N-Things Meme: Elements

[sandmantv]

I keep talking about a certain elemental mapping scheme a lot, assuming everyone shared this cultural vision. Apparently there’s a lot of disagreement about what the various mapping schemes are, and I may be rather an outlier. So, here’s by best attempt to put it into words for future reference.

Comments

[reversepolarity]

The Cowboy Bebop analogy is perfect.

I mean, there's even that episode where Jet goes on about flowing like water in martial arts. So cool.

[sandmantv]

s/jet/spike

And I agree! I even linked that scene earlier as one of the defining things for what I see in Water. http://sandmantv.livejournal.com/89386.html

: )

Also, man you read/post fast.

[reversepolarity]

Ack I totally don't know how to write. I meant Spike. Spiiiiiiiiiiike.

I had also just refreshed LJ when you posted. :3

[sandmantv]

Also to be clear, the perfection of the analogy isn't my doing, so much as "the authors clearly intended this".

[theevilgenius]

I have no idea why those conversations are element specific. For example, it's entirely possible that some person would tell fire any and all of those three things.

EDIT: Furthermore, I would think that I, personally, would be far more likely to say, "Don't put me in a box," to earth than water. There continue to be multiple things I find questionable about this, is what I'm saying.

[sandmantv]

This kind of gets to a philosophy I have with mapping schemes: they are far more empirical than they are ontological. Yes it’s possible anything, it just turns out that (in my estimation) this is what most people do. In the case you highlighted, Air people think Fire are too quick to commit, while Water people think Fire people are too blind to their surroundings and effects. These dialogues say something about both parties. It’s ontologically possible that someone would mix and match, and so the very fact that empirically speaking people don’t, is pretty interesting (or at least, that people statistically cluster around sets of these interactions

[sandmantv]

I'm collecting data on Earth - Air interactions, as my foot note says.

And we've certainly discussed what ones opinion ABOUT mapping schemes says....

[midnight_sidhe]

"General mutual unintelligibility," I maintain.

[boojum42]

Based on your definitions, I maintain that I am not remotely a fire person. I just like pretending to be one in games.

[novalis]

I don't know whether I'm earth or fire. An old girlfriend once described me as water, and, although I don't remember the details, I do remember that her description of water did not match yours.

[tilivenn]

My conclusions: in this scheme, I am actually earth, but am fairly certain that it is more functional to be water or perhaps fire. Those philosophical ideals that I hold to so tenaciously tell me that you shouldn't hold tenaciously to things and that truth isn't carved in stone. So. Um. Yeah, well.

[sandmantv]

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I'm glad we have a diverse array of friends of all types, to be clear. Plus this could be a mapping scheme that's all relative, and say, we need to look at everyone through an Earth filter or something. I don't know.