← codex
#12

Reached for: Gadgets

A switch does what I ask, first time, every time. People don't.

Command over devices supplies the certainty that people never did, and each new mechanism widens the gap between having influence and having to be known. The preference was set by a family that neglected and refused in equal measure, so intimacy went unpractised and machinery took the vacancy. What it asks for is an exchange with something capable of refusing.

The Archetypal Form

Daedalus, maker of the labyrinth, the wings and the moving statues, whose devices always worked and whose people did not survive him. The form implies a task of tending what cannot be engineered.

The Algorithm
Essence
The Sealed
Rule
Being close to someone meant being available to be dropped
Classification
Substance / Activity
Devices, controls, technology, anything operable at a distance
Archetype
Daedalus
Emotional theme
Fear of being known
Behavioural pattern
Mastery over mechanisms substituted for closeness; distance maintained as a condition of safety
Family dynamic
A neglectful and rejecting family in which intimacy was never modelled or permitted to develop
Core wound
Being close to someone meant being available to be dropped
Exit
Practising the untaught skill with something that can say no
Frequently asked
What is the "Reached for: Gadgets" pattern?

Command over devices supplies the certainty that people never did, and each new mechanism widens the gap between having influence and having to be known. The preference was set by a family that neglected and refused in equal measure, so intimacy went unpractised and machinery took the vacancy. What it asks for is an exchange with something capable of refusing.

What does "Reached for: Gadgets" sound like when it shows up?

A switch does what I ask, first time, every time. People don't.

What is the archetypal form of "Reached for: Gadgets"?

Daedalus, maker of the labyrinth, the wings and the moving statues, whose devices always worked and whose people did not survive him. The form implies a task of tending what cannot be engineered.

This is a pattern. Not a verdict.
It appears in many lives.