"...They bleed upon the nest. There was no time for reasons. They had no sign of the threat."

[uberreiniger]

Happy New Year everyone. I'm not as grim as I'm about to sound. I've actually had a couple of very pleasant days but maybe that's just making me more appreciative of how absurd things are out there right now.

Placing fantastical or magical elements into a contemporary modern setting, whether you call it "urban fantasy" or not, always seems to come with the conceit that you must explain why most people in the contemporary modern world aren't aware of it. Some settings (e.g. World of Darkness) have the supernatural creatures actively policing themselves and camoflouging their activities from the normals. Others (e.g. Buffy) have the normals themselves trying to hide the nefarious goings-on from the world.

I just finished reading Widdershins by Charles De Lint which postulates an alternative theory. In De Lint's works, most people who've had supernatural experiences - even very intricate, involved ones - simply forget about them. Their mind actively shores up the supernaturally-shaped hole with layers of rationalism and skepticism. Simply put: reality requires no conspiracy to sustain itself. Reality is self-healing.

I think Mr. De Lint may have the right of it but it's worse than he thinks. Not only is reality self-healing, it can barely be wounded in the first place. Whenever something utterly bizarre or unexplainable happens on a grand scale - whether it's glowing spirals in the sky over Norway or the unexplained mass die-off of birds and fish in the southeastern United States - People seem to muster an ability to look the other way that is so overpowering as to be supernatural in and of itself. You can even be looking right AT the thing and still look away. As in, you'll read an article or see a video, go hey that was weird, and move on. A news clip might have a couple of nervously laughing anchorpersons accompanied by a few bars of the X-Files theme song, and then it's on to weather and sports.

I'm not saying the Norway spirals or the animal die-offs have or require any kind of supernatural explanation. They certainly don't and animal die-offs are not unprecedented. But I think people *should* look at something like that and want to know why. Humans should see these phenomena and not go "huh that was weird" before going back to weather and sports. Secret military tests could create eldritch happenings in the night sky as easily as UFO's. Parasites and viruses can kill masses of birds and fish as easily as a Biblical prophecy. And yet I fail to see why one is less feared than the other. Mutated viruses are preferential to an angry God... why, exactly?

People don't know and they don't want to know. The conspiracy theorists always treat any "official" explanation for something out-of-the-ordinary as a lie. But I wonder why the official liars would even bother. People are linking this shit on Facebook and then forgetting about it. It's not even a sound byte in the news cycle, if that and then lost forevermore.

Excuse my melodramatic tone, but God help us all.

Comments

[batchix.livejournal.com]

I think it's natural human instinct to try and forget these sort of things otherwise we'd all end up constantly worrying about WHAT IT MEANS. and generally I'd say if there's a war in heaven or in the reality next door to us or if cthulu is poking tentacles into our world... what the fuck can we do about it anyway. XD I think the proper people are probably alarmed in the right amount to DO something about it and the rest of us go about business as usual without getting in their way.

I mean, what if it was happening and we became aware? Look at the mess politics are! we'd have pundits droning on about whether or not demonic help comes with strings or not. or why it's better to consult a witch than a warlock and what's PC if your daughter is dating a werewolf.

but then, that could make for a really good spoof book.


also, have you read Dead Witch Walking? I listened to it as an audio book and i thought it was an interesting twist on the whole vampire book trend. The vampire in love with the main female protagonist is also female... and then they end up as roommates. it was pretty good... but i think i stopped at book 3.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I do want to read Kim Harrison's books, just haven't gotten to them yet.

It's not that I think we could "do something" about it. It just would be nice to see more people appreciate when unusual things happen; just some sign that people are aware of and interested in the world they live in. But then again I guess I'd like to see that in a lot of other ways too.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

Fox News freaks me the heck out. I sometimes think that is the face of most of America and that freaks me out even more. When you really start to think about it all the incoming crisis will overwhelm you.

Here's a go at it: Climate crisis, energy crisis (oil, etc), food crisis (look at what we are doing/have done to our food), water crisis, infrastructure crisis, health care crisis (like we ever had any), prison crisis, economic crisis (that we didn't fix), mental health crisis (can be lumped in with prison crisis, unfortunately), education crisis, social security, leadership crisis (you see any leaders in DC? Me, either)... and I'm sure you can come up with a few more. (the dearest crisis to my heart is a spiritual one; the Republicans have no more right to 'represent' God than a fox a chicken coop.)

When you think about everything going wrong, it makes you wonder how we all are able to ignore every single issue? Or, how we are incapable of seeing even one issue without one party or another's blinders? It drives me crazy that we do nothing about anything, unless it involves somebody else getting something we don't think they deserve. TSA Xrays and groping? No problem. Healthcare for everyone? Uproar.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

(the dearest crisis to my heart is a spiritual one; the Republicans have no more right to 'represent' God than a fox a chicken coop.)

Republican policies don't seem to line up with Jesus' teachings very well. They don't obey him, they appropriate him.

I agree with everything you've said. A better solution than hiding the problems from the masses seems to be to hurl them at the masses so fast that the masses give up from sheer fatigue.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

You said it better than I did.

I heard about the massive starling and redwing blackbird die offs on NPR, where they didn't use the 'spooky soundbite' approach. However, I didn't hear much about it because our shop is so loud. Things like that after the 'moon will be as blood' kind of makes me wonder, too.

And as for supernatural happenings, I've encountered them too many times to not believe in them. Some I can explain off as a dream, others I know better than to take that route.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Likewise on my end. My supernatural experiences are pathetically few compared to some people I know but the few I've experienced were frighteningly direct and... problematic to explain from any rational standpoint. And believe me, I tried.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

The really major one I related to a friend and his mother one day. His mom never allowed him to see me again, plus she tried to get my brother's girlfriend to leave him over it. My brother's girlfriend thought it was hysterical, because she thought I was pulling a prank. I remember her laughing and telling me how funny it all was. It wasn't so funny to her when I started to cry. Sheesh, so much drama back then. We'll have to share stories some time; I promise not to laugh or forbid anyone from seeing you over it. ;)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I look forward to sharing. I promise not to break up any relationships over it as well.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Word.

[solandra.livejournal.com]

How come nobody ever thinks of the possibility that mutated viruses are just the method that an angry God uses to enact its anger? Just sayin'.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Oh it occurs to me all the time. My point is whatever agency is the ultimate cause, fucks about it should be given.

[solandra.livejournal.com]

A lot of people are either apathetic or "skeptical" in the way that they are like, "There's a reasonable explanation for this. IT was lightening! Of course! Um.. case closed!" I would like to know what's really going on, though I don't usually assume supernatural agency, but there ARE some things that are just too fucking weird to explain. Like things I've seen that aren't supposed to happen as defined by the laws of physics, with witnesses, so I know I'm not crazy. But some people would shrug and go, "Mass hallucination!" Right.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

If mass hallucinations were that easy to have people would have them all the time.

At this point I would welcome people looking at this stuff with a skeptical eye as long as they are looking at it. "Oh five thousand birds just died" should make people at least slightly curious as to why rather than just shrugging and going back to playing Farmville.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Why, Uber! I had no idea that you were such a curious lad! Why-- I'm so used to people yawning at miracles (believe me, I've seen some serious denial in my time) or fail to wonder or find suspicion that I've come to expect massive indifference. Or perhaps we can tell each other tales around a campfire and then go back to our busy lives...

Its funny. In other times, the slightest anomaly or coincidence would send people into paroxysms of panic. Nowadays, most are so trained to believe that there's nothing to believe in (but things they can BUY!) that few bother to even LOOK.

Maybe I seem too inclined to look into things with a "What if..?" approach to some. I'm okay with that. I don't miss things because I refuse to see it-- and that's made my life much richer. =^)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm curious. I don't always like the answers I get and I can delude myself and deny this crap as much as anyone. Indeed, it's the fact I caught myself doing it that made me angry enough to type this. But yeah, I have a really unhealthy hunger for arcane knowledge. I'm the guy who goes into the basement in a horror movie. (Or at least in my case walked right back into a haunted building after the entity expended a great deal of energy to chase me out.)

I dunno, fish kills and bird die-offs happen all the time but to get this many in the wake of an eclipse... Something's "off" here. Real "off." I'd better be wrong.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Oh-- and there's even more now. Same kinds of birds, even! This just keep getting more strange.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Times like this I wish I was into magic and could do some kind of divination into all this.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Basic divination wouldn't cut it. Wouldn't lend enough detail. Divination uses foci to help your mind interpret symbolism for insights into most everyday types of situations. For something completely specific, you'd have to go all out for a trance mediumship thing and see if you could get a vision about it.

I'm not so good at that myself-- my husband is, but he hates doing it. Doesn't like what he usually finds...

But yeah-- I see what you're saying. 8^/

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Well find me the shaman who's got the mojo to get to the bottom of this because the curiosity and suspense are too much!

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Sorry, dude. I can't whip one up at my whim (yet). =^P

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

It's all the fault of the gays.

Hey, you know somewhere someone will say that.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Every time you put another man's penis in your butt, God kills a redwinged blackbird. Please, think of the black birds.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files takes the same approach, and I agree with you that it's the most likely answer (which doesn't rule out the WoD/Buffy/X-Files answers either, of course).

People are too busy to care about things outside their monkeysphere.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

It was also the twist ending to the original The Howling now that I think of it, and a pretty depressing one too.

Whatever's coming to kill us may as well bring it on already because we won't even care.

[flame-song.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's just the way our minds work...
or at least most people's do.
If something has no hook in our concept of how ´the world is, it cannot be. Period.
That, among others, is one of the main reasons while so many people don't start saving their lives at once when they see a catastrophe is heading their way...

You just reminded me of a favorite song lyric...

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

"See the people standing in a row,"
See them nodding like a field of grain.
No one sees the sickle though,
Cutting across the plain."

-Savatage, "Chance"