The Little Weird: Self and Consciousness in Contemporary, Small-press, Speculative Fiction Page: 51
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consciousness by extending it into multiple forms. The dialogue between these varied forms and
our main sense of self is the stuff of self-correction-more specific than a narrative of self, this
dialogue is a drama of self.
A self, then, exists in a universe governed by idio-occult logic-in the sense of personal
ideas about agency, environment, and causality, which, even in the instance of a skeptical,
Empirical, positivist self, can never be fully objective, neutral, or real. This idio-occult system
makes greater or lesser allowances for "possible explanations of things" based on the intensity of
its affective discharge in any given moment. Indeed, idio-occultism can become nearly inactive
as a self approaches homeostasis (as can the self itself); however, a self can never exorcise its
tendencies toward occultation entirely-the self is occultation. Even the most vehement
materialist does not have in his or her mind a comprehensive map of all of the complicated
processes that govern physical phenomena-he or she often has only piecemeal sketches in mind
at any given instant, and these sketches can easily create worlds for the vehement materialist
wherein the sketch (defined, of course, as the memes of self best saw fit) in question becomes,
inaccurately, the cause of what he or she perceives out there.24 The problem with the idea that
"association does not mean causation" is that the idea is infinite-one must never cease the
exploration for deeper causation.25 In this sense, a process of the world out there is fully causing
something in the self-in-question's experiential space that it is not actually causing-not by
itself, not as the ultimate cause. In moments of intense meditation or lucidity, this same self
might suspend this process of causal explanation, of occultation, but in a moment of affective
discharge, this is not as likely. The self then is less its self and more its emotion of the moment.
This holds true for textual selves as well as biological ones.
One of the clearest examples of affective discharge at work in the little weird occurs in51
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Bradley, Darin Colbert. The Little Weird: Self and Consciousness in Contemporary, Small-press, Speculative Fiction, dissertation, May 2007; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3703/m1/55/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .