Permeability Of The Soul - Tumblr Posts
I picked the perfect time to reread HtN
You CANNOT tell me that this isn't Gideon seeping into Harrow. My girl was always clever but sex jokes and puns are Gideon's domain, baybeeeee
I think the most interesting, perhaps horrifying, part of The Unwanted Guest is the fact that Naberius Tern haunts the narrative much more than I previously thought.
I always thought it was kind of weird that "legendarily unamorous" Gideon the First would have started sleeping with Wake, but chalked it up to the weird circumstances of one half of the pair thinking they were already intimate (since Pyrrha started sleeping with Wake first). But I think Muir pretty much just said lol no G1deon was being influenced by Pyrrha's desires and habits the whole time. Because two souls in the same body are incapable of remaining unaffected by each other.
Ianthe needs to watch Steven universe
So that she can get a grip on her babs situation
I think it would help her
babes, babs is there he’s in you you are him he is you that’s how it’s kinda gonna be now 🫡
i'm thinking a lot about the permeability of the soul and really chewing on like, how this knowledge retroactively impacts and changes the way one can read characters' actions throughout all the books so far. and that's interesting to me, because I'm not sure it's as simple as character X's behavior being retroactively revealed to be due to the soul of character Y. because like...
of COURSE we impact each other. of course when we brush up against each other we bleed. we leave things behind. but at some point, when does that stop being someone else, and start becoming just another part of you? the body of theseus. the soul of theseus. are you the same person as you were when you started this, even though everything has changed? is the Augustine that entered the stoma the same as the Augustine that woke up on the first day of the Ressurection, when it was only the newly re-born sun, and him, and John?
and I mean, no, obviously. So much has happened since then. But Augustine has been Augustine-and-Alfred for thousands of years longer than he was ever only Augustine. Same for Mercymorn-and-Cristabel, same for Cytherea-and-Loveday, same for G1deon-and-Pyrrha, same for John-and-Alecto. and like. the soul of theseus, you know?
Is the Cytherea Loveday who died at Canaan House the same as the Cytherea Loveday who woke up that day after the Lyctoral Ascension, on the first day of the rest of her life? After 10k years are the actions of Cytherea Loveday truly dissectable as Actions-of-Loveday vs Actions-of-Cytherea, or is she just one person, being bled all over by another until they are no longer distinguishable? How much of someone taking on another's mannerisms is because of soul entangelment versus the human visegrip of grief, desperately holding onto anything and everything you can, remaking the person you love in your mind until they are more yours than they ever were themself?
and I'm thinking again about Paul, and how maybe they just skipped to the end. Maybe all lyctorhood is, is damped oscillation, in which the end point between two extremes will always trend to 0. and Paul makes it so obvious, you know? Pal and Cam DIED that day. they did it, it's done, Paul is risen.
but when Ianthe Tridentarius killed Naberius Tern, did she not also kill herself? when she ascended as Ianthe The First, she became someone new. Ianthe Tridentarius is as dead as Pal and Cam are. as dead as Naberius Tern. as dead as Alfred and Cristabel and Loveday and John and the entire goddamn earth. trending twoards 0. thinking.
PERMEABILITY OF THE SOUL
GOT ME THINKING ABOUT,
TEACHER
like that dude was like 6?? 20??? Fucking souls in one it’s like it makes so much sense like IMAGINE
Starting Gideon the ninth: wow, what a great book about complex lesbian necromancers being cool and emo and gay, with a great cast of supporting characters, and an interesting and mysterious plot! Cant wait to see what happens next!
Post Nona the ninth: this book is about humanity. It is about the soul. It is about love and It is about power and every devastating and wonderful emotion the human brain is capable of. It is about the meaningless bags of flesh that hold what is really important. It is about Christianity, and applying real human nature to its laws. It is about the end of the world. It is about a guy named John kickstarting the craziest butterfly effect ever. It is about
AND ITS NOT EVEN OVER YET!