Glossary of Constructs

Letter 12: a guide for readers

Hi everyone, and welcome to newcomers. As this writing project continues and expands, I thought it would be interesting to create definitions for the metaphorical & conceptual constructs that keep coming back in the posts. While the terms are typically described and discussed at length where they’re first used, a quick reference may help some not get lost. The list summarizes what’s been established so far, plus a few extras that may make appearances in future posts. I cross-posted this to the About page.

I realized as I completed the list that this writing project is pure meaning-making, and maybe most writing is. These constructs are layers of meaning that I’ve assigned to my observations and experiences in the world and in myself. Together they point towards a world view… which suggests that a world view is but a compendium of meaningful constructs clobbered together. I feel the veil between reality and fiction thinning when I think of world views in this way. What makes a world view “correct”? What makes a world view out of touch with “reality?” Who decides? More on this in a future post.

I tried recording the Glossary and it was very choppy and not so nice. So I’ve left out the recording. Back to audio with the next post. Glossary starts below the Share button.

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Glossary of Constructs (as of August 1, 2022)

The Analogue: A place where the senses of humans are stimulated by waves (waves of sound, waves of light, waves of air, waves of water, waves of pressure, waves of matter) and particles that originate in and from physical matter which is animated by life force or elemental force only, completely unmediated and undirected by electrical signals or representations; E.g. “going for a walk in the Analogue.” would translate (loosely) as going walking in the actual woods without a cell phone or other electronic device; Made possible as a construct only by virtue of the existence of the Digital.

The Digital: A level of reality generated by electrically mediated light waves and sound waves, experienced through the human senses and historically discrete in duration.

Glossary of Constructs: A list of explanations of mental and metaphorical structures developed and used within Wild Kin: Letters.

The Negotiations: The narrow band of space along the edge of the World Mask; A liminal space between Urbia and the Wilds, where human activity (concentrated in Urbia) mixes with the non-human activities of the Wilds, each encroaching on the world view and life of the other, creating unique and interesting fusions and distortions between them; A geographical area where one feels the constant pull of civilized “progress” and ambition on one side, and the lure of wild surrender on the other, as the correctness of both world views are equally within reach within it.

The Race: Compulsive ambition for worldly success (money, prestige, new technology) that is collectively experienced and spurred on by competition between individuals and corporations and by being the default and prominent way to be human in the West; Ignores and operates outside of natural rhythms, limits and laws, by definition.

Urbia: The collected urban areas of all of the world, connected together by planes, flight paths and airports, not to mention roads, trains and seaports.

Wild Kin: The aspects of self and environment in the past, present and future that are unbound by constraints of human culture and that we make familiar to us through relating.

The Wilds: The native core and essence of the world, mostly but not totally non-human; Untamed, uncolonized, left to the life forces, death forces and elemental forces; The unadulterated surface of the world where harmony resides in the equal balance between life and death and the observation of the laws of nature; Self-sustaining substrate on which is built the World Mask.

The World Mask: The non-native layer of human activity, infrastructure and built environment partially covering an increasing percentage of the surface of the world; The imaginal surface on which Urbia is built; Includes all cities, industrial parks, recreational parks, roadways, aviation airways, shipping corridors, telecommunications, virtual internet space, and more; Loosely maps onto the colonized world; Includes, at its edges, the Negotiations.