New blog, and a writing challenge: The Experiential Other

[burningbright]

Hello all! I recently started up a joint otherkin/therian/animal-folk blog geared towards generating discussion, and topics that aren't addressed nearly often enough in the community. It's called Beyond Awakening. The Dreamwidth feed for it can be found here. I and hopefully some of the other contributors will be posting writing challenges from time to time, and I've linked to otherkin as one place to post response pieces (if that's okay!).

As an example, here's the most recent writing challenge, The Experiential Other:

On otherkin forums and websites, I've seen a lot of writing about what it means to be demon-kin, detailed descriptions of various elven homeworlds and histories, and explanations of angelic rank and battle. I've heard much theorizing about why and how otherkin exist. I've seen descriptions of and comparisons between different types of dragons.

All of this is often quite interesting, but what I'm eager to see is what it's like to be dragon: here, now, in a human body. I want to know how elfness manifests in this life. I want to understand, just a little, the tactile, emotional, day-to-day experiences of angel-kin.

I see such writings often in the therianthropy community: vivid experiential accounts, like this piece on animal and fear by Quil, or this depiction of a shift towards an insect by Earwig, or my own vignette of a hike with a feline-girl and a changeling-boy. I almost never see anything similar from the broader otherkin community. And I want to.

Is your otherness more than memory? Does it affect how you see the world, your mental states, behaviors, thought-patterns? Do you ever have sensory, immediate, present experiences of being other?

Here is my challenge to you: Show me what it's like. Share a taste of your experiential reality.

Comments

[adnarel]

I write a lot about both over at my blog (hellsmedic.wordpress.com). You'll need a password to see some of the more personal stuff, but it's pretty centric.

Also, I subscribed. I think this is a wonderful idea. :)

[clare_dragonfly]

Huh, very interesting idea. I might actually have a response to this prompt, too.

[all_adream]

I subscribed too, and want to mention that it'd be worth checking if the community is set to post everyone's IP addresses the way many of them are over here: it depresses me that any confidentiality is gone these days--thanks!

[burningbright]

It doesn't look like IP addresses get posted with comments on the Wordpress site. I do moderate the comments to keep out the spam bots though.

It looks like you commented on the Dreamwidth feed of the Wordpress site, though... whiiiich appears not to show IP addresses either. There doesn't appear to be a good moderation option for feed comments though.

[arethinn]

Tracking IP addresses is usually implemented as a safety measure in case of needing to report to abuse.