chi·me·ra | /kīˈmirə,kəˈmirə/ | noun
1: an imaginary or mythical animal compounded of incongruous parts.
2: an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as grafting, or mutation.
3: a fabrication of the mind; which is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve.
What transmedia storytelling is often doing is grafting a narrative over an existing reality. Bumping one construction with another to create a Frankenstein we’re drawn to engage with and maybe even connect to, or believe in. I view this as a chimeric practice.
The second definition situates my framing of chimera as inherently queer/trans. Within genetic chimerism, chimera can form and merge to be intersex. (I NEED TO DO MORE READING TO TALK ABOUT THIS MORE CLEARLY/DEEPLY).
starting points:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(mythology)
My primary interest, and I believe the potentiality for chimera, lie within the third definition: something which occupies the impossible.
Chimera are by definition non-normative. Fluid. Messy. Mythical.
Add here:
Striker’s monstrous (stitching together, frankenstein, queer/transness)
Harraway’s cyborg
the appeal of mutation
chimaera as a utopic, fugitive response to the rapid co-option of transmedia tools, due to their impossibility, their mutability, etc
parasitic occupation within an institution (repurposing resources), navigating the blurry line between being complicit and when you’re doing enough, and where you are or aren’t being honest
averting the like primary gaze tractor beam of white supremacy/capitalism to something else so that what you’re really doing isn’t being sucked in and defanged