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uberreinigerHappy 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.
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.
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Date: 2011-01-05 06:10 am (UTC)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.
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Date: 2011-01-06 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 07:07 am (UTC)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^/
no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 07:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-06 08:11 pm (UTC)