"...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.

[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.

[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'.

[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. =^)

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

It's all the fault of the gays.

Hey, you know somewhere someone will say that.

[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.

[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...