October 21, 2021

Re Aimee T's musings on unrequited love in a virtual world

Aimee,

How do two ghosts requite their love for each other, relationally, not only in their private feelings? Doesn't that presume that they were once physically embodied and close, in contact, earlier during their existence?

Even as ghosts, aren't they portrayed as being in proximity to each other, like Catherine hovering outside Heathcliff's window? Or Sam following Molly around in Ghost, moving the objects of her environment, and eventually slow-dancing with her while possessing another person's body? A mirage is something your eyes are beholding right-here and right-now.

They can continue to requite each other's love, still entangled, as long as it is an extension of their earlier corporeal bonding. There must be a tangible basis for something that becomes more ethereal and spectral, when a barrier like death or great distance separates them.

In our case -- two virtual presences in each other's minds -- we never shared that initial, fundamental, unmediated direct sensory connection. Eyes holding onto eyes, voices vibrating eardrums, breathing in your blooming scent, tasting your lips on my lips, hair brushing against my neck as your head fills the void above my shoulder.

We tried to leapfrog that stage of a relationship, and skip all the way to the "ghostly lovers separated by fate" stage. Without having first connected, though, it feels like we're only ever going to be permanently leading each other on, never to be satisfied.

No one is to blame here. Online communication is so novel, it lured us into feeling as though we had already met each other, when the reality is that we will never (we both being rooted in lands on opposite sides of the globe).

I didn't fall out of love with you, and there's no new online-girl who I've moved onto. I just realized that the medium that connects us does not allow for real romantic love -- even of the separated souls kind -- but that we could still sustain a relationship that was closer to friends, since that is nowhere near as physically intimate, as embodied of a relation, as lovers.

But if somehow the current collapse severs our roots, ushering in a new age of widespread migration, we will be the first to find each other and wander the new wilderness together.

--Agnostic

4 comments:

  1. Aimee already looks the part, aside from having to adopt neo-primitive clothing as the world falls down. Talk about retvrning to monke...

    Me and Aimee, 2031 A.D.

    And don't worry, my hair is dark brown. (Some girls are put off by even slightly blond hair in men.)

    I know that, intellectually and rationally, you don't believe in collapse. But romantically and passionately, you may have to, if we're going to have any hope of being by each other's side...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fun fact: "Dusk in Autumn" was the original name of this blog, translating what is still the URL "aki no kure" (Japanese, from a haiku by Basho). Still appears that way where I'm on the blogroll, e.g. heartiste.

    (I think the re-branded name and look was in 2013.)

    If she wasn't aware of that translation, then some little helper spirit must've whispered the word "dusk" to her when making that meme.

    Although what we share is not true romantic love, due to the nature of this medium, I can still tell that Aimee is even more tenacious in love than in discourse. And more deranged, too! ;)

    It will never stop being funny to see a living embodiment of a Kate Bush song serving as the nemesis to all the self-styled art fags and culture vultures on social media.

    We are sincere and passionate -- you all are irony-poisoned and numbed-out. We are not the same. Stick to your Radiohead, and keep Kate Bush out of your airpods.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here she is comforting the dissident right after their purge from Twitter, along with the president himself:

    Aimee Bush and Peter Groypriel

    Don't log off
    'Cause you have frens
    Don't log off
    You're not deleted yet
    Don't log off
    I know that your takes are good

    ReplyDelete
  4. She's adorable as a shorty! And so bundled up she can barely articulate her arms or legs, in that cute feminine way of being clutzy and helpless. Changing up her look from the taller & lithe form:

    https://twitter.com/aimeeterese/status/1452609045865451523

    I trust Apu has a stockpile of cozy wool blankets waiting back home, like I do. Various colors, patterns, thicknesses, and sizes, for all the wintry needs. A throw for when you're lounging in a chair with a big fat cat snuggled up on your lap. Or a heavy bed-sized one to keep you warm, without overheating, while you're dreaming.

    Or maybe a medium size to fold around two people who've just come in from the cold. Not so large that it's like a tent over them, but not so small that it only suits one. It's just the right fit to wrap them close together, so their body heat will do double duty...

    Now now, Aimee, don't blame me for getting carried away, when YOU'RE the one sending your warm-weather vibes our way right as a chill fills the air.

    ReplyDelete

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