fear that, when felt on a large enough scale on specific enough a subject, warps reality to create the embodiment of that experience.
If each and every human being has a deep-seated, ingrained fear of losing their mind, of not being able to trust their own senses - if that fear is universally understood in a primal, unspoken way by everyone - well, doesn't that make it real? Doesn't it exist in as concrete and objective a way as a chair, or a tree? That is what the Power of The Spiral is. It's the fear of deception/madness/misperception made real by the minds of those who believe in it.
And this leads me to what I actually wanted to make this topic about, before I kind of wandered off rambling like an idiot. I think we've seen this process happen, only on a smaller scale: the scale of an Unintentional Aspect being created. What I'm referring to is MAG 69 - Thought for the Day.
Here, an attempt is made to project the fear of a group onto an individual, with the intent being to impose that fear on the subject. But this isn't what happens. Fear is inspired in a group by the use of a common phobia - arachnophobia, and that fear is 'projected' onto a subject in progressively higher concentrations. The end result is not that she shared their fear; it was that she BECAME an extension of that fear - a spider-like entity with abilities associated with the Power of The Web. An Aspect.
An Unintentional Aspect, if you're following my logic. Not one any Power wanted or decided to create - an Aspect that came into existence as a result of humans not understanding the power of their own minds.
And I think that's a pretty neat idea. Even if I did take far too long to actually get around to saying it. I didn't really mean to make this post quite this long - I kind of got carried away - but I hope for the most part I made my main point clearly enough. Now that I'm caught up, I plan on doing a relisten, so if I have some details wrong feel free to correct me. And I totally understand if noone reads any of this.
I'll leave things on a quote from MAG 69 that sticks out to me:
"We create the world in a lot of ways. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that, when we're not being careful, we can change it."
That said, I've recently caught up on the podcast (thoroughly enjoyed it), and I had some thoughts with regards to the revelation of there being certain 'Powers' in/next to the world.
As I understand it, a number (though not necessarily all?) of the monsters and entities we hear of in the show are not isolated occurrences of the supernatural, but in fact are aspects and agents of certain Powers, with each of these powers embodying a theme or subgenre within 'Horror' as a whole. Thus, where the not-Them appear, what we are really seeing is the influence of the Power known as 'The Stranger' manifesting in our world.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but these manifestations do not always have a purpose. Some of them, like the not-Them, are just the result of a 'muscle spasm', so to speak - an involuntary twitch of the Power. These things embody and inspire the fear their power is associated with, but not because they have any particular agenda to further - it's just a part of their nature to be the way they are. Other entities appear to have been intentionally crafted to fulfil a role - these entities act in service to a bigger picture.
So, if I have all that right, I propose a sort of classification. We have Unintentional Aspects - the not-Them for example, which is quite happy to terrify and destroy lives at it's leisure - and we have Intentional Aspects - Michael, Jane Prentiss, The Archivist, any Aspect that serves it's Power directly.
That alone is really interesting to me to think about. But I also have a sort of theory on how these aspects might come about. Comments from the not-Them indicate that fear is good. That it intentionally let's some people see through it's disguise because the fear that knowing inspires is desirable. Now, you could chalk that up to the not-Them just being evil, or shortsighted, or unstable due to being an Unintentional Aspect of it's Power.
But I think there's more to it than that.
I think that, rather than cause it, these Powers and their Aspects are the result of fear. That there is some property to human fear that, when felt on a large enough scale on specific enough a subject, warps reality to create the embodiment of that experience.
If each and every human being has a deep-seated, ingrained fear of losing their mind, of not being able to trust their own senses - if that fear is universally understood in a primal, unspoken way by everyone - well, doesn't that make it real? Doesn't it exist in as concrete and objective a way as a chair, or a tree? That is what the Power of The Spiral is. It's the fear of deception/madness/misperception made real by the minds of those who believe in it.
And this leads me to what I actually wanted to make this topic about, before I kind of wandered off rambling like an idiot. I think we've seen this process happen, only on a smaller scale: the scale of an Unintentional Aspect being created. What I'm referring to is MAG 69 - Thought for the Day.
Here, an attempt is made to project the fear of a group onto an individual, with the intent being to impose that fear on the subject. But this isn't what happens. Fear is inspired in a group by the use of a common phobia - arachnophobia, and that fear is 'projected' onto a subject in progressively higher concentrations. The end result is not that she shared their fear; it was that she BECAME an extension of that fear - a spider-like entity with abilities associated with the Power of The Web. An Aspect.
An Unintentional Aspect, if you're following my logic. Not one any Power wanted or decided to create - an Aspect that came into existence as a result of humans not understanding the power of their own minds.
And I think that's a pretty neat idea. Even if I did take far too long to actually get around to saying it. I didn't really mean to make this post quite this long - I kind of got carried away - but I hope for the most part I made my main point clearly enough. Now that I'm caught up, I plan on doing a relisten, so if I have some details wrong feel free to correct me. And I totally understand if noone reads any of this.
I'll leave things on a quote from MAG 69 that sticks out to me:
"We create the world in a lot of ways. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that, when we're not being careful, we can change it."