As a companion to impulsivelad's recent thread on writing magick and the nature of hypersigils I would like to start a discussion involving the identification with fiction suits, the fluidity that such an identification carries and the notion of bringing one's "fictional" characters into one's 3D reality via creative means.
A bit of preamble: Though I actually had formed a lot of concrete thoughts on this subject prior to my occult self-initiation and exposure to various metafictional outlets it was Grant Morrison's notion of "fiction suits" that really brought it all into focus and portrayed it in a clearer light. I was intrigued that Morrison had placed himself into "The Invisibles": However, later on Morrison dropped that fiction suit to pursue another, "Mister Six", in volume three. This obviously shows that the nature of fiction suits (like most things in life) is flexible and fluidic, and subject to change on a whim depending on the character of the writer/operator/magician and various circumstances.
I'm wondering here if anyone has ever had a character they've created that has obsessed them to some degree with the point that they began to actually emulate that character in real life. Historically, Morrison is a common example around here but I'm also tempted to think of Symbolist/Proto-Surrealist Alfred Jarry who, in the latter stages of his life, began to assume the identity of his Black King, Pere Ubu (of the classic pataphysical play "Ubu Roi"). I'm sure that there are other examples of this, a character that one writes so long that he/she begins to bleed into "the Real", so the line between fiction and non-fiction becomes blurred.
If "created" characters are in fact tulpas or thoughtforms loitering on the edge of consensus reality patiently waiting to find a medium (writer/artist/playwright/poet whatever) could this be seen as a subtle type of possession and overtaking of the medium? And, furthermore, if said character goes on to influence others, could they be seen as a type of ontic meme? For example, I think of all these Trekkies out there, or people who think and act and dress like characters from the TV show "Star Trek". Could this not be seen as an example of fictional spirits replicating themselves and spreading from one world (creative/fictional) into the world of matter and time? An evolution from the 2D flatworld of the page into a higher stage above (and, when said character attains mythic status, an even higher dimension then the 3D one we're accustomed to?)
Using my own example, "Sypha Nadon" was a name I created some time ago, and I liked it so much I decided to use it in my stories. In fact, over the last eleven years or so I've used that name in almost every project I've ever worked on. At first Sypha's identity was amorphous, that is it changed from project to project (kind of like the character "Cid" from the Final Fantasy game series, who appears in almost every FF game but has a different form/function in each... truly a pixelized John A'Dreams). Later on though Sypha began to assume a more concrete identity, so much so I began modeling myself after himself and began to use the name outside of the fiction world: as an online moniker, for example. However, in the last few months or so I've questioned his ability to be a good avatar so I had him symbolically consumed by flames in a sigil-ritual conducted whilst playing "The Sims". However, some of his identity clung germ-like to other aspects of my nature (for example, I still kept using his name as my online name) so that is why I'm changing fiction suits, switching avatars much as GM did towards the end of the Invisibles run. The notion of old identities discarded for new ones.
My new avatar is the Fabulous Mr. Meaningless and he came to me during the transmitting of my hypersigil project last year. I don't know where he came from inside me (or ouside me, as it were) but I decided as an avatar he was funner to be then Sypha... An esoteric engineer, a clownish prankster from the Dark Side of the Arse, a surrealist with caffine in his bloodstream, a pantolin-cum-scienist obsessed with Research and Dadavelopment, this Gnostician of the Divinty captured my heart. Sypha has been abandoned for him: I now identify with an eyeball headed top-hat wearing Dodo-bodied white-gloved violin-legged fourth-dimensional mutant-imp whose voice is a cross between Fred Schneider and Jello Biafra. A reflection of my other dastes, my surreal/silly/dada/discordia/chaotic/Dalinian side amde manifest, and a move away from the ludicrous ponderous pseudo-goth concrete blonde "bloodletting" extremes of my previous occupier, my first obsession. hese days I find the surreal to be of more interest then the "shadow". It's not a sudden transformation, of course, but a gradual mutation. I'm not sure how this will take shape in the "ordinary" but I'm eager to see the results.
So, now I ask, has anyone else here had a similiar experience with a character they created? If so, how did it bleed into your day-to-day? Did it feel like possession? And did you ever switch fiction-suits? If so, why? Or, if you've never created a fictional character or never had such an obsession, has anyone elses' fiction suits captivated you to such an extent you felt the need to emulate that character's behaviour and, in a way, become that character? If so, do tell. |
