i lied, i dont actually like sex. put your clothes back on. have you ever been involved with the magnus institute
my new aesthetic is
STUPIDITY
and I cannot be stopped
The fact that TMAGP begins with boot up noises -- and it's implied that Teddy turned off his computer but it turned itself back on -- establishes that we're listening from the same vantage point as whatever's in that machine. Or the system at large.
So the pub conversation is what confuses me. Is whatever's in the OIAR system on Alice's phone? She would DEFINITELY ignore regulations around not connecting personal devices to the network/etc. But is it following her intentionally, or did it just get on there? You hear camera noises while Sam talks to Colin, so it feels intentional. Malicious or beneficent, though...
The transcripts also say that Norris's and Chester's readings occurs in "CYBERSPACE," which is cool to me because TMA didn't get super deep into fears of technology (certainly cameras, keyboard eating, and uncanny automata could all be lumped in, but tech itself wasn't the "fear" - it was the eye, the spiral, and the stranger). So far technology, the complexity of it, the things lurking in spaghetti code, are front and center.
All of the stories so far have also touched on body modification, even transhumanism (esp. 3), and I can't resist thinking I KNOW where this is going. Gimme that sweet sweet .jmj 🙈
I also wonder if the mere act of categorizing these cases is constructing the new fears.
Refusing to be a cute girl. Gargoyle autumn approacheth
Ceaseless watcher turn your gaze upon this potted plant
Paul Gauguin
oh yeah, it's allllllll coming together now......
TMAGP's liminal spaces so far (EP 7 spoilers):
1. The Graveyard, the Magnus Institute
2. In5oul's studio
3. The Garden
4. N/A? Perhaps where the protagonist met the merchant
5. The Theater
6. N/A? Does an alley count? Does a call station count?
7. Hill Top
I'm calling them liminal bc they're described only at certain times of day (middle of the night for the graveyard) or in terms that make their entrances and exits, as well as the passage of time within them, unclear (like the tattoo studio and the garden). The theater preserved from childhood memories, yet staffed with only one employee, the Magnus Institute where doors are all open while it lies abandoned, etc., feel solidly liminal to me.
Hill Top is mainly there because of, y'know, but I do think the events of 7 make it a space with unclear limits and volume. It would be ironic if it has nothing to do with Hill Top Road.
I feel like the OIAR office is liminal (between sunset and sunrise, for one thing). The sheer vibes off that place!
Evil wish fulfillment, a la monkey's paw
Honestly “Desires” might not entirely be it. I think it may be sort of a “Careful what you wish for”
“I just wanted to make people laugh” okay well nightmare clown
“I wanted to play the role of the mysterious stranger” okay. Truck crash
“I wanted to prove my thesis.” How about such an intimate experience with it that you will never be the same
It’s like these people are experiencing the consequences of obsession in real time dialed up to 11