Identifying as fictional and a living character

[anomalymonster]

I wanted to share my post-othercon thoughts somewhere, and I decided to just sit down and write to share it.

I think my fictionkinity as a whole might be tied to a concept identity of being fictional. I identify as a fictional character, even outside of being a specific fictional character as it is with fictionkin. "Living Character" is an archetypal identity that I have and is tied to how I also identify with the entire concept of fictionality. 

My views of fiction vs. reality with alterhumanity is that fiction is still a subjective experience. This means that for me, even if I have memories and experiences as a walk-in and despite being very canon compliant with my memories, I still see that reality as a fork off of the original books. I and my home reality came from the books instead of the other way around. My views of fictional realities are similar to what egregores are where there's a level of collective thought to it. To me, this doesn't make me view my experiences and identity as any less real, but it makes it so I see myself spiritually and literally as fictional. 

This makes more sense to me to view it within being a concept identity. It ties a lot of feelings I have together in a way I don't think my living character archetype fully encompass. Fictionality could be one of my keystones and it was something that came up quite a bit while I was identity mapping after the paratypes panel.  

I think it may be close to a collective concept identity for my system, and might explain why we have so many fictives. We've always identified to an extent as fictional as a whole and so fictional species persist as the most common species. My views of the nature of my fictivehood is also something I know other fictives in my system have resonated with. 

I'd need to explore this more with myself and with my system. As I read through others posts in this community, I think my experiences of fictionality are at least on the exact same concept wavelength as others' experiences. 

Comments

[idonttakethislightly]

Welcome to conceptuality, it’s great to hear from you! I also tend to think of fiction as a subjective experience, created on a personal level in ways that are somewhat similar to egregores. (That’s my take at least— I hope I’m accurately interpreting what you’re saying?) It’s interesting to hear how for you, that perspective on fiction in general ties into your own conceptual fictionality, as well as your overall system including lots of fictives. I also feel like my beliefs about fiction intertwine with my conceptuality somehow, but I’d have to think a little more to say exactly what the connection is.

Speaking of which, I’m planning a post for this community about how several of us have mentioned conceptual identities related to storytelling and/or ways of knowing. Is it okay if I mention you and quote/link this post in that? No problem if not, I just wanted to check.

[anomalymonster]

Thank you! It's nice to see someone else who views fictionality in a similar way, and I'm with you with needing to explore more about it. I've never seen it brought up within fictionkin spaces myself, and I'm surprised I haven't seen many fictionfolk talk about it until now.

You're welcome to link my post!

[gossamer_musings]

What does being fictional look like for you all? I'm curious to hear others' experiences, as quite a few of us have some aspect of being fictional entwined with our sense of self (hence our name--the system of Wonderbeasts).

It does sound like you are on the same wave length as a few others I have spoken to, with regards to fictionality! I'm excited to see what comes out of these conversations.