Someone recently pointed out to me that the title of Episode 7 is “Chikhai Bardo” — a direct reference to Tibetan Buddhism and the cycle of rebirth. So I take it back that “the show offers almost no religious language or overt metaphysics,” since clearly there’s at least one powerful exception. I completely missed that title. (Thank you Reddit community for catching that!)
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful, reflective essay. It was a gift to read.
You posed the following question:
“Who are you if you forget?”
This is a question that I face daily. I am a person with aphantasia (the inability to mentally visualize) and SDAM, or Severely Deficient Autobiographical (which means having only a semantic memory, but not an episodic memory). For most of my life I didn’t have names for these two traits, but just a general sense of shame that I was lacking somethings that somehow I was not quite worthy or competent to obtain. When I first learned about these traits as part of who I am I mourned that I could never grasp what I had been seeking my whole life—which was episodic memories fueled by my five senses. I am now in a place of curiosity and am enjoying the freedom of coming to know myself as I am.
Admittedly I started to cringe when your essay began addressing this question, but I finished it with feeling the truthfulness that memory is not the source of wholeness.
Michele, thank you so much for this beautiful and vulnerable comment. Your reflection really moved me. It also opened a door I didn’t even realize was there. I’ve only vaguely heard references to aphantasia and SDAM before, and reading your words sparked a wave of curiosity.
Some of what you shared made me wonder. I’ve always found visualizing images vividly in my mind nearly impossible, and many of my past experiences live more as facts than felt memories. Until recently, I just assumed that was how everyone remembered.
Your journey toward acceptance and curiosity, especially in redefining what wholeness can look like, is incredibly powerful. Thank you for sharing it here. It’s a reminder that even what feels like limitation can become a different kind of insight. I’m now quite eager to explore this further. Thank you! 🙏
Thanks for this Glenn! I keep meaning to write about Severance as well, especially my favorite episode, s2e4 "Woe's Hollow." The show is frankly a model for the kind of speculative fiction I strive to create, in terms of both its thematic content and its execution of those themes (which you describe so well here).
I would add Derek Parfit's work to your reading list. He wrote kind of the Bible of personal identity within modern Western philosophy. There's a long series of thought experiments in his book Reasons & Persons that could inspire many shows like Severance. His thinking has been a big influence on how I think about "what we are" and he may be my favorite philosopher.
One of the stories I'm serializing on Substack, HELLO MY OTHER, HELLO MY SELF, directly interrogates what makes us separate from each other and the from the universe, and how to reconcile that with an underlying unity that transcends individual ego. It mainly relies on the paradoxes and ambiguities of biology to do this (what is a species? What is an organism? Can an ecosystem or lineage have agency? Etc.):
Another one, THE ODDEST THING ABOUT THE FOLKS ON GROVE POINT ROAD, is about characters stuck in a time loop, which creates a shockingly similar experience to the innies (particularly Gemma's persona's) in having to construct meaning under constraints that make their existence inherently monotonous:
Takim, I really appreciate this. Thank you. And yes! Woe’s Hollow was such a memorable episode. That shift from the office into the wild had a beautifully disorienting quality.
Also, thank you for the Parfit recommendation. Funny enough, I went to add Reasons & Persons to my wish list, only to discover it was already sitting in my Audible library. I don’t remember reading it, so I’ve added it to into my queue. It sounds riveting, and right in the center of this swirling conversation about identity and continuity.
I’m also really looking forward to reading your serialized stories. Thank you for sharing those. From the summaries alone, it feels like we’re circling a lot of the same questions from different angles: selfhood, fragmentation, unification, and the strangeness of being a "self." Excited to dive in.
On a more tactical note: how have you found the serialization process on Substack? I’m just about to begin serializing my first book project, and I’ve been working through some of the structural quirks. I'm curious how you’ve approached the pacing, and what you do (or plan to do) when the serial ends. I want to make sure I’m thinking about it in a way that respects the people who’ve committed to an annual subscription, since it will be behind a paywall.
Your time-loop fiction sounds incredibly intriguing. I’ve got some rough notes on a time-travel novel that’s been lingering on the back-burner for a while now. It's super interesting to see how others approach the paradoxes and emotional contours of nonlinear time.
Thanks again for all of this. It’s a gift when reflections spark more reflections.
"It's a gift when reflections spark more reflections." Amen.
I may or may not have much satisfying insight on serialization yet. My audience was small when I started in Feb and it's small now, though I'm organically making new fans/connections in ones and twos, which is very meaningful and all I can realistically hope for. 2025 is my year for experimenting with making my fiction available for free online (posting a new chapter every Monday and Friday). My approach is a little unique in that I'm building a brand around my pipeline of 15 novels-in-progress, serializing substantial excerpts from unfinished projects as a way to build/gauge early interest in those projects individually, and in myself and my body of work across the projects collectively. So I'm basically treating Substack as my portfolio, an extremely robust sample platter that shows off my writing chops. As I go on to finish the projects in the years to come, I'll think through publication options for each one individually when the time comes.
First off, actually secondly, as I have not yet seen Severance, so any remark here is superfluous.
Yet… I dare tread anyway. So, firstly, why would I save you from craziness, when the invitation has always been to join me there.? Truthfully I find craziness helps to adjust with joy to a world or rather civilized culture, that is insane. It helps mitigate the often painful and lonely adjustments needed for balance.
Yes, your long reflection on this film series initiates interest in seeing it. Yet perhaps like Jennee, your interweaving of film and an amazing academic philosophical reflection of a deeper meaning it purposely or more likely not purposely evoked is too wild and crazy to keep up with.
You see so much ! It’s a heady spin, ever full of your viewing layers of truth’s quest that you invite your readers to share with you.
It blows me out of my own other pensive layered quest in the crazy questions life tosses my way.
So, apologetically I’m not going to save you from your craziness. I rather admire the way your mind works and how deeply your own personal questions take you these days.
Everything you consider, read, or is presented to you, whisks you into deeper understanding of your own search of the path you’re on. You are deeply exploring your life garden!
Next, it seems when my situation allows, I’ll be called and compelled to watch Severance. Then perhaps I’ll desire to take on your phenomenal reading list, some of which I’ve dappled in and more than I’ve shined away from. Likely I’ll add another set of references. There’s so much to share.
Oh, if only I could read or listen to yours and my list with gusto and respond to this incredible tapestry you’ve woven, so full of life’s questions…
Oh how I admire your busy and inquisitive mind! See you when openings present along the path…
Thank you for both saving me and not saving me from my crazy ideas. You have always helped dance alongside those crazy questions, never trying to tame them. I wouldn’t trade this shared “craziness” for anything. It’s where the light gets in ;). Love you so much, Mom!
Someone recently pointed out to me that the title of Episode 7 is “Chikhai Bardo” — a direct reference to Tibetan Buddhism and the cycle of rebirth. So I take it back that “the show offers almost no religious language or overt metaphysics,” since clearly there’s at least one powerful exception. I completely missed that title. (Thank you Reddit community for catching that!)
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful, reflective essay. It was a gift to read.
You posed the following question:
“Who are you if you forget?”
This is a question that I face daily. I am a person with aphantasia (the inability to mentally visualize) and SDAM, or Severely Deficient Autobiographical (which means having only a semantic memory, but not an episodic memory). For most of my life I didn’t have names for these two traits, but just a general sense of shame that I was lacking somethings that somehow I was not quite worthy or competent to obtain. When I first learned about these traits as part of who I am I mourned that I could never grasp what I had been seeking my whole life—which was episodic memories fueled by my five senses. I am now in a place of curiosity and am enjoying the freedom of coming to know myself as I am.
Admittedly I started to cringe when your essay began addressing this question, but I finished it with feeling the truthfulness that memory is not the source of wholeness.
Michele, thank you so much for this beautiful and vulnerable comment. Your reflection really moved me. It also opened a door I didn’t even realize was there. I’ve only vaguely heard references to aphantasia and SDAM before, and reading your words sparked a wave of curiosity.
Some of what you shared made me wonder. I’ve always found visualizing images vividly in my mind nearly impossible, and many of my past experiences live more as facts than felt memories. Until recently, I just assumed that was how everyone remembered.
Your journey toward acceptance and curiosity, especially in redefining what wholeness can look like, is incredibly powerful. Thank you for sharing it here. It’s a reminder that even what feels like limitation can become a different kind of insight. I’m now quite eager to explore this further. Thank you! 🙏
Stopped midway through the read. Changed my mind about not seeing Severance.
Ha! :) ... Did the mention of advaita change your mind?
Damn, you know me too well!!
I can’t wait to hear your reflections after you binge watch it ;)
Thanks for this Glenn! I keep meaning to write about Severance as well, especially my favorite episode, s2e4 "Woe's Hollow." The show is frankly a model for the kind of speculative fiction I strive to create, in terms of both its thematic content and its execution of those themes (which you describe so well here).
I would add Derek Parfit's work to your reading list. He wrote kind of the Bible of personal identity within modern Western philosophy. There's a long series of thought experiments in his book Reasons & Persons that could inspire many shows like Severance. His thinking has been a big influence on how I think about "what we are" and he may be my favorite philosopher.
One of the stories I'm serializing on Substack, HELLO MY OTHER, HELLO MY SELF, directly interrogates what makes us separate from each other and the from the universe, and how to reconcile that with an underlying unity that transcends individual ego. It mainly relies on the paradoxes and ambiguities of biology to do this (what is a species? What is an organism? Can an ecosystem or lineage have agency? Etc.):
https://open.substack.com/pub/takimwilliams/p/hello-my-other-hello-my-self-encapsulation?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=17mz6p
Another one, THE ODDEST THING ABOUT THE FOLKS ON GROVE POINT ROAD, is about characters stuck in a time loop, which creates a shockingly similar experience to the innies (particularly Gemma's persona's) in having to construct meaning under constraints that make their existence inherently monotonous:
https://open.substack.com/pub/takimwilliams/p/the-oddest-thing-about-the-folks?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=17mz6p
Takim, I really appreciate this. Thank you. And yes! Woe’s Hollow was such a memorable episode. That shift from the office into the wild had a beautifully disorienting quality.
Also, thank you for the Parfit recommendation. Funny enough, I went to add Reasons & Persons to my wish list, only to discover it was already sitting in my Audible library. I don’t remember reading it, so I’ve added it to into my queue. It sounds riveting, and right in the center of this swirling conversation about identity and continuity.
I’m also really looking forward to reading your serialized stories. Thank you for sharing those. From the summaries alone, it feels like we’re circling a lot of the same questions from different angles: selfhood, fragmentation, unification, and the strangeness of being a "self." Excited to dive in.
On a more tactical note: how have you found the serialization process on Substack? I’m just about to begin serializing my first book project, and I’ve been working through some of the structural quirks. I'm curious how you’ve approached the pacing, and what you do (or plan to do) when the serial ends. I want to make sure I’m thinking about it in a way that respects the people who’ve committed to an annual subscription, since it will be behind a paywall.
Your time-loop fiction sounds incredibly intriguing. I’ve got some rough notes on a time-travel novel that’s been lingering on the back-burner for a while now. It's super interesting to see how others approach the paradoxes and emotional contours of nonlinear time.
Thanks again for all of this. It’s a gift when reflections spark more reflections.
"It's a gift when reflections spark more reflections." Amen.
I may or may not have much satisfying insight on serialization yet. My audience was small when I started in Feb and it's small now, though I'm organically making new fans/connections in ones and twos, which is very meaningful and all I can realistically hope for. 2025 is my year for experimenting with making my fiction available for free online (posting a new chapter every Monday and Friday). My approach is a little unique in that I'm building a brand around my pipeline of 15 novels-in-progress, serializing substantial excerpts from unfinished projects as a way to build/gauge early interest in those projects individually, and in myself and my body of work across the projects collectively. So I'm basically treating Substack as my portfolio, an extremely robust sample platter that shows off my writing chops. As I go on to finish the projects in the years to come, I'll think through publication options for each one individually when the time comes.
Very cool! I look forward to reading your writing.
Likewise!
Beautiful!
Thank you Taylor :)
Oh my my…!
First off, actually secondly, as I have not yet seen Severance, so any remark here is superfluous.
Yet… I dare tread anyway. So, firstly, why would I save you from craziness, when the invitation has always been to join me there.? Truthfully I find craziness helps to adjust with joy to a world or rather civilized culture, that is insane. It helps mitigate the often painful and lonely adjustments needed for balance.
Yes, your long reflection on this film series initiates interest in seeing it. Yet perhaps like Jennee, your interweaving of film and an amazing academic philosophical reflection of a deeper meaning it purposely or more likely not purposely evoked is too wild and crazy to keep up with.
You see so much ! It’s a heady spin, ever full of your viewing layers of truth’s quest that you invite your readers to share with you.
It blows me out of my own other pensive layered quest in the crazy questions life tosses my way.
So, apologetically I’m not going to save you from your craziness. I rather admire the way your mind works and how deeply your own personal questions take you these days.
Everything you consider, read, or is presented to you, whisks you into deeper understanding of your own search of the path you’re on. You are deeply exploring your life garden!
Next, it seems when my situation allows, I’ll be called and compelled to watch Severance. Then perhaps I’ll desire to take on your phenomenal reading list, some of which I’ve dappled in and more than I’ve shined away from. Likely I’ll add another set of references. There’s so much to share.
Oh, if only I could read or listen to yours and my list with gusto and respond to this incredible tapestry you’ve woven, so full of life’s questions…
Oh how I admire your busy and inquisitive mind! See you when openings present along the path…
Thank you for both saving me and not saving me from my crazy ideas. You have always helped dance alongside those crazy questions, never trying to tame them. I wouldn’t trade this shared “craziness” for anything. It’s where the light gets in ;). Love you so much, Mom!