Love in the Second Dimension
How Love for Fictional Characters can re-enchant the World
The following article is a reading excerpt out of the full-length book “Love in the Second Dimension: How Love for Fictional Characters can re-enchant the World”, which contains the abstract and includes the introduction.
This book is available everywhere where to get books (ISBN: 978–3–98923–030–9).
Abstract
With English-speaking Internet forums to express love for fictional characters and ceremonies to marry them in Japan, there has been an increase in activities to show affection for fictional characters in recent decades. While some people refer to it as “waifuism”, others identify as “fictosexuals”.
What makes people develop deep emotional and romantic attachments to these characters? Which cognitive processes are involved when falling in love with them? What underlying mechanisms favor the belief in a parallel universe in which fictional characters live rather than taking introspection into account to arrive at the conclusion that a fictional character is the result of physical and psychological processes? By answering these questions, the author points out how people are creating their partners within their mind-space, as most of them are struggling with the effects of radical capitalism on society, seeking an alternative in media worlds to find self-fulfillment. The metaphors and values associated with the fictional character lead to sacred, collective, and binding conditions and thus to a re-enchantment of the world for these people. However, if a relation to a fictional character is used as a coping mechanism, the ideal one feels attracted to would be imperfect.
The author also explains why the belief that a fictional character to be “out there” leads to a search for authority. Hence, he argues that the best way to have a healthy relationship with a fictional character is to see them as a product of culture, returning the love in multiple ways, such as inspiration, happiness, and joy. Moreover, falling in love with a fictional character leads to a cognitive reorganization, in which one expands consciousness and sets oneself in a new relation to the world. With that being said, love for these people needs to come from outside the individual — from the source of all things, the perfection of creation.
Last but not least, the author raises the final question: Is love in the second dimension, also known as “2D Love”, a love revolution?
Introduction
Being in love with something that does not exist in the real world requires not only creative imagination in order to experience a deep connection with it, but also faith and self-confidence, as one has to believe that the experienced love will give strength for one’s life. Most people struggle with their faith because they cannot grasp for what they believe in, as it is completely fictional and hence does not exist in the real world.
In our contemporary world, we are exposed to a sensory overload that many people cannot process. Arno Gruen paid attention to the fact that every organism needs stimulation to stay alive (Arno Gruen, 1986: 117f.).
Today, we have the opportunity to choose between these stimuli. This leads to the fact that many people have forgotten to even choose between them. They let everything affect them, especially through advertisements on radio and television. They no longer attach importance to the stimuli that touch them internally, because they cannot distinguish between them — and these are the ones that are inherently present in fiction, testifying a vividness that exemplifies the entire human spectrum of feelings. To be aware of them is to be in harmony, to be able to deal with them in different ways. Hence, we do not repress these feelings — our inner self — here that unlock our human potential and give us the ability to tell stories as well as to be creative. Thus, fiction is not an escape from reality. It is the beginning of a great journey of getting to know one’s inner self by filling this void. Morikawa Ka’ichiro, a professor at the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meji University, says that
“anime and games are a kind of escape from [the] realm of mainstream culture. Otaku-ism is a form of escape, and that has a very negative connotation in English. But I believe otaku culture is an escapist culture in a positive way because it fuels creation.”(Morikawa Ka’ichiro in Patrick W. Galbraith, 2013: 16)
Not all people use this invisible dimension that “fuels creation”. Ernest Becker writes that today, people “no longer draw their power from the invisible dimension, but from intensive manipulation of very visible Ferraris, and other material things” (Ernest Becker, 1971: 125). People who are inwardly unresponsive to these stimuli speaking to their inner self fill their life with stimuli that only bring emptiness. They have to demonstrate power and superiority over others to feel alive. This behavior often leads to the repression of certain groups, and aggression and hate toward foreign concepts. Those who pursue “other goals for life, for love, for art, and for being”, as Judith J. Halberstam puts it (Judith J. Halberstam, 2011: 203), easily get targeted by the people who do not. In particular, our society today forces us into norms. People expect certain things from us — things that we should and should not do. Partly, it is us that commits to these ideals, because we want to be part of something.
People in love with fictional characters have the opportunity to take fiction as an advantage in their lives. They are lovers of certain characters, experiencing love that today mostly comes from screens — and therefore these characters are referred to as “two-dimensional”. Some refer to the character they have fallen in love with as their “significant other” — also abbreviated as S/O or F/O (meaning fictional other) on the web. The faith in these imaginary relationships lies in believing that the character will bring them strength for their lives. One has the firm expectation that the character will return these feelings in multiple ways — for example, by inspiring one to be creative, as well as to give one happiness and joy. As Marjorie Taylor writes, believing in cultural myths, such as Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, does “more than preserve childhood innocence”, as these myths “support the development of children’s imagination and may even contribute to the developing capacity to trust and have faith” (Marjorie Taylor, 1999: 95). Having trust and faith in fictional characters can therefore strengthen these abilities for adults as well.
This book will give motivations on why people decide to be in an imaginary relationship with at least one fictional character, which cognitive processes are involved when falling in love with them, how people in love with fictional characters can use it as an advantage for themselves, and take a look at related communities found on the Internet that people in love with fictional characters have created.
Therefore, I follow an ethnographic approach to see in which situations love for fictional characters occurred and how it was treated by different groups. Reading the literature is thus not enough. One has to engage with different groups and see how they treat their love for fictional characters, as well as to see what drives and concerns them.
Just like any crush someone has on a real person, feelings for fictional characters are treated as private intimacies. People tend to reconsider their actions and not to talk about their feelings in certain situations openly, as they might feel that they will get them into trouble — especially when love for that individual is not accepted by cultural norms. This is especially true for showing the history of such situations, as many minorities were persecuted in the past and it was difficult for them to establish a community where they could safely talk about their feelings. Today, the Internet offers a safe place for its users to create communities for like-minded individuals and exclude others with whom they feel uncomfortable in their group.
As interacting around fictional media is a form of serious play, I will draw comparisons to the play of children, especially with toys that represent fictional characters. Loving fictional characters, thus, is a form of serious play, as Chapter 1 will show.
Unlike anonymous boards such as the channel /c/ on 4chan, the subreddit r/waifuism on the social news website Reddit, for example, offers a social place for discussion with the opportunity to exchange ideas through identifying with a user profile. I have conducted a wide field study by reading their posts and also by participating in their community, which lasted from 2018 to 2022. I have not only selected the community r/waifuism because it has the highest number of members among communities, but also because they are exposed to the public due to other Reddit users. The latter tend to ask critical questions, while anonymous imageboard users only insult someone’s “waifu” — which generally means a female fictional character one can be in love with — from time to time. This initial situation creates social dramas, which can be understood as social conflicts. According to Victor Turner, they are “signalized by the overt, public breach of some norm or rule governing the key relationship which has been transformed from amity to opposition” (Victor Turner, 1974: 79). The conflict that arises here is the belief that a person has a relationship with a fictional character, which is not seen as normal by the average society and thus the average Reddit user. Hence, I have observed this community — its members and its impact on other communities on Reddit — over a long time span. As I mentioned before, I have posted two surveys in this community. Their complete results can be found in the appendix of this book, although I have included no comments by the participants in these surveys, as I have used the most salient ones throughout this book. In addition, I have used data from a survey with 114 participants that was posted by the user alien-birch-forest on May 9, 2021 (alien-birch-forest, 2021).
I have also used the website of the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive to research their origins and history. For researching the channels /a/ on 4chan, the websites of Desuarchive and Wakarimasen Archive were used. The reader is reminded that the content posted on 4chan is artistic works of fiction. It may represent the opinion of users, but the information found there should not be taken as a fact. An example for this are the “Rules of the Internet”, which are, of course, not meant to be taken seriously for the approach of this book. Therefore, the content on 4chan is taken into account for the ethnographic approach, as already mentioned above.
In January 2023, I conducted some interviews with members diagnosed with mental disorders, as well as people who were suffering from depression and trauma. The usernames of all interview partners were changed to given names to grant anonymity.
The approach here is kept in a way that is suitable for interested readers as well as academics. For those not familiar with the academic approach, it means to deal critically with opinions and arguments, while also uncovering inconsistencies. Quotations should not only be used for this purpose but also have a supporting and expanding effect on the argument, as well as add value to the reader by providing new understandings. Arguments should be objective and the author’s opinion should thus not be part of an academic work. In addition to a systematic approach, definitions should clearly show the author’s understanding of facts in the chosen context. Comparisons can help identify similarities, differentiate terms from one another, and thus better understand their meaning in the chosen context by uncovering inconsistencies. Although facts that have already been described in detail by other academic authors or basic principles and explaining ubiquitous terms should be generally avoided in academic works, this can be helpful for the non-academic reader to correctly understand complex analysis and arguments.
Last but not least, not everyone falls in love with fictional characters. The idea of experiencing love and romance through a fictional character as an extension of yourself is hard to grasp for some people and even controversial, since one has to set oneself into a new relation to the world — unless one has found the term “fictosexual” for one’s sexuality or “fictoromance” for one’s romantic orientation. Therefore, some people perceive the expression of love for a fictional character as threatening, because it challenges their world-view. As we will see in Chapter 1, loving a fictional character is an idea that I, the author of this book, did not come up with.
Through watching movies, reading visual novels and comics, and watching Japanese animation series, people have weighed their feelings and found what they desire. Others who do not feel attracted to real people have found a new sexual identity. Through this process, people have accepted their feelings for fictional characters. It is a fact and we should take it seriously, as it affects people in crucial ways. As we will see in the first four chapters, it needs a certain mindset that one has built up to step outside a world-view and embrace the feelings that fictional characters can give. Many people in love with fictional characters indeed say that one has found a character to love when it feels like the character has chosen you.
Although one needs a certain mindset to embrace feelings for fictional characters, not all people who are in love with fictional characters are the same. They are a diverse group with some of them tolerating polyamory with also loving real people, while others do not approve this. As every person is different and therefore has a unique self, it would be a mistake to outline different kinds of people in love with fictional characters and hence divide them into groups. Every person is different — thus, no one belongs to a certain group. Therefore, this book will not attempt to do so. It will rather provide motivations for this behavior of loving fictional characters. However, we need to distinguish between “2D Lovers”, who occasionally fall in love with fictional characters, and people who consider themselves to be “fictosexual”, as they do not feel sexually attracted to real people just like any asexual person.
Only a small attempt to discuss the love for fictional characters has been made yet, unlike the concept of Tulpas, which are companions in the form of manifested thoughts created by the thinker. As I have shown in Chapter 8, they differ from the concept of loving a fictional character. Tulpas have been studied by a number of academics. I hope that I can contribute to the academic discussion on love for fictional characters, clear up some misconceptions, answer questions, and suggest ways on how people in love with fictional characters can live peacefully together in partnerships with real people (which do not need to be romantic or sexual at all) — although not all of them want that. As already written above, not everyone who falls in love with a fictional character shares the same attitude. Some people follow certain rules, while others see their relationship with a fictional character as casual. Some people have a monogamous relationship, while others have several fictional partners. Everyone should make up their own mind about this topic, whether the reader is a researcher, someone in love with a fictional character or someone who is just curious and wants to understand why people fall in love with fictional characters. Therefore, I tried to view this concept of loving fictional characters from different angles.
To understand different concepts in their entirety, it is important that different institutions work together. In some cases, this is even crucial to solving problems. Hence, it makes sense for sociologists and psychologists to exchange and discuss their findings. Through my approach, I tried to explain different facts by viewing them from different angles and by concluding the findings of one science with another.
The first chapter gives an introduction to what the two terms “2D Love”, “fictosexuality” and “fictoromance” mean. It also explains the terminology that people who occasionally fall in love with fictional characters use, which is often borrowed from fandoms — for example “waifu” and “moé”. We need to distinguish between these people and those who see their attraction to fictional characters as an orientation. The latter identify as “fictosexual” and “fictoromantic”. These terms are explained in the following section, uses of queer theory, as we will find a lot of non-heterosexual, non-binary and non-cisgender orientations here.
The next section gives a history of English-speaking communities found on the Internet where people gather to express and discuss love for fictional characters, starting from posts made by Japanese users in 2006 on 2channel’s sister site for adult content BBSPINK on the /hgame/ channel to the establishment of the subreddit r/waifuism in 2014 on the social news website Reddit.
This chapter also discusses the term “animesexual”, which spread widely on the web since December 2020, and shows how related communities differ from regular “waifu” communities. A section on activism explains what actions have been taken to raise awareness of love for fictional characters and what the motivations were. It is followed by a timeline of events related to loving fictional characters. Another section explains common practices for establishing bonds with fictional characters through dating them, as well as the practices of lucid dreaming and reality shifting. The end of Chapter 1 outlines two belief systems that lead to different ways in which the lover relates to the character. This book will take introspection into account to explain which physical and psychological processes explain the existence of fictional characters. These insights will be fundamental to all subsequent chapters, because they will be based on them.
Each concurrent chapter provides a different perspective on the subject of being in love with fictional characters. The next three chapters after Chapter 1 will elaborate on the main motivations behind why people fall in love with fictional characters and decide to be in an imaginary love-relationship with them.
Chapter 2 outlines the aspects of society that favor the practice of loving a fictional character. As this chapter will show, one of the motivations for people to pursue these imaginary love-relationships is because they had negative experiences with relationships with real people. The chapter examines the effects of capitalism on contemporary love relationships and the role they play when making these negative experiences. Another section introduces the reader to schizoid personality disorder and explains how it can develop among individuals. Therefore, this chapter will explain how this personality disorder relates to expressing love for fictional characters.
After answering these questions and making these definitions for the reader, this second chapter will lay emphasis on Japan, as the first chapter has shown a significant activity related to marrying fictional characters in this country. Questions that this chapter will answer include, for example, are the reasons for these activities in Japan tied to the effects of capitalism? If yes, how do these activities in Japan compare to the effects of capitalism on the relationships outlined above?
The last section of this chapter explains the meaning and role of autonomy in loving fictional characters. It will also highlight the values that lead to a love of fictional characters as a form of self-expression. However, this chapter does not provide the reader with the main reason why people decide to be in an imaginary relationship with at least one fictional character. As we will see in the next chapter, falling in love with a fictional character is one result of a cultural development that made this possible. Thus, it is used by some people as an escape from certain social situations outlined in Chapter 2.
Chapter 3 begins with the section “A Brief History of Fictional Characters”. It gives an extensive history of how the manifestation of fictional characters in media has developed and lays out how the psyche developed with the creation of new virtual spaces. Therefore, this section shows how it was possible to play with fictional characters as figures and toys in order to explore alternative meaning and value. To do so, this section mentions how media has evolved over the recent centuries, paying attention on how fictional characters were depicted and how merchandise has developed over time. It starts with making an attempt to determine the origin of the ability of humans to fantasize, then shows how play with figures was used to impose a religious world-view in ancient times, and then takes a look at how theater and books made it possible to engage in fantasy worlds. These developments were followed by the birth of animation, the publishing of the first comics and character merchandise. We will also see how the science-fiction series Star Trek in the late 1960s and early 1970s reflected the sexual revolution among liberated men and women, as well as homosexual men by fan-created material related to the relationship between James T. Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise and the science officer Spock. In the 1970s, action figures entered the homes of many children — and most notably adults, who were starting to collect them as fans of certain series. The start of a science-fiction saga that came into cinemas at the end of that decade took character merchandise to a new level. Role-playing games — most notably Dungeons & Dragons — and live-action role-playing encouraged people to play not only with, but also as fictional characters. These role-playing games were precursors to Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs), which began with so-called text-based MUDs at the end of the 1980s. As technology evolved, virtual idols and streamers began to appear in the 21st century. This history of fictional characters also mentions subgroups of people, who were looking for alternative meaning and value in media worlds, as they struggled with culturally created values. Examples here are the unexpected adult male fans of the Japanese animation series Minky Momo and the female yaoi (boys love) fans in Japan in the 1980s. Further theoretical sections in this chapter lay emphasis on how people can find self-fulfillment in media worlds, how the so-called bishōjo and otome games from Japan are so erotic, and what makes cartoon characters so attractive to their viewers.
Chapter 4 shows how mental health and expressing love for fictional characters relate to each other. The first section explains how love for a fictional character can work as a coping mechanism to hide any underlying problems rather than to attempt to overcome them. A dedicated section will draw in psychoanalysis for this purpose.
This chapter will also show that people who use love for a fictional character as a defensive shield against any attempt to work on underlying issues share a certain pain that they feel. They share this pain with others in communities where people express love for fictional characters when they have established rules that ensure that this defensive shield is maintained.
The next section gives two fictional case examples to further elaborate on how someone could use love for a fictional character to escape attempts to address underlying problems. This section also reveals that others can address patients through the fictional character to address these problems together.
While the previous sections were about using love for fictional characters as a defensive shield, the following sections are about learning through fictional characters, starting with a section that explains why children and teenagers like to engage in fantasy worlds and why this is a healthy sign of child development.
The last section will show how love for fictional characters can improve mental health conditions, especially for those who are diagnosed with mental health disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attentive Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Chapter 5 discusses the cognitive processes involved when falling in love with fictional characters. It answers the question of which process people in love with fictional characters need to undergo to accept their love for a character. This chapter makes use of the theory of liminal periods, first mentioned by Arnold van Gennep and elaborated by Victor Turner. It explains the terms “structure” and “anti-structure” and gives an example of a certain social structure that lovers of a certain character came up with. This chapter also explains how communities related to expressing love for fictional characters found on the web come up with certain rules.
Chapter 6 emphasizes on the Hero Pattern outlined by Joseph Campbell. It attempts to explain how love for a fictional character actually feels and shows how people who love fictional characters can draw inspiration from heroic stories.
The first section of Chapter 7 will show how drawing and creating animation can be seen as acts of giving life to fictional characters. The next section discusses how parasocial relationships differ among fictional characters and media personalities such as musicians, sportsmen and actors. The last section of Chapter 7 addresses the question of what happens when we perceive fictional characters as either dead or alive and how we relate to fictional beings that do not exist in the real world.
Chapter 8 explains why Tulpas and love for fictional characters are completely different concepts. A Tulpa is an imaginary companion created by its imaginer, while “waifus” are fictional characters that are taken out of different media. This chapter develops a theory of input and output to the mind to understand both concepts.
Chapter 9 is about redefining values so that people in love with fictional characters can form partnerships not only to take care of each other, but also to secure their legacy, as well as to pass on the love they experience. Therefore, this chapter was not specifically written for researchers but for people who are in love with fictional characters.
Chapter 10 begins by elaborating on the power of storytelling already pointed out in Chapter 6 and explains how it applies to people in love with fictional characters. This is followed by a section that shows how wrong ideals can weaken the self. We will find that “entertainment” genres related to these ideals are very often satirizing. The next section examines how love for fictional characters is portrayed in so-called “cringe” communities. As we will see, there are two different sets of beliefs that stand in conflict with each other. They differ in the extent to which individuals create their self-worth. While one of them focuses on the importance of sexual intercourse for an individual, the other creates self-worth through inspiration from storytelling. In this regard, the last section of this chapter shows how information transfer occurs through entities such as angels, Gods, and fictional characters. Social interactions happen around them. This is how we can see these relationships with fictional characters as “parasocial”.
Last but not least, Chapter 11 summarizes the findings and provides a conclusion. After having defined the term “revolution” in our context, the last section concludes from all the findings if love for fictional characters can be seen as a love revolution.
Where to buy the book
Europe (directly support the author): https://store.youcanprint.it/love-in-the-second-dimension/b/4099baf9-b405-55bf-9f5e-e46d78103379
USA: https://www.amazon.com/-/en/dp/3989230301/
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Love-Second-Dimension-Jacksreality/dp/3989230301
Resources
alien-birch-forest (2021): Survey: Learning more about Waifuists and their unique love. https://www.reddit.com/r/waifuism/comments/n8o1xz/survey_learning_more_about_waifuists_and_their/
Last accessed on the 1st of October 2022.
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Galbraith, Patrick W. (2013): The Otaku Encyclopedia — An Insider’s guide to the subculture of Cool Japan. New York, USA: Kodansha USA, Inc.
Gruen, Arno (1986): Der Verrat am Selbst — Die Angst vor Autonomie bei Mann und Frau. Munich, Germany: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Halberstam, Judith Jack (2011): The Queer Art of Failure. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
n. A. (n. Y.): Rules of the Internet https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RulesOfTheInternet. Last accessed on the 3rd of June 2024.
Taylor, Marjorie (1999): Imaginary Companions and the Children who Create Them. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
Turner, Victor (1974b): Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. New York, USA: Cornell University Press.
