scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6cttz1.md

[C] [FF] On the Continuity of Consciousness

• Author: u/Noumero Self-Appointed Court Statistician*

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6cttz1/c_ff_on_the_continuity_of_consciousness/

• Score: 16

• Created: 2017-05-23T10:32:46

Post:

On the Continuity of Consciousness by u/vi_fi.

Summary: First-year Luna Lovegood is sure there is something deeply wrong with Hogwarts.

A rational (irrational?) recursive fanfiction of HPMoR (among others) centered on Luna.

Describing it further would spoil it in one way or another; suffice to say that it is self-aware, rational-ish, rather original and otherworldly.

Not sold on it? Conceptual spoiler

Comments:

u/noggin-scratcher [+5] I am a happy tree (26 minutes later)

Having read this when it was posted on /r/HPMOR, it was a lot of fun. Definitely enjoyed it. "Otherworldly" is about right too - felt at times like the experience of reading it was an induced dream state.

u/None [+5] (2 hours later)

Hey! I'm the author. Given the comments on the original thread on /r/HPMOR, I expect there to be some questions, and I'll be happy to answer them, be they about in-story information or about my intentions while writing.

I'd also like hearing about your theories & speculations! Granted, those tended to be more varied while the story wasn't fully posted, but I enjoy them anyway :)

u/scruiser [+5] CYOA (11 hours later)

SPOILERS

So I binged through this all at once and then I read the thread for the final chapter on /r/HPMOR...

I really like the feel of this fic, the sense of twistedness of Luna's thoughts, the smooth transition from lucidness to dream state. On the other hand, it did make it hard to keep up with what reality Luna was in. For example, up until I read your comments after reading the last chapter, I still thought that Luna's prime/original reality was a HPMOR AU were Harry and Hermione had been erased from history. I kind of thought that would be a major plot point up until the last few chapters. I also thought the the flashbacks with her mother was just another alternate reality and I underestimated their importance up until the last few chapters. The meta-fictional thing was justified in story, but I felt like it was unsatisfying compared to the story that was starting to be told that I hoped would be told more: Luna, on the brink of death, jumping and shifting from reality to reality discovering new knowledge in hopes of finding something to save her life. That said, Luna hijacking the story from beyond the 4th wall felt a lot better than her dying to try to teach an eldritch magical entity the meaning of friendship (that was what she was trying to do, right?).

This is where you want to beg me to not do that, because it's at odds with the intention of your story. You want denouement, you want to tie up the dangling plot threads, you want what you would call a fitting ending. But I don't care about your story, and I doubt anyone else does.

This is my life, and if I have to deny you your twisted satisfaction to save it, I will."

You tell'em Luna. That said, I really do want a continuation fic of slider Luna shifting from reality to reality, searching out advanced magical solutions to her problems, (like tame magic eating breed of Devil's Snare) and having fun exploring (Luna gets to be the sane one when she meet druid-doublewitch Rose Potter),.

u/None [+3] (23 hours later)

Yeah... The HPMoR AU part is a bit confusing, given that Luna's basically dreaming it, waking up inside the dream to talk to Harry, going to sleep again, and waking up once again inside the dream to decide to accept Harry's mission (and confuse poor Colin Creevey even further). To be honest, that wasn't even entirely clear to me while I was writing it. Maybe I should add another short scene in which Luna wakes up yet another time, barely remembering a convoluted dream.

Another problem with that scene is that I'd really like to read that HPMoR AU, but I'm not really motivated to write it :) Colin's viewpoint in that one would be especially fun. He's an amateur sleuth trying to uncover a conspiracy while the only actual source on it is right next to him, notoriously unreliable and trolling him without his knowledge.

Worldhopping Luna is another interesting concept for a fic. The main problem with that one is that Luna is explicitly stated in Continuity to not be able to make those lives her own, which raises the question of whether she has enough agency to be an interesting main character. If anyone wants to writes a recursive fanfiction of Continuity, be my guest! I think it would be awesome.

Yep, she was in fact trying to teach Friend the meaning of friendship. She didn't intend to die, given that he would be able to save her. Overall, while not every detail worked out as expected, the end did go according to her plan.

On the meta ending being unsatisfying: I agree, it is. In some ways, the story tries to mitigate this by lampshading it. Luna explicitly denies the author, and by extension his readers, the satisfaction of a real denouement. The main question is whether this dissatisfaction is worth the meta-textual angle the story gains from the ending.

There's another meta thing with the horrid fanfiction cliché of the author self-insert. Luna is absolutely right when she lambasts me for writing it. I wouldn't change it, though. Somehow, it's very central to my concept of the story.

Thanks for reading, u/scruiser, and thanks for posting your thoughts!

u/scruiser [+1] CYOA (a day later)

Thanks for the additional clarifications. I look forward to seeing what you write in the future!

u/Fhoenix42 [+2] (a day later)

Dear dear author. Words fail to express how much I like you at this moment. There is a rare quality to the story when it is coherent and yet utterly incomprehensible. Like a dream, that contains a meaning which your mind can't grasp. I like this feeling very much, but dreams don't stay long once you wake. Reading a story that induces the same state, but that you can remember for a while is such a pleasure. Especially since your story clicks with me, somehow touching all the right connections in the brain. It just feels so right. Good job!

If I had to nitpick, Friend dieing in the end does not feel right. You can trick them, you can survive them or you can join them, but eldritch things from beyond your dreams are not supposed to die. And a cliche does not become better if a character admits it as such. But that's okay, I can kind of wave away the whole 4th wall thing in my head and pretend it did not happen. I am sorry Luna. You can't stop me.

I am going to try Arithmancer since it's the only thing on your list that I did not read. And then I'll reread your story again. Not going to ask questions now, after a binge it would be a disservice. I should have read slower, but it was hard to stop)

Do you plan to write more stuff? I would read it)

Also have you played Cultist Simulator? I think you would like it. But you probably have already.

u/None [+2] (a day later)

Thanks for the kind words.

About Friend dying (and the 4th wall): You can just believe that Luna was delirious by that point and basically imagined everything. I won't judge :)

About writing more stuff: I'm currently trying to write another weird fanfiction. It might be a good idea for you to subscribe on ao3 if you want to be informed automatically whenever I post something.

About Cultist Simulator: I've tried it, but as far as I could tell there's only an early alpha version? It's promising, so far, but there's not a lot of content there yet.

u/OutOfNiceUsernames [+2] fear of last pages (a day later)

Some typos I’ve found, if you’re interested in those:

• You're a first-year like me, around you?” → You're a first-year like me, aren’t you?” (I think)
• For here, there weren't many intermediate steps between → For her, there weren't many intermediate steps between
• she saw that it was to small to be → she saw that it was too small to be
• so it couldn't compose it's own messages → so it couldn't compose its own messages
• All objects not in either of those category → All objects not in either of those categories

u/None [+2] (a day later)

Fixed! Thanks for compiling those errors.

Some of those mystify me. How did I ever write "around" instead of "aren't"?

u/eaterofclouds [+1] Sunshine Regiment (4 days later)

You had HPMOR!Harry make a cameo appearance, say a few mysterious things, and it was never resolved. What's up with that?

u/None [+1] (5 days later)

I did the same thing with Significant Digits Harry in Chapter 11. It was my intention to just "show off" a lot of different parallel universes to highlight the similarities and differences of Luna's behaviour in them. Of course, some of those parallel universes did get "resolutions" (see e.g. the various deaths in Chapter 3). Most of them don't form complete story arcs, however, and were never intended to.

For further thoughts on the HPMoR continuation in particular, read scruiser's comment (and my reply) above :)

u/khafra [+2] (an hour later)

Is it mirrored on any more SFW sites, like spacebattles or something?

u/Noumero [+3] Self-Appointed Court Statistician (2 hours later)

Not as far as I know, though you could download an .epub, a .mobi, or a .pdf?

u/None [+2] (2 hours later)

No, there are no mirrors right now. I wasn't aware that there would be any demand for that. On the other hand, those download links seem to be working quite nicely.

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