Meta

[jenni_robinson]

I confess, I hate it when people don't listen to me. If certain parties had only considered what I had to say last December...

I know, I know, nobody wants to hear the meta stuff, but let me have this one.

Dear everyone:

Please stop thinking of reality as a binary system. It is not a dichotomy of "real" and "not real." There are degrees of reality. There are conditions of reality. It's a fine broad spectrum in Technicolor. If you're still seeing it in black-and-white, please update your system.

Look, people can get hurt over this stuff. You try telling a fanfic character he's less real than you are, and someone is going to walk away from the exchange not feeling so hot. Possibly you, if he's the violent type, but I digress. We live in a multiverse where writing has a god-like power of creation. If that guy over there can be born of writing, who's to say you and I can't also have similar origins?

This does not mean we are not real.

Being real does not mean we are not fictional.

Let's take a look at the canons for a second. Everybody here knows some canon universes come from books, or games, or TV shows, right? Everybody here's also been to at least one in the flesh, right? There you go: real and fictional, both at once. It just depends on where you're standing.

Ontology is not a dichotomy, folks. These conditions are not mutually exclusive. Please, please stop treating them as such. People can and do get hurt.

Love,

Someone Who Knows

Comments

[agent_suicide]

I'm pretty sure Im fictional but that doesn't seem to be too good at stopping me. People get so worked up about the stupidest things, don't they?

[jenni_robinson]

I wouldn't say it's stupid—no more stupid than any other question of what's real and whether there's some kind of intelligence behind it all or not. My point is these questions aren't simple ones, and trying to simplify them is a bad idea. Not worrying about it can be a good choice, though.

Also, I was thinking of you when I put in the part about the violence. ♥ Don't take that as an endorsement, though.

[agent_suicide]

I know it can't be simple.....people arent simple creatures. If they were I don't think any of us would be here. But like you said it's a complex issue, and that means people worrying themselves to death isn't going to get anything done. We're real enough, I think.

And you always know how to make a guy feel appreciated. :D