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Chris Anselmo's avatar

The porcupine dilemma spoke to me. (Well, everything in this piece did.) I've definitely gotten pricked by my share of quills recently. I need to find a more lasting medium. I loved the distinction between empathy and compassion. I'm going to keep this in mind going forward!

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Kat Koh's avatar

Hi Chris! Thank you so much, and happy it spoke to you in some way! Yes I relate - intimacy and real connection is such a dance

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Takim Williams's avatar

I feel this. Or I "feel" this. I think a lot about the difficulty of finding a stable balance between distance and connection. It's a tension that animates a lot of my fiction. Currently serializing sci-fi about the blurred boundary between self and other (the problem is 10x more dicey for a community of shapeshifters!). Will definitely be incorporating the porcupine dilemma somehow.

https://open.substack.com/pub/takimwilliams/p/hello-my-other-hello-my-self-encapsulation?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=17mz6p

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Kat Koh's avatar

Ahh!! I have a feeling we could talk about this at length, Takim. Look forward to reading your work (I think we’re secretly all shapeshifters, so spot on dude)

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

…i might say that i feel so much of what you wrote in here…but that would be false…it is impossible to feel someone’s mind, but the psychic tendril reaction to think i can is some other frequented emotional dimension i am alone in and often sharing…30% of everything i think is real is real…i made that up too…

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Kat Koh's avatar

Way to...concretely give something space! Spaciously be concrete. Ugh the loneliness. PS can I steal "psychic tendril"?

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

…yes…at the cansafis foote show we encourage all forms of creative shoplifting…now allow me to do my one man one minute caveman standup special…i present for you and only you “UGH the Lonliness”…(one minute of indecipherable grunts while I tap dance in stone slippers)…

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Kat Koh's avatar

🤣 PS Creative Shoplifting is a title for something no?? So good

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

…absolutely…i think it is a taylor shift cover of some old jewel song…

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Kat Koh's avatar

I meant for you to use, bro

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Matt Joass's avatar

So good Kat! Footnote 2 got me!

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Kat Koh's avatar

Thanks, Matt! When you said "right, left, right" it was like a lightbulb went off

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