Blogcember: Mystery and Poison Trees

[sabotabby]

princealberic asks:

What about an unsolved mystery or mysteries you find especially creepy/interesting? It can be an unsolved murder or weird unexplained phenomena or whatever.

(I went browsing through your tags for inspiration as suggested, and wtf does "fight the poison tree with pokemons" mean?).

The second question is easier to answer, so let’s start there. It’s a reference to the amazing website of a crazy right-winger named George Hutchins who has the best website on the internet. I first posted about him here. There are so many great things about his website but the best phrase was his answer to a forum question on what he could do to improve the site:

A few of those...what do you call them? Pokemons.

I think pokemons will bring in the younger generation as well.

WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET TO FIGHT THE POISON TREE!

In other words, it’s shorthand for “your argument makes so little sense that I’m convinced you’re tripping balls. Stop talking about politics and get some sleep.”

As to unsolved mysteries, well. It’s much harder to put into words, but it’s something like a sense of the uncanny that is just one degree removed from ordinary reality. I’d compare it to walking down a familiar road when your mind wanders off for 30 seconds and you’re suddenly on an unfamiliar one, which is just slightly off; you can see just enough that you recognize to understand that you’re completely lost. You can even see your regular route, but for whatever reason, you can’t get to it.

Creepypasta is a good example of what I’m talking about. It’s horrifically silly, intentionally so, but my favourite creepypasta sounds just enough like something that someone could theoretically experience that if you’re reading enough of it late at night you can creep yourself out. Candle Cove is the sort of thing I’m talking about—you remember weird and slightly questionable shows from your childhood, but not clearly, and it’s mixed up with your nightmares and the fact that early childhood is basically one long acid trip, but worse because you know it when you’re on acid but a child has nothing to compare it to. At least, it was like that for me.

The Lost Decade Theory, which I’m currently writing a novel-type-thing about, is another one. Again, it suggests that you’ve experienced something that you don’t quite remember but lies just beneath the surface.

The best mysteries, for me, capture this sensibility, and involve an intricate, gradually unfolding paradigm shift. There is probably a completely mundane explanation, but there’s also the possibility of intrusion from what Iain M. Banks termed an “Outside Context Problem,” (warning: link goes to TVTropes), the possibility that your own secure reality is, in fact, neither reality nor secure.

Comments

[lienne.livejournal.com]

"the possibility that your own secure reality is, in fact, neither reality nor secure. "

~ooooo~

[sabotabby]

Story of my life.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

Yay, thank you for answering my questions!

I'm very confused by right-wingers and what they think of Pokémon. I'm going to assume a poison tree is something people had back in the 60s.

I really like your answer to the unsolved mysteries question, even though my own answer would be different, I like the way you phrase yours and makes it easier for us to truly understand why you find those things creepy (if this makes sense).

and the fact that early childhood is basically one long acid trip, but worse because you know it when you’re on acid but a child has nothing to compare it to

omg yes, childhood is such a weird thing, because no matter how clever you are there's just so much you don't understand and the world is bizarre, and it doesn't help that the memories you're left with feature a lot of bright colours, moments you can't quite explain, and beliefs that make no sense to you now.

I still don't understand the lost decade theory, if we had "lost" a decade wouldn't people be noticeably older? For example, your toddler would be a tween all of a sudden. I tried to read the Wikipedia entry you link to in that post, but it's about the hypothesis that events that took place in the Middle Ages were wrongly dated, and even though thinking about calendar systems and how they can be so different is kind of trippy and weird, I don't see how discovering that Charlemagne didn't exist would make me 10 years older? I'm not being snarky or anything, I honestly don't get it.

the possibility that your own secure reality is, in fact, neither reality nor secure.

Yes. So much this. I love the way you've worded it.

[sabotabby]

I really like your answer to the unsolved mysteries question, even though my own answer would be different, I like the way you phrase yours and makes it easier for us to truly understand why you find those things creepy (if this makes sense).

I'd be interested in your answer.

I still don't understand the lost decade theory, if we had "lost" a decade wouldn't people be noticeably older? For example, your toddler would be a tween all of a sudden. I tried to read the Wikipedia entry you link to in that post, but it's about the hypothesis that events that took place in the Middle Ages were wrongly dated, and even though thinking about calendar systems and how they can be so different is kind of trippy and weird, I don't see how discovering that Charlemagne didn't exist would make me 10 years older? I'm not being snarky or anything, I honestly don't get it.

Oh, it makes no sense as an actual coherent conspiracy theory (whereas the wrong dates in the Middle Ages are at least theoretically possible, but the Lost Decade is a spoof on that). As a metaphor, though, for the distorted sense of time you have as you age? It totally makes sense. No matter how old I get, the 90s feel like they were 10 years ago to me. I imagine it's even worse with kids; they were just toddlers yesterday, and now holyshit teenagers.

My story, of course, takes it dead literally, and all of the characters find themselves a decade older than they feel they should be at the end. The one that has a kid is particularly fucked up by it.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

I'll make a post about it!

And ah, ok, I get it now! The thing about the wrong dates is the kind of thing that is obviously possible, since the more we go back in time, the less material we have to work with and the fact that calendar systems were much less coherent back then makes it more complicated. Even if the specific stuff on Wikipedia sounds very pseudo-scholarly to me, it wouldn't surprise me if we'd gotten the date of a specific event wrong, that kind of thing. I couldn't figure out how a lost decade in recent memory fit into all of that, but I love the idea now that you've explained it! I definitely get that sense of distorted time sometimes so it sounds really fun to think about it.

omg I can't wait to read the end of your story because that sounds glorious and I've really enjoyed the parts you've posted so far.

[sadwizardscrypt.livejournal.com]

That Hutchins site is the greatest find ever. It's like a North Carolina version of the Russian Victories index! But since it's from North Carolina, well...

Also, he uses adjectives in an interesting way.

"North Carolina, as a loyal Southern Confederate State, honorably sent soldiers to Gettysburg, who FOUGHT Bravely in this Climatic FAMED Fatalistic Historic, destructive, July 1-3, 1863, U.S. Civil War battle."

[sabotabby]

Isn't it great?

I'm interested in the confluence between wacky ideas and wacky use of language. Which precedes the other?