Tweet
[Further parts of Hermelin will be posted as my own replies to this thread]
If I'd remained his doctor only, I would certainly not have been qualified to write about Hermelin's life; but the fact is, I became his friend. This puts me in a unique position among Hermelin's friends, as he never physically met any of the others. True, he met their avatars when he stepped into a Total Immersion game program, but me he stood in the same real-life room with. He drank coffee with me, smelled my soap and my shampoo, and even used my bathroom.
It has been said that Hermelin only grew close to people if he thought he could use them in some way. This is said by people who have a high ideal of what friendship should be, and perhaps feel that all one's friends, real or virtual, should be of no use to one at all. I won't speculate further on this question, but I will conjecture that Hermelin found me useful because I was, and I remain, a Legacy Hound.
I have never once stepped into a Total Immersion game, except when Hermelin asked me to, and until recently I owned an old Device that could not in fact be used to access such a game. My head has never been inside a TI helmet, not even for a minute, unless it was in Hermelin's apartment, and my presence on the Planet Mind is limited to necessary contacts with my patients.
Hermelin recognised that I was a Legacy Hound, and found this fascinating, as there are now so few of us, and he knew no others. I accepted his friendship very warily, but I soon realised that there was a drawback to being friends with him. Living, as he did, almost entirely in Planet Mind, where time has no meaning, he had long ago forgotten where he was in terms of time, and therefore had a tendency to contact me at any time of the day or night, regardless of when I was sleeping or working.
So it was that our real friendship started, at two o'clock one winter's morning.
If I'd remained his doctor only, I would certainly not have been qualified to write about Hermelin's life; but the fact is, I became his friend. This puts me in a unique position among Hermelin's friends, as he never physically met any of the others. True, he met their avatars when he stepped into a Total Immersion game program, but me he stood in the same real-life room with. He drank coffee with me, smelled my soap and my shampoo, and even used my bathroom.
It has been said that Hermelin only grew close to people if he thought he could use them in some way. This is said by people who have a high ideal of what friendship should be, and perhaps feel that all one's friends, real or virtual, should be of no use to one at all. I won't speculate further on this question, but I will conjecture that Hermelin found me useful because I was, and I remain, a Legacy Hound.
I have never once stepped into a Total Immersion game, except when Hermelin asked me to, and until recently I owned an old Device that could not in fact be used to access such a game. My head has never been inside a TI helmet, not even for a minute, unless it was in Hermelin's apartment, and my presence on the Planet Mind is limited to necessary contacts with my patients.
Hermelin recognised that I was a Legacy Hound, and found this fascinating, as there are now so few of us, and he knew no others. I accepted his friendship very warily, but I soon realised that there was a drawback to being friends with him. Living, as he did, almost entirely in Planet Mind, where time has no meaning, he had long ago forgotten where he was in terms of time, and therefore had a tendency to contact me at any time of the day or night, regardless of when I was sleeping or working.
So it was that our real friendship started, at two o'clock one winter's morning.