Recently, when hanging around with other crazy artist types online, the topic of 'muses' has been coming up with startling frequency. Often in combination with the term 'soulbond'. As far as I can tell by browsing soulbond pages, a 'soulbond' is a character, whether your own or someone else's, that moves into your head bag and baggage, and then exercises his/her occupancy by interacting with you and your other soulbonds.
In other words, it's like having extra people living in your mind (and presumably, in your soul).
Now, I'm not here to debate the validity of soulbondage. (Although I couldn't resist the double entendre.) I, personally, don't have soulbonds; while I can make RPG characters talk in my head without too much trouble, it's always clear to me that it's ME making them do the talking. Like puppets. (Soulpuppetry? Maybe! I AM the Jim Henson of my mind! Where do you think all those parodies come from?)
However, I'm more than willing to accept that soulbondage CAN exist, and if you believe in/ experience soulbonds, more power to you. As long as you don't write me impassioned email to try and convince me that they exist.
But ANYWAY.
A muse, on the other hand, is who/whatever inspires you to draw, write, paint, compose, lyricize, or be creative. Sometimes it's a real person, sometimes a part of yourself, and sometimes, a metaphorical construct.
Which is where the soulbonds come in. Some people, apparently, just have characters living in their mind which suggest possible projects, or generate ideas just by interacting with each other. To which I would have to respond, "Whatever works for you!"
Hey, if extra personalities means you create beautiful things for me to look at, I'm all for it. I might even try and shove new soulbonds into your head so that you draw characters that I like. I'm just greedy that way. (Yes, I know it doesn't work that way. But I rather like the mental image of me trying to tape a miniature Citan to some poor artist's head.)
To (finally) get to the point of my post, after listening to these conversations and browsing these websites, I started wondering: do I have a muse?
My first response was 'oh hell no'. After all, I find it very hard to take my artistic efforts seriously, and the idea of having a muse seemed far too serious for someone like me, who spends most of her time making fun of things and the rest of her time making fun of herself.
But after a while, I figured out that, yes, I have two muses, although they're not soulbonds, and they're not really personalities, just parts of me. I am inspired, every day, by my libido and my sense of humor. Hell, if you're feeling sufficiently Freudian, call them my id and my superego. Whatever works for you.
But seriously. When I look over the stuff on my site, it's easy to see that a good seventy or eighty percent of my artistic endeavors are clearly fueled by one or the other. Close to ninety-five percent, in the case of my writing. So I have to conclude that, while they're not separate entities, they ARE my muses. How VERY poetic.
But if my libido ever develops its own personality and starts talking to me, I'm in DEEP trouble. Soulbonded to my own libido... yikes.
Replies: add your comment: currently 5 comments
I have a long history of running around saying that soulbonded people are insane.
Normal people don't call voices-in-the-head soulbonding. They call it schizophrenia.
But I've always been negative and bitter like that, haven't I?
Posted by Ed @ 06/22/2001 02:37 AM EST
And I've always said that there's a fine line between genius and insanityİ Or rather quoting thatİ
So nyahİ
Posted by Lack Thereof @ 06/22/2001 07:36 AM EST
...I'm just trying to figure how your libido, granted a personality of its own, would be discernibly different than what we've already observed of you. (ducks)
Posted by Nathan @ 06/22/2001 03:23 PM EST
My muse is named lack-of-sleep. It usually hits me the night before a big developmental biology test, or while I'm writing a 10-page psych paper. Lack-of-sleep wrestles me to the ground and forces me to write creatively. Of course... I love it. But damn inconvenient, it is.
As for the voice-in-the-head people, I know a few of those. It's sad, really...
Posted by Soowhan @ 06/22/2001 09:36 PM EST
The characters in my head haven't started talking to me of thier own free will or told me what to do yet. Thank god I'm still in control of them!
Posted by Kyrn @ 07/03/2001 05:54 AM EST
