June 17, 2020
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?
A silent meditation?
Ha ha.
I think I was thinking that specifically as I was working through a reread of both Swallow Me Whole and Post-Op Androgyne: what would this project look like as a comic?
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.
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?