Open Thread, November 15-22, 2013

drethelin

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

So I've been reading Worm ( parahumans.wordpress.com ), and there's this tiny thing that's been growing ever-more annoying, and I can't hold off asking about it any longer.

I keep seeing passages like this: "Realizing the position he had me in, feeling the pressure of his thighs against my hips, his weight resting partially on my lower body, I must’ve blown a synapse. My thought process ground to a halt. It didn’t help that the first place my mind went was interpreting his ‘start’ as being this position leading to something else."

Do people actually think like this? Seems like it would be really inconvenient.

Yes. Not even being attracted to anyone, physical contact (especially the close kind in grappling) tends to have me consciously trying not to panic over those sorts of implications. It might be a cultural thing? Possibly mixed with personality type/experience?

(Yes, it is annoying.)

2drethelin12y

I've had moments like that. It's much more of a thing I think when you're extremely lonely and inexperienced. But I still get emotional thrills when sitting in very close contact to someone I find attractive regardless of the fact that I have plenty of physical fun these days.

6Shmi12y

I've just finished Worm! At the pace of 10^5 words/week it left me little time for other activities. I hope someone makes a movie out of this web novel, it's so visual. Anyway, the passage you quoted seems like a perfectly good description of one's physical contact with her crush. Especially if it's the first crush of a not-quite 16 year-old girl.