Third Person and plural archive round-ups

[lb_lee]

 Sneak: plural linkdump!

• First, Emma Grove has published a DID graphic memoir through Fantagraphics: The Third Person. It is huge, about 800 pages, and seems to focus mainly on a messed-up therapeutic relationship as Groves tried to transition, only to keep getting denied for DID reasons. (This happens often! Rogan often says he cheated and lied his way through our transition with no regrets.)
• The Dragonheart collective has done some more awesome work lately namely, How Do I Know I'm Plural? and Should I Tell My Friend/Doctor/Parents About Being Plural?
• Plural webrings no longer seem to exist (not that I can find anyway, and I am soooo not interested in founding/maintaining one) but some folks have compiled big lists of plural umbrella sites that would surely be of interest to folks here! Dragonheart Collective have one here, and Dervish has a soulbonding archive list here!
• Neocities has a plurality tag! Have fun trawling!
• EDIT FROM MORI: late to the party, but in more bummer plural news, ex-football star and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Herschel Walker is running for Senate in Georgia. He published a DID memoir, Breaking Free, in 2008, and has a string of horrifying DV charges against him (which he blamed on the DID). Can't believe the first plural I know of running for office is this jerk.

Comments

[starfallhaven]

Okay but this means we 100% have to code our own website on neocities.

[lb_lee]

Is that a bad thing? I can't tell if this is an "oh nooooo" or an "oh yesssss" statement.

Sneak

[feotakahari]

I just read The Third Person. I have no background in therapy whatsoever, and I still think I could have done a better job of listening and not judging than that therapist did. What an ass.

[lb_lee]

Sneak: That was definitely the impression we got! It's actually why we haven't read it yet; it sounds rough to read for 800 pages!

[starfallhaven]

More like 'oh yes'! ^^

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Then yessssss, dooo iiiiiit! :D

I am so in love with the "faux-retro Rococo" aesthetic so many neocities are coming up with, and totally am dreaming about making one of my own, even though making it screen-reader-friendly would be SO AWFUL... <3_<3 But a Sneak can dream! And having a healthymultiplicity.com mirror just in case of link breakage might be a good idea...

[erinptah]

Oh, hey, my library has the book! Guess I'm placing a hold.

The Amazon description of the plot is all "can this be real? or is she faking it all for attention??" Which, oof, not something I would've picked up if you hadn't recced it. Boo on whatever marketing person wrote that copy.

[silvercat17]

I'm on Neocities, but it's all conlang stuff and, um, half-finished

[lb_lee]

Er, note that I haven't read it, so I don't know if I can recommend it! Would love to hear your opinion on it, though. (I would LIKE to read it, but much like other plural books, they tend to be a rough read. I really don't know if I could take 800 pages of therapeutic dickery. And I REALLY don't relish having the "ooooooh, is it real or is it fake? who knoooooows" marketing copy that seems to be required if you are a multi trying to sell a book.)

--Rogan

[lb_lee]

Sneak: I am so enchanted by how people are using Neocities! <3_<3 It's so cool!

[rax]

we read The Third Person recently and enjoyed it a lot. it got pitched to us as a trans memoir and not a plural memoir which... yes it is definitely a trans memoir but the plural aspects are at least more personally interesting. it can be painful in places, and the therapist character is really awful in places, but it's also wickedly funny and does a good job of respecting the author's privacy when she doesn't feel like sharing something. the ending is... it feels a little too neatly wrapped up compared to our experiences or the experiences of people we know, but (a) maybe the author's experience wrapped up! that happens! and (b) maybe it didn't and she reasonably concluded the details of that aren't the world at large's business. there's also a third possibility, but i think getting into it more in a random comment would be pretty spoilery (can you... spoil a memoir? probably).

we haven't decided if we're going to write up something formal about it, including deconstructing the spoiler-things a bit more, because what is it to have and use a brain? but i do recommend it with the caveat that it's full of hostile bad therapist and that may not be a thing someone wants to read.

Spoilers requested!

[lb_lee]

I guess one of the things I want to know about the book is: does it end with transition "solving" the plurality? Because I might be able to stagger through 800 pages of a dickbag trans guy therapist, but I think I wouldn't enjoy if it has a cure ending too, even if it is truly how things worked out.

As it is, I can't lie, I'm preparing to read this book with my usual plural "okay, this will be painful and isn't for me, but gotta do it for RESEARCH" feelings. I really wish I wasn't like this, especially since I make painful plural work myself, but...

Rogan

spoilers in this comment!

[rax]

i'm not sure i can spoiler tag on dw so i'm just going to warn that there are spoilers here for other folks.

transition itself isn't 100% the thing that "solves" the plurality but textually, it is solved, one of the three of them makes a point of leaving, and it becomes a thing of the past. however, the final scene calls this into question a little bit by having the main character act like the person who "left" and then notice this and sort of sit wordlessly with it as the book ends. i really wonder if, like a lot of trans memoir that has both a "this is the story you tell your therapist to get care" narrative and a hidden narrative undercutting that, the Plurality Is Solved! is meant to tell us what you say to your therapist, and the calling-into-question is meant to give space for people who don't have that experience to feel all right about it. if so i'm sad she [felt like she] had to do that, but also, it would make sense?

it was definitely the most frustrating part for me of a book i otherwise loved, and that we in general really appreciate and recommend. and it will probably be frustrating for you too :( i think it sucks that a lot of plural memoir is painful but like... kinda makes sense for a variety of reasons? and a lot of memoir delves into painful times and memories because that's part of being one or more people, so i expect some of that? but it really chafes for me when it feels apologetic. and this... wasn't explicitly that, but kinda felt in that neighborhood, to me.

Re: spoilers in this comment!

[lb_lee]

Oh man, I'm super glad you warned me, I would've probably gotten irrationally angry if that ending surprised me. Like, I get WHY the narrative exists, but jeez do I really wish there was more room for plural endings that aren't cure or death!

It sounds like it would be a rough read for us right now. Guess it can hang out with Dear Senthuran, waiting for us to be in a better mood.

Mori/Rogan

[erinptah]

Update: I've read it, and it did turn out to be very good!

The 800-page length isn't as overwhelming as it sounds -- it covers long conversations in detail with a new panel every line or two, plus beat panels for the silences, so it doesn't take much reading to whip through a bunch of pages.

And the marketing copy taking the therapist's POV was a weird choice -- the book itself is so blatantly from the perspective/s of the author, who's just earnestly trying to get some support.

That said, the bulk of the story is absolutely about therapeutic dickery, and it's super frustrating to read. Like, for the first quarter of the book I was thinking "this guy makes for a sympathetic character, he's never had a patient like this before and he's clearly in over his head, but he's doing his best." Then it kept going, and you would expect him to make progress and deepen his understanding, but nope! He gets an idea in his head and sticks to it, even as that requires him to lean harder and harder into "willfully misunderstanding what the actual patient in front of him is saying."

They finally get a new therapist who doesn't suck around page 816, and that part is very satisfying. Especially when she says things like "wait, your other therapist did WHAT?"

Misc other notes:

- Their childhood trauma doesn't get a lot of page time, and imo it's not graphic, but we do see physical abuse at home and bullying (mostly transphobic bullying) at school.

- The ending kinda squeezes itself into a narrative of "one of them was the core, who sticks around, while the others go away, and she has to let them go," but the author's endnotes indicate there's still a level of separation going on that came into play while writing the book (13 years after the therapy). If they ever write a "surprise! it wasn't that simple!" follow-up, I wouldn't be surprised (and would definitely read it).

[lb_lee]

Sneak: thank you very much! Between you and rax, I feel like I totally have the info to add this to pluralstories, and I will do so later today!

Unfortunately, the ad copy isn't surprising. People write the ad copy for the mainstream appral, so they often take the most mainstream viewpoint, which is that multiples are untrustworthy or surprising twists. There's a reason we self-publish! Rogan and Mori would SEETHE over something like that, but a traditional publisher would be unlikely to let us have input on it.

[lb_lee]

Between you guys and erinptah, I have enough metadata to add The Third Person to pluralstories! Thank you very much! I will do so later today.

Sneak