#but its mere presence in such an improbable situation DEMANDS that reality be reassessed. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

uranodioningin · 10 months ago

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I think the main confusion in the Walrus/Fairy debate is in the extent of the question asked by the creature's mere presence

As in, if we're looking at a flat what is more weird, then yeah, obviously the fairy. Obviously.

But some people see the "which would be weirder..." and run through all the basic questions, asking themselves which is weirder or harder to explain or most shocking/frightening:

What is at my door?

Fairies don't exist. Walruses do. Nothing else needs to be said here.

Fairies are the weirder option.

Why is it at my door?

I can speculate on why a fairy, if it existed, might have business with me. Magic quest, testing mortals with riddles, stealing my firstborn. The usual folkloric staples.

I can think of no such motivation that would bring a walrus to my door.

Walruses are the weirder option.

Where is my door?

Most people live in a place that is not the arctic ocean. That is a strange way of phrasing it, but the most essential fact in this whole debate.

If fairies were suddenly proven real, I could speculate on where they might live (underground city, cloud city, invisible city, parallel universe, inside plants, etc.). I cannot speculate on where walruses live, because it is not open for speculation; we know where they live, and it is not where people live.

Walruses are the weirder option.

How is at the door?

If a fairy were at my door, I would be forced to rethink reality itself. Maybe teleportation is real? Invisibility? Maybe it shape-changed into something innocuous and only assumed its true shape when I opened the door? In short, I would be able to speculate on how the fairy made its way un-captured and unobserved to my door.

I would not. Be able. To speculate the same. For a walrus.

The mere presence of a walrus is not sufficient to make me speculate on the existence of teleportation or invisibility, so I am forced to deduce that it came here 'on foot' as it were. There is simply no way a walrus could arrive at my door without my finding out about it on the news or social media long before I heard my doorbell ring.

Walruses are the weirder option.

#fairy or walrus #listen if fairies are suddenly proven real then that makes it very easy to question all other rules of physics #and if it's easy to question all other rules of physics then it doesn't feel weird anymore it's just an insane new normal #but a walrus is already known to be real. one appearing on my doorstep is only 99% impossible & 1% improbable #if it happened I would NEED to question the laws of physics to justify how it got there #but there is nothing inherent to the nature of a walrus that INVITES the questioning of the laws of physics #a walrus is allowed to exist without reality falling apart #but its mere presence in such an improbable situation DEMANDS that reality be reassessed.#in short: a fairy at the door is the equivalent of taking a sledgehammer to a stained glass window and ordering people to step through;#the glass is already broken so you can just walk right through and be only a little cut up by the shards #whereas the walrus at the door is the equivalent of throwing a pebble through a stained glass window and ordering people to step through;#sure there's a hole in one corner but I'm big and I simply can't squeeze through it and it would lacerate me to try #look in brief IN BOTH CASES you would be forced to reckon with a fundamentally changed reality #it's just that the fairy's existence makes the change more palpable and thus easier to accept #you're a fool if you think the presence of a walrus is easy to explain beyond a simple ''what is it''

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