um.

Nov. 18th, 2000 04:18 pm
scottobear: (Default)
[personal profile] scottobear
Darktrain, how does that limb counting game go again?

I'm going to have to cut you off....

How? Why didn't I know about this up until now? Stuck in the wrong body, indeed.

Holy crow.

When I was very young, a woman visited my mother who was missing four fingers on her left hand. I couldn't stop staring at that smooth plane of skin. Even now, I can remember how she held an Oreo cookie with just her thumb.

I'm gearing up for a new writing project, in which I was asked to come up with a signature character. My first thought was a man paralyzed from the waist down.

And yet, I have no desire to lose any of my limbs.

Maybe this is some kind of backlash against the very comfort of our culture. It's certainly plausible that an urge to seek challenge could make its way into the genetic code. It's not hard to imagine survival advantages in that... When one is raised in perfect comfort, perhaps the idea of making life more difficult becomes appealing -- even to the point of pathology. If, indeed, one can claim that the desire to have one's leg sawn off is "sick" while the desire to have one's nose reduced is not...

What freaked me was the discusion of how these people had an alternate body image, like a transsexual, that their born-body didn't match, and so they had never felt physically right in some instinctive way. This suggested that:

A) They are souls reborn.

B) In their last life, they were not human.

Perhaps they are fallen angels, and need amputations to suit their vague concepts of their severed, phantom wings.

Date: 2000-11-18 01:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] canuckgirl.livejournal.com
EWWWW!! How weird is that!

Gross, gross, gross.

Re:

Date: 2000-11-18 01:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so! awww! I think you new icon is adorable!

wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 01:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] destroll.livejournal.com
kellie just got done telling me YOURE DT. Im confused again.....
Oi. My head hurts now from thinking too much.

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Kellie is a sweet girl, but she fibs sometimes.

don'tcha beeeeleive it.

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 02:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] daizee.livejournal.com
i do not fib!


*crosses fingers behind her back*

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 02:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Hard to hide crossed fingers with no thumb!

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 02:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] daizee.livejournal.com
i don't know how you cross your fingers... but i use my index and middle fingers (kinda like the rest of the world)

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 02:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
but they can't be hidden behind an absent thumb. :)

Re: wait a minute....

Date: 2000-11-18 02:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
blueberry trout.

Whoa. Followed the link and all I can think of

Date: 2000-11-18 01:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] destroll.livejournal.com
is an Oingo Boingo song.
Wierd Science.
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
I only hope they give the good limbs to people who want and can use 'em.
From: [identity profile] destroll.livejournal.com
yeah. like me so I can build a larger army.

sakes...

Date: 2000-11-18 01:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
I got 3 entries before I finished editing! you kids are quick on the reply trigger!!

warning: long reply

Date: 2000-11-18 05:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] burgundy.livejournal.com
I have no idea why I'm replying to this, as I have no coherent reaction. It's all just a bunch of swirly grey, isn't it? How much body alteration is "okay"? For some time now, my problem with cosmetic surgery has not been the alteration itself, but that it promotes homogeneity with a foolish cultural ideal - small noses, slim body, breasts not too small or too large, etc. So now we have people who want to alter their bodies in non-conventional ways, and I'm still really uncomfortable. Is this me being closed-minded, or are there really some lines that cannot be crossed in a healthy manner? My initial reaction is that wanting to lose a body part is just not normal, and must be the result of some kind of psychiatric problem. And yet I have no problem with transsexuals. I am completely willing to believe the "born in the wrong body" theory for them. But then, they're choosing between a relatively normal female body and a relatively normal male body. Is that the difference? I dunno.

But thank you for posting this. Really made me think.

Re: warning: long reply

Date: 2000-11-18 05:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
quite welcome. I don't know what to make of it, myself. thank you for your observations.

Limb Countin' 1.0

Date: 2000-11-18 10:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] darktrain.livejournal.com
Well i usually jus starts with my arms and then goes to my dang Legs,it ain't that hard...'Cept when Kellie was playin an i think she was countin a little diffrent from me...

an i shure don't chop none of 'em off after i counts 'em...Heck i'd only get to play 4 times at the most an then what's a Fella gonna do on them Slow Mornings before Breakfast or during Church when they is Singin'????


*cough*

Re: Limb Countin' 1.0

Date: 2000-11-18 11:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Just making sure I knew how the rules went...

I've not gotten up to the more advanced counting teeth yet...

Date: 2000-11-19 07:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] papoose.livejournal.com
Sorry Scotto, I can't go there.
Wishing to lose a limb must by definition be a psychological problem.

That's a fair thought.

Date: 2000-11-19 10:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
I don't think I could ever bring myself to lop off a healthy part of my body.... I even really resist haircuts a great deal. :)

the long sympathetic view

Date: 2001-12-15 02:45 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
I wandered upon your page because of my curious nature and a question that had popped into my head about people surviving amputations with loss of body portions below their chest... reading your comments I felt a need to say that your readers are not simply quessing that it is a psycological disorder which causes a person to want to change genital orientation... It is a medical fact. the physicians who actually perform the necessary operation (or unecessary depending on whether you have sypathy for them or not)have classified the psycological illness as "gender disphoria". I have researched the subject quite a bit as a result of being involved in a friendship with someone who has been "changed" for more than 10 years. The truth of the matter, I believe is we are all individuals in spite of our human makeup of DNA and knowing my friend, I would have to say there is some definite truth to the "gender disphoria" diagnosis. If she had never revealed her past, I truthfully would have never known. Not evrything is a Jerry Springer show, and there are real TS people out there who aren't just gay trying to fit into a homophobic world... As for my interest in the amputation, it was spurred by the fact I lost my mother to cancer from a large soft tissue sarcoma that resulted in a good majority of her lower limbs being amputated. my personal thought is their are legitamate reasons and non-legitamate reasons to everything. I do thank you for your spur of the topic... It makes people think and question, which brings better understanding to everyone.

Re: the long sympathetic view

Date: 2001-12-15 03:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Thank you for your comment... interesteing to see folks remarking on it well over a year after its post!

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