>> ...I'm not actually sure how that ≠ happened, there. I mean, I guess it's technically true, but I feel like I was going for =. <<
It looks like a conflation error to me. There were two ways to phrase it:
Alpha + Heat!Omega ≠ sex OR Alpha + Heat!Omega doesn't necessarily = sex
Mix them, and it reads wrong; but I figured out what you meant. They may feel hornier but aren't compelled to have sex.
>>[People interpret a lot of things in a sexual way that don't have to be.] > >Oh, god, yes.
Which leaves lovely wide spaces with little if any literature in them, to be explored at leisure while everyone else is trampling the same path deeper over in Fux-R-Us.
>> Huh; interesting. That does make a lot of sense, and would make the various modes work well as adaptive (or occasionally maladaptive) stress responses, <<
Most strategies can be adaptive or maladaptive depending on how and when they are used.
>> though I want to avoid presenting them wholly or primariy as stress responses. <<
In biology and psychology, a process is rarely just one thing. The causes and effects tend to be complex. So for example:
* Stress can trigger a mode shift. * But that can be negative stress (survival threat) or positive stress (intense emotional or physical stimulation). * Some types of stress might favor one mode, while others would favor another. * Most people have a preferred mode, and that's going to be stronger for some than others, like the slope of a mountain to climb before mode can shift. * Now add other people, because someone may shift in response to someone else. That includes psychological, emotional, and pheromonal interaction. * There are probably yogis doing meditation to enable conscious mode shifts.
There might be environmental factors: tide, moon phase, light, temperature, humidity, season, etc. can all have biological effects. Someone with seasonal affective disorder might find it harder to reach alpha mode; maybe the full moon brings out the omega in more people.
Slop all that together and it becomes difficult to predict or control, but there would be some known trends.
>> (And, really, while the exact psychological mechanisms of the mode shifts are useful as background information and conceptual scaffolding, the story I'm working on is fairly abstracted from them – much more of a character study than a wider study of the phenomenon.) <<
Ah now, this is the power of intelligent literature. You don't have to put it all into this one story. You just have to know it's there. The story will shape itself accordingly.
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branchandroot
Thoughts
Date: 2014-04-07 08:10 am (UTC)It looks like a conflation error to me. There were two ways to phrase it:
Alpha + Heat!Omega ≠ sex
OR
Alpha + Heat!Omega doesn't necessarily = sex
Mix them, and it reads wrong; but I figured out what you meant. They may feel hornier but aren't compelled to have sex.
>>[People interpret a lot of things in a sexual way that don't have to be.]
>
>Oh, god, yes.
Which leaves lovely wide spaces with little if any literature in them, to be explored at leisure while everyone else is trampling the same path deeper over in Fux-R-Us.
>> Huh; interesting. That does make a lot of sense, and would make the various modes work well as adaptive (or occasionally maladaptive) stress responses, <<
Most strategies can be adaptive or maladaptive depending on how and when they are used.
>> though I want to avoid presenting them wholly or primariy as stress responses. <<
In biology and psychology, a process is rarely just one thing. The causes and effects tend to be complex. So for example:
* Stress can trigger a mode shift.
* But that can be negative stress (survival threat) or positive stress (intense emotional or physical stimulation).
* Some types of stress might favor one mode, while others would favor another.
* Most people have a preferred mode, and that's going to be stronger for some than others, like the slope of a mountain to climb before mode can shift.
* Now add other people, because someone may shift in response to someone else. That includes psychological, emotional, and pheromonal interaction.
* There are probably yogis doing meditation to enable conscious mode shifts.
There might be environmental factors: tide, moon phase, light, temperature, humidity, season, etc. can all have biological effects. Someone with seasonal affective disorder might find it harder to reach alpha mode; maybe the full moon brings out the omega in more people.
Slop all that together and it becomes difficult to predict or control, but there would be some known trends.
>> (And, really, while the exact psychological mechanisms of the mode shifts are useful as background information and conceptual scaffolding, the story I'm working on is fairly abstracted from them – much more of a character study than a wider study of the phenomenon.) <<
Ah now, this is the power of intelligent literature. You don't have to put it all into this one story. You just have to know it's there. The story will shape itself accordingly.