The most intimate you can ever be with a stranger on the internet
(I don’t know if anyone can be put off by recounts of harsh life memories, but the summary of events does include some, just in case.)
Raw emotion. You might hear that quoted in reviews for some film spectacle or outstanding ballet performance, highly-acclaimed art piece or even a poem. Raw emotion, the feeling of getting to the true feelings of whatever the artist is trying to convey. But, to me, that isn’t raw emotion in its purest sense.
I will be honest, I browse 4chan. While more because of boredom, the variance on the posts seems to pass some time, and sometimes get a chuckle out of me. But a couple of beauties I pull from the image boards is both people’s surprising amount of candidness (likely sourced from the anonymous nature of the posts) and the fleeting moments participating in a thread until it 404’s, sometimes right in the middle of a story.
I had the privilege to come across a screenshot collection of a story written by a guy who only identifies himself as Ryan. It was a collection of 15 posts in a thread (character limit makes it impossible to just one huge wall of text) describing his story through the many downs of his life, and the one light that brought it back together a little. I was enthralled in it and, real or not, he had me in for the long run. Having his body beat and raped, his heart broken, and his relationships thrashed, he found hope in one little girl he felt he wanted to protect as if his life depended on it.
The internet has ample sides that it shows on a daily basis, but it has shown its positive one to me twice tonight again. First, through Ryan and Alecia’s interaction first through deviantart, then through more direct chat options that allowed them to connect in a way that never would’ve been possible otherwise. Then, tonight, where a random anon decided it would be that story they decide to post to lead off a feels thread that I happened to be on at the same time. The transfer of the emotion, that aforementioned raw emotion that was felt, has left me thinking deeply again tonight. It was that nitty-gritty, real recollection of someone’s life that will once again influence my own. My imagination runs wild as I live temporarily vicariously through this guy who has lived a harsh and horrid life, but a real one.
Now, I do not envy Ryan. I would never wish for myself or anyone I know to be beat by their dad, raped by their older male cousin, or bullied because of stereotypes and misunderstandings. But it is because those kind of lives exist, coupled with people willing to tell their stories with no holes barred, that we are allowed a view into the human condition in its purest state, or really, in its rawest state. And that, as a creator without a medium, is the highest amount of imaginative stimulation I can ask for.
P.S. if anyone is interested in the post, they can find the mass post right, about, here.