thoughtformed | (no subject)

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"So please do your best to acclimate yourself to this reality as quickly as possible." Okay, look. This is all well and good for…whatever it is they're trying to do, but I really, really don't have time for this. [It's okay, Harry, we know you're inwardly freaking out about waking up suddenly absolutely not dead. There is a reason that he's keeping the video off for now.] I suppose they don't care about that, do they? Right. Anyway, here's my question. Is there anyone who actually thought they were fictional before arriving here, or are we just believing what we've been told since there's nothing else to go off of? Because no offense, but the last seventeen years of my life have been a bit too chaotic to be anything but real. I can't imagine why anyone would want to fictionalize my life in the first place. Also, fictional or not, can anyone tell me what happens to our lives back where we came from? Do they just stop existing? It's really important that I get an answer. ...er. I think that's all for now. Thanks.

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My rule of thumb is that existential crisis are so last year. From personal experience, I can tell you there's no such thing as not being "real".

Edited 2013-06-21 03:34 (UTC)

Yeah? What kind of personal experience?

Let's just say this place isn't the first time I've heard I wasn't real. It's kind of a "been there, done that" sorta thing.

[Good Lea, that's kind of what he was looking for.]

But were you real then or not?

Here's a better question: what makes someone not real? According to you.

...I guess someone isn't real if there isn't any sort of proof they ever existed in the first place? I'm not sure.

[welcome to kh philosophy, harry. aren't you glad you made this post.]

So if people don't remember you, if there's no body left behind, no written records... you were never real. That's what you think?

[goddamnit.]

Yes. Er. No. Well...how could you cease to exist without at least one of those? [He can understand not existing without a body because lol Voldemort. He can understand existing without written records of proof. But there at least has to be one of those factors.]

Memories can be tricky things. But that's not the point. Let's say someone has all of that happen somehow; does that make the things they felt and experienced not true just because there's no proof it ever happened?

It still doesn't answer the question of how someone can exist and have memories and experiences without some sort of attachment to their existence.

That one can be kind of complicated, I'll give you that. Let's go simpler, for now. If everyone who ever knew you is dead, your body was completely destroyed, there's no marker to your grave, and any info that could've been written about you has also been destroyed-- did you ever exist at all? Can you erase someone's entire existence?

When you put it that way, it sounds very possible to do just that. But most people have records at least, even if it's just a name. Don't they?

Not always. And like I said earlier, memories aren't always reliable. That brings me to this question: who chooses whether someone is real or not?

I would like to say it's ourselves but that's a bit too optimistic. So...probably anyone who can remember the details of a person living or not.

Why is that? Are you often in the habit of letting other people dictate what you are?

Do you really want an honest answer for that?

Sure, unless you're not up to it. The answer's kind of irrelevant to my point.

If it's irrelevant, then why ask?

It's irrelevant to my point. It's relevant to you, isn't it? As a person. Might change how I handle the conclusion, who knows.

It doesn't matter what I think I am or what I'd like to be. I have a title that I have to see through.

Is that right? But we're not talking about destiny, here, are we?

You can't exactly separate destiny from existence.

Oh? Why's that?

If someone has a destiny, they have to exist.

What, you've never read a story with a destined hero in it?