Writing on plurality

content/ally/034.md

@@ -3,14 +3,50 @@ weight: 34
 date: 2020-06-17
 ---
 
-Are you me?
+After the release of the book...or, well, while I was working releasing the book, I got to thinking: what other forms could this project take beyond writing?
 
-> You're going to have to qualify that further.
+> A silent meditation?
 
-Am I? I don't know how much more there is to it. Are you Madison, or are you someone else? Are you a separate entity? Are you a different me? Are you Matthew, now the same age as Madison, looking in at her life from the outside with preternatural knowledge and asking, "Okay, who are you?" Are you the opposite of nostalgia, blessed with some greater vision, looking back at my past and commanding me to justify my actions? Are you me?
+Ha ha.
 
-> Am I?
+I think I was thinking that specifically as I was working through a reread of both [*Swallow Me Whole*](http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/swallow-me-whole/567) and [*Post-Op Androgyne*](https://gumroad.com/l/NuQxQ): what would this project look like as a comic?
 
-I don't know.
+> I think you know what *you* would look like. I think you know how you might portray some of the events in your life in a way that symbolizes the larger-than-life nature that they have for you.
 
-And that I don't know is leading to some <a class="pulse" href="/plurality">strangely shaped thoughts</a>.
+Yes.
+
+> And then you consider how to portray me.
+
+Yes.
+
+Would it just be words? That'd probably work best. Then it would just be a comic consisting of wordless scenes of each story with competing speech bubbles playing out our conversation. A silent movie with careful narration.
+
+> An inexact metaphor.
+
+Very. I did some readings from the book at the launch party and found myself struggling to find a way to portray you through speech. How do I differentiate between you and me when speaking out loud? In a more conservative work, there might be dialog tags, actions that each of us were acting out.
+
+> Not my department.
+
+Right. So I just added a lilt to my voice and an apology to the reading.
+
+All of these things, all of these ideas, and the only ones that make the slightest bit of sense are the ones in which you have no manifestation other than words.
+
+> Right.
+
+And yet...
+
+> What?
+
+And yet you still have those. You still have words. You still have that manifestation. You have no embodiment. You have no voice. You have no sensation, no feeling when you, for lack of a better term, take over my hands to speak to me, but you still have words.
+
+You're still *here*.
+
+> Is place a thing that applies to me?
+
+No, but you're still with me, such as it is. You're still bound to now.
+
+> As much as you are.
+
+You're bound to now. You're bound to me.
+
+So what are you?

content/ally/035.md

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+---
+weight: 34
+date: 2020-06-17
+---
+
+Are you me?
+
+> You're going to have to qualify that further.
+
+Am I? I don't know how much more there is to it. Are you Madison, or are you someone else? Are you a separate entity? Are you a different me? Are you Matthew, now the same age as Madison, looking in at her life from the outside with preternatural knowledge and asking, "Okay, who are you?" Are you the opposite of nostalgia, blessed with some greater vision, looking back at my past and commanding me to justify my actions? Are you me?
+
+> Am I?
+
+I don't know.
+
+And that I don't know is leading to some <a class="pulse" href="/plurality">strangely shaped thoughts</a>.

content/news/2020-06-17-plurality.md

@@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ Are you me?
 
 ## New content
 
-* [ally 34](/34)
+* [ally 34](/34) and [35](/35)
 * [Plurality](/plurality)

content/plurality/005.md

@@ -31,18 +31,3 @@ I don't know. I suppose I do, but at the same time, I suppose my hesitation is b
 
 Yes, and no more answers than I went in with.
 
-> Will you start working with hypotheticals? Will that be the way you talk around this in circles? Will you say "If I presuppose that I am in some way plural or median or this or that, what would my life look like as compared to if I am not?"
-
-No. Not here. Not out loud.
-
-> So quick an answer.
-
-Yes. If I do those things, it will not be here because even if the author is dead, *I* agree with Rax. It is all well and good that this is a question worth considering, and I'm happy enough to acknowledge it here like this, in a roundabout way, but any further investigations would, I think, do a disservice to the project at hand and the roles we play, willing or not, in the endeavor. 
-
-> Have you gotten it out of your system, then?
-
-Are you me?
-
-Maybe, maybe not.
-
-In the end, we are not alone. That, of all things is something the book has brought me: the knowledge that we're not alone.

content/plurality/006.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+---
+weight: 6
+date: 2020-06-17
+---
+
+> Will you start working with hypotheticals? Will that be the way you talk around this in circles? Will you say "If I presuppose that I am in some way plural or median or this or that, what would my life look like as compared to if I am not?"
+
+No. Maybe. But not here. Not out loud.
+
+> So quick an answer.
+
+Yes. If I do those things, it will not be here because even if the author is dead, *I* agree with Rax. It is all well and good that this is a question worth considering, and I'm happy enough to acknowledge it here like this, in a roundabout way, but any further investigations would, I think, do a disservice to the project at hand and the roles we play, willing or not, in the endeavor. 
+
+> Have you gotten it out of your system, then?
+
+Maybe, maybe not.
+
+> But you won't explore it here?
+
+No. The answer probably isn't final, but it is an answer.
+
+> Might you have if it had come up in some way other than the way it came up in the review?
+
+Perhaps? Perhaps if I had considered "Huh, I sure do seem to talk about depressed Maddy as another person and I sure do have an entire project and published book utilizing the idea of a conversation with the other" I might have dug into it, but, as mentioned, it's very far down the priority list.
+
+But that's not how it came up. It didn't come from me. This project isn't happening in a vacuum. I acknowledged this when I encrypted a post. I acknowledged this when I chose what to share and what not to. I acknowledged this when I embellished and obfuscated the truth. 
+
+> And this is just proof of that.
+
+Yes. This is another instance of that, and this is another choice to be made. This is not a thing to talk about here because it would cheapen the end result by casting strange light on you, on me, and on the relationship we have with each other.
+
+That review forced me to face the fact that, in the end, we are not alone. That, of all things is something the book has brought me: the knowledge that we're not alone.

static/map.dot

@@ -179,7 +179,9 @@ digraph Map {
     "Plurality 3" [href="/plurality/3"]
     "Plurality 4" [href="/plurality/4"]
     "Plurality 5" [href="/plurality/5"]
-    "Plurality 1" -> "Plurality 2" -> "Plurality 3" -> "Plurality 4" -> "Plurality 5"
+    "Plurality 6" [href="/plurality/6"]
+    "Plurality 1" -> "Plurality 2" -> "Plurality 3" -> "Plurality 4" ->
+    "Plurality 5" -> "Plurality 6"
 
     // This is the central axis
     node[group="ally",style="",fontcolor="#111111"] // `core` folder