FA+
Shop
On the topics of mirrormen, amphetamines & imaginary friends
11 years ago
Assuming you read my most recent Something Else Entirely, you'll know these past few days have been rather interesting. If you haven't read it: SHAME ON YOU (here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13951278/). There, now you know that these past few days have been my first experiment with taking prescription amphetamines for my psychoses. So far things have gone well, but there have been a few side-effects I wanted to address here that didn't really become apparent until after a few days.
#1: I am losing weight - In the past 4 days I have lost nearly 3 pounds. And it's not like there was much left to lose: I spend 5 hours a week in the gym, I mind my diet pretty carefully and my primary means of transportation is a bicycle. Whatever other accusations can be made about my health, I do a good job of keeping the pounds off. And yet, 3 pounds lost in 4 days.
I'm told this is a common side-effect of stimulants: they both speed up your metabolism and suppress your apatite. Either of those separately wouldn't make such a big impact, but combined they can result in things like this. I don't really mind: my weight is still perfectly healthy, and I rather like how it's subtly changed my look. Already I can see the difference in the definition of my muscles and my stomach, and it's not a bad change. I guess that's the difference between having very little body-fat and burning that last bit left.
#2: Prescription amphetamines are still amphetamines - On average I have slept about 5 hours a night these past couple days: I go to bed around 2 AM and I wake up around 7. I am as physically active as ever, and not only am I not tired: I have noticeable more energy than I used to. I am driven and energized and awake and the very opposite of lethargic. And I have not touched a single drop of caffeine. This has nothing at all to do with my diagnosis or the reason I was given this particular medication, but it is not an unwelcome side-effect.
I'm keeping an eye out for any other possible effects, but so far there's been nothing else I'm comfortable confirming. So let's talk about some of the books I got for my birthday.
I've mentioned Art Spiegelman's Maus but it occurs to me that I haven't given any description of it for anyone curious. The book is based on series of interviews that the author conducted with his own father about his experience as a Jew during the Second World War, up to and including internment in a concentration camp. It divides its time fairly evenly between scenes of the father surviving the Holocaust and scenes of the actual interviews themselves along with the present-day lives of both father and son. And it is phenomenal.
The interview scenes ultimately reveal a crucial element that is so often forgotten when recounting Jewish survivors of WWII: how the rest of their lives was colored by that horrific experience. The insights we get into the father's mind initially seem like a side-effect of using such personal interviews as a framing device for the story, but as one reads on they provide a stark portrayal of something most of us never get to see. It is also possibly just the best narrative on Holocaust-survival out there: personal yet accessible, comprehensive but not detachedly academic, and unflinching without being exploitative.
Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is an anthro graphic novel? Yeah, the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Polish are pigs and the Americans are dogs (there's also a frog who's a Frenchman, and a gypsy who's a moth; make of all of those what you will). And don't think for a second that diminishes the story whatsoever. If anything it enriches it. And ironically, makes it infinitely more human.
The other book I've read in the past few days is The Secret Circle of Imaginary Friends by Mike Jeavons. It's solid little adventure/mystery novel about a group of children who all suddenly find themselves seeing imaginary friends, despite them not remembering having imagined any of them. I won't spoil the plot any further than that since there is a fairly big twist about halfway in but while I think this book might not seem particularly amazing or unique to the jaded eyes of an adult who's read his share of supernatural fantasy or science fiction, I actually think this would be a fantastic children's book. If my 8 year-old self had read this back in the 90's, I guarantee you it would have been my favorite thing ever. The book captures the wonder and imagination of children very well, and while it was "merely" an enjoyable, well-written novella for me, I dearly hope to one day give this to my daughter and watch her have her mind blown. Good work, Mr. Jeavons.
- Seskra.
F-List profile: https://www.f-list.net/c/seskra/
#1: I am losing weight - In the past 4 days I have lost nearly 3 pounds. And it's not like there was much left to lose: I spend 5 hours a week in the gym, I mind my diet pretty carefully and my primary means of transportation is a bicycle. Whatever other accusations can be made about my health, I do a good job of keeping the pounds off. And yet, 3 pounds lost in 4 days.
I'm told this is a common side-effect of stimulants: they both speed up your metabolism and suppress your apatite. Either of those separately wouldn't make such a big impact, but combined they can result in things like this. I don't really mind: my weight is still perfectly healthy, and I rather like how it's subtly changed my look. Already I can see the difference in the definition of my muscles and my stomach, and it's not a bad change. I guess that's the difference between having very little body-fat and burning that last bit left.
#2: Prescription amphetamines are still amphetamines - On average I have slept about 5 hours a night these past couple days: I go to bed around 2 AM and I wake up around 7. I am as physically active as ever, and not only am I not tired: I have noticeable more energy than I used to. I am driven and energized and awake and the very opposite of lethargic. And I have not touched a single drop of caffeine. This has nothing at all to do with my diagnosis or the reason I was given this particular medication, but it is not an unwelcome side-effect.
I'm keeping an eye out for any other possible effects, but so far there's been nothing else I'm comfortable confirming. So let's talk about some of the books I got for my birthday.
I've mentioned Art Spiegelman's Maus but it occurs to me that I haven't given any description of it for anyone curious. The book is based on series of interviews that the author conducted with his own father about his experience as a Jew during the Second World War, up to and including internment in a concentration camp. It divides its time fairly evenly between scenes of the father surviving the Holocaust and scenes of the actual interviews themselves along with the present-day lives of both father and son. And it is phenomenal.
The interview scenes ultimately reveal a crucial element that is so often forgotten when recounting Jewish survivors of WWII: how the rest of their lives was colored by that horrific experience. The insights we get into the father's mind initially seem like a side-effect of using such personal interviews as a framing device for the story, but as one reads on they provide a stark portrayal of something most of us never get to see. It is also possibly just the best narrative on Holocaust-survival out there: personal yet accessible, comprehensive but not detachedly academic, and unflinching without being exploitative.
Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is an anthro graphic novel? Yeah, the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Polish are pigs and the Americans are dogs (there's also a frog who's a Frenchman, and a gypsy who's a moth; make of all of those what you will). And don't think for a second that diminishes the story whatsoever. If anything it enriches it. And ironically, makes it infinitely more human.
The other book I've read in the past few days is The Secret Circle of Imaginary Friends by Mike Jeavons. It's solid little adventure/mystery novel about a group of children who all suddenly find themselves seeing imaginary friends, despite them not remembering having imagined any of them. I won't spoil the plot any further than that since there is a fairly big twist about halfway in but while I think this book might not seem particularly amazing or unique to the jaded eyes of an adult who's read his share of supernatural fantasy or science fiction, I actually think this would be a fantastic children's book. If my 8 year-old self had read this back in the 90's, I guarantee you it would have been my favorite thing ever. The book captures the wonder and imagination of children very well, and while it was "merely" an enjoyable, well-written novella for me, I dearly hope to one day give this to my daughter and watch her have her mind blown. Good work, Mr. Jeavons.
- Seskra.
F-List profile: https://www.f-list.net/c/seskra/
but other than that, happy birthday.
I am super interested in thos ebooks, especially Maus. I don't think I could ever fully comprehend or understand what it's like to have been in an internment camp... but I try to learn as much as I can about the holocaust. films like Kokoro, and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, and songs such as Kenji by Fort Minor, and even interviews with the likes of Noam Chomksy. one of my favourite comic book character's, Magneto, was a holocaust survivor as well.
in general, I enjoy reading and watching tragedies. I'm a narrative masochist.
If hardship is your jam then Maus is a must-read, without doubt.
And I've wondered for a while now what Marvel intends to do with Magneto when that particular element of his backstory becomes simply unrealistic. Not to be tasteless, but the fact is we're not far off from the point where frankly nobody alive consciously remembers what it was like inside those camps. When that day comes, we'll be glad works like Maus were written in time.
but yes, I agree with you about Marvel. they hardly really explored the holocaust-survival past of Magneto's character, and it's getting to the point where it's too late to do so with any really authenticity. I'm beginning to think that the writers never intended to really drive it home.