Post by Hrafn on Feb 13, 2018 20:16:58 GMT -5
Whoah! What an excellent discussion!-especially cheesumpuffs’ bit. This makes the whole Mer thing so much more vivid and lifelike to me!
I have some thoughts on this that I’ll see if I can sum up succinctly.
I would agree with Ne having a disembodied quality to it. But just like Ti’s dispassion is never enough to truly leave passion behind, Ne’s disembodiment is never enough to truly leave the body behind.
And while I relate a lot to much of what cheesumpuffs wrote, I would say my experiences with dark Mer have often come more from this direction: neglecting the present reality of the "body". I feel I’ve lived a rather privileged life, and for me the biggest privilege is feeling like I’ve always had the freedom to choose my own path. I’ve never suffered imprisonment, wage slavery, abusive relationships, poor health, debilitating depression, inability to imagine alternatives, or any of a vast number of afflictions that might make me feel trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque rut.
So during most of my 20s, exercising my freedom was exactly what I did. I casually got into dangerous situations, rarely lived in one single place for more than a few months at a time, didn’t get into serious relationships, ate to excess, drank to excess, tried (OK, well more than just tried) different drugs. For a large part I have a lot of wistful, nostalgic memories of all of this. But I think the dark side of this path/attitude for me was dark Mer. It would crop up from constantly imagining where I could be, what I could be doing. The feeling that no present reality is ever quite enough compared to the potential that’s just beyond the horizon. Of course, as soon as I’d move beyond the horizon, the horizon moves further away and pull my mind away with it. So rather than taking in the fullness of the rich textures and interpersonal connections around me, my mind would be billowing out into the clouds, trying to satiate itself with an imaginary soup of archetypes and caricatures that lacked the body and substantiveness of the present. Absent-mindedly scarfing down half a king salmon while imagining the cheesecake that’s to come for dessert. If it got pulled too far away for too long, I’d start losing my efficacy at engaging with the people around me and with life itself. Becoming negligent, flighty, self-indulgent. If I could respond positively and re-engage, the problem would be averted. But if instead I started worrying about what was happening, imagining where the bad path I was on could lead, the potential I’d see on the horizon could easily turn very dark.
You know, I have something I wrote during that period of my life about this very thing—perhaps I’ll post it.
I have some thoughts on this that I’ll see if I can sum up succinctly.
I suspect Ne feels a bit disembodied, hence its givenness to excess and prankster ways to feel its own weight.
I would agree with Ne having a disembodied quality to it. But just like Ti’s dispassion is never enough to truly leave passion behind, Ne’s disembodiment is never enough to truly leave the body behind.
And while I relate a lot to much of what cheesumpuffs wrote, I would say my experiences with dark Mer have often come more from this direction: neglecting the present reality of the "body". I feel I’ve lived a rather privileged life, and for me the biggest privilege is feeling like I’ve always had the freedom to choose my own path. I’ve never suffered imprisonment, wage slavery, abusive relationships, poor health, debilitating depression, inability to imagine alternatives, or any of a vast number of afflictions that might make me feel trapped in a Groundhog Day-esque rut.
So during most of my 20s, exercising my freedom was exactly what I did. I casually got into dangerous situations, rarely lived in one single place for more than a few months at a time, didn’t get into serious relationships, ate to excess, drank to excess, tried (OK, well more than just tried) different drugs. For a large part I have a lot of wistful, nostalgic memories of all of this. But I think the dark side of this path/attitude for me was dark Mer. It would crop up from constantly imagining where I could be, what I could be doing. The feeling that no present reality is ever quite enough compared to the potential that’s just beyond the horizon. Of course, as soon as I’d move beyond the horizon, the horizon moves further away and pull my mind away with it. So rather than taking in the fullness of the rich textures and interpersonal connections around me, my mind would be billowing out into the clouds, trying to satiate itself with an imaginary soup of archetypes and caricatures that lacked the body and substantiveness of the present. Absent-mindedly scarfing down half a king salmon while imagining the cheesecake that’s to come for dessert. If it got pulled too far away for too long, I’d start losing my efficacy at engaging with the people around me and with life itself. Becoming negligent, flighty, self-indulgent. If I could respond positively and re-engage, the problem would be averted. But if instead I started worrying about what was happening, imagining where the bad path I was on could lead, the potential I’d see on the horizon could easily turn very dark.
You know, I have something I wrote during that period of my life about this very thing—perhaps I’ll post it.
