Hello
lovely subscribers. This is Salvic, bringing you another look into the
minds of the past. I have a very nice treat for you this time, but as
always, you will have to contain your enthusiasm long enough for our
Q&A and a few announcements. First off, I would like to thank those
of you that attempted my music challenge last time. The band was
Incubus, and the song was called Privilege. The user Jaspendable was the
first to give me the correct answer and a line from the song. You can
expect the mental album to be available to you, probably by the time you
read these words. Now, I had a question from the member Riots4Sale:
“Dear Salvic, if you had to choose between being paralyzed or never
being able to access the net again, which would it be and why?” Well...
that is quite a question; so, I figured I’d give it a response. I would
have to choose being paralyzed. For those of you that have been with me
for awhile, you know that I grew up on the net and to me, if it was
removed from my life, it would be as bad as losing a sense like sight or
smell. Besides, as advanced as VR is becoming nowadays, I wouldn’t be
surprised if within my lifetime, we were all hooked up to VR, lying in a
bed being taken care of by machines in the first place. Why would I
need to be able to move? It seems that UtopiaDreamer has left us yet
another suggestion for next time. Unfortunately Utopia, I again will
have to deny your request. Although the Twilight series is marginally
better than your last suggestion, it still is not quite as old as I’m
looking for. I am also looking for stories that will not take quite as
much time to cover, (I’m a rather busy man) and I’m also looking for
stories that have a bit more... let us call it literary merit. Again, as
one of my most loyal fans that keeps submitting request after request,
just to be turned down, I encourage you to keep submitting them. It
seems as if you will do so no matter how many times I shrug off the
recommendations. So, why not smile and encourage?
Okay,
okay, I know that you are all antsy for the story that I reviewed in VR
this time. I told you that it was a treat and man do I mean it. This
trip takes us to a story called the “Yellow Wallpaper” written by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and recommended to be my the user
CelengylSword. Basically, the thing that caught my interest was the viewpoints that
I could assume. I had two options, which is usually not very many, but I
could be either the woman in the room, or the woman in the wallpaper. I
looked up the story’s synopsis, and from what I can tell, the original
story is about a woman that is struggling with a mental problem that her
husband/doctor called a nervous depression and is spending the summer
on vacation in a grand, aristocratic looking house. She has been
confined to her room to rest and relax. Being there alone, she
eventually goes crazy, believing that a woman is trapped behind the
wallpaper and is trying to escape. Now... I have been through VR nodules
looking through the eyes of inanimate objects or animals before, but
never before have I gotten the opportunity to look through the eyes of
one of the characters’ delusional fantasies. I thought that the journey
would be an interesting one and so I chose that view, got my usual snack
that I managed not to touch throughout the captivating nodule, and
experienced an experience that I can safely say was a first. I chose to
take the thought option as well, meaning that I would think and feel the
emotions of the eyes I was looking through. I don’t know if I will do
so again with such a twisted form of a story... It was quite real... too
real.
It
started out as a winter retreat. I was happy and content with my life. I
had a husband; (odd when you are a heterosexual male, but I digress) I
had friends and a loving family. My husband felt that he needed a
vacation from his job as a mortician. He needed some time away because
his narcolepsy was acting up. He would fall asleep anywhere and there
was no sense waking him. Relaxation usually did him a world of good.
When we got to the house that he bought the summer before for just this
reason, I couldn’t help but think about what a dump it was. The house
was rather small, very modern, but it was unfinished. It had almost no
courtyard to speak of, and the room that I was going to be staying in
had bare, wood-plank walls. Leaning against the wall in the corner next
to the window were several rolls of wallpaper. Me being me, I was bored
as could be in the tiny house secluded from the world. My husband
suggested that I could put the wallpaper up if I got bored. He pointed
out to me that he would likely just be in the way if he were to fall
asleep while helping me, and we agreed that if I were to get bored
enough, I would do it myself and find joy in it. I quickly got to that
point and so unrolled the wallpaper to see a beautiful and organized
design. Carefully, I started to put the wallpaper up, admiring the
design of it as I went. The pattern was enticing, friendly and the
yellow color was so warm. Immediately I felt a sense of joy just being
around the paper.
The
days came and went. When I would get bored, I would put up another
section of wallpaper until finally, the job was done and I was left with
nothing to do but admire my work. Gradually the pattern started to
change. It was a subtle difference at the start, an entropy of some sort
started to feather the once crisp edges of the design. I thought that I
was just seeing things, but the more I studied the pattern, the more I
was sure that it was changing. Here a piece would move, a crisp outline
of a woman would morph into a melted sculpture overnight. Where I would
see clear eyes before, blurry dots would stare back at me. I felt like
the wall was melting around me and I was trapped, transfixed, my eyes
glued to the mess that was being crafted from perfection.
For
days on end I stared at it, watching something that I once loved become
something that I neither understood, nor particularly liked. Gradually,
a hatred started festering in my heart. The pattern that looked to me
like a woman had become a hideous monster, reaching for me, daring me to
step closer. I knew that it was just paper, and under it was nothing
more than the remnants of a long dead tree turned into building
material; but at the same time, I felt with every fiber of my being that
the paper needed to be destroyed or else the thing inside would escape.
At
this point readers, I was scared. Never before had I taken a thought
option, but I felt that you guys (and gals) deserved a show. The
character in this version of the story was terrified and so I, too, felt
the same way. If I could describe the malevolence the paper had to you,
I would; just know that it felt like everything wrong in the world
rolled into a ball and put out for display.
One
day, I had enough. I conquered my fear and the paper was going to be
destroyed. Piece by stubborn piece I ripped it off the wall, discarding
the evil that it was. The monster on the other side was trying to get to
me but when I saw it coming, I would creep to another part of the room
and start again there. I swear, I wore a groove in the wallpaper from my
incessant creeping, but I had to stay away from the monster in the
wall. Suddenly the monster was upon me, tearing at the paper from the
other side; somehow... I fell through. Full of fear, I found myself
kneeling there with a rope in my hand. I heard the door to the new room I
was in burst open. My husband was standing there, looked at me, and
fell to the ground asleep. I knew that if I did not keep creeping around
the room, that the monster would find the hole that we fell into and
follow me back through. I crept around and around, crawling over my
husband every few minutes. He always was in the way.
Snapped
back to reality in the sudden way that the current VR does (it seems
like they could make the spiral down into reality a little less harsh,
but what do I know?), I found my heartbeat racing and sweat soaking my
shirt. The danger was so real; the monster was right there. I knew that I
was in VR, I knew that nothing could actually hurt me; however, you
find, even in the real world, that your mind is much stronger than
reality. I went ahead and experienced the VR nodule with the emotions
turned off, and I watched the original version. It really hit me how
different the outlook was between the two characters when it came to the
same wallpaper. What one person finds beautiful, another finds ugly. It
really brings to light the fact that we are all unique in our tastes.
It might be something to consider the next time that you want to
criticize someone for the clothes that they wear, or the color
sub-thermal that they decide to light that day. What makes you think that
your opinion is any better than any other persons opinion? With that I will leave
you with another song. If you are interested in the next mental album,
go back and find the underlined letters again. I hope that you enjoyed
this adventure, remember to consider the views of others as just as
valid as your own. This has been Salvic Rodvic and I'm out.
I also blogged about the Yellow Wallpaper. It was very different.
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