Interpretation of "The fear of blood

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Shalott
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Post by Shalott »

I believe it has to do with blood meaning all whats related to pain and being hurt and then we have flesh as the people, maybe those who wanna hurt us, in this case it could be perfectly Alessa. If you fear the blood (pain) you fear who causes it (people)... Alessa fearing all who make bad things to her. This is just my point of view of course.
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Post by Shorttail »

I always thought of blood as the thing one must move through to get to the flesh. As in blood being the road leading to or the border surrounding the flesh and the flesh being the result or goal. As in one tends to be afraid of happiness, redemption, commitment, or something else solely because one is afraid of the road that takes one there.

The life and death thing could work too, St. Thomas, but I think you got it all wrong. It's not the fear of life that tends to create fear for death. It's the fear of death that tends to create fear for life. Just my thought.
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Post by The Adversary »

If one is afraid to live, they're afraid to die as well.
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Post by Shorttail »

But fear of death is not a problem. Being afraid of life is.
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Post by December Man »

Shorttail wrote: The life and death thing could work too, St. Thomas, but I think you got it all wrong. It's not the fear of life that tends to create fear for death. It's the fear of death that tends to create fear for life. Just my thought.
I think he's on to something. It makes much more sense.
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Post by The Adversary »

>But fear of death is not a problem. Being afraid of life is.
Which is what's stated in the phrase: fearing life results in fearing death.
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Post by Shorttail »

But what's the point in that? Isn't it some kind of pseudo philosophical sentense that's supposed to change something important? People's fear of death is understandable, but if they're afraid of life they'll never get to live.
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Post by Adrasteia »

I don't think it's really fear of blood itself at all. I think the term "blood" in this phrase is rather an all-encompassing metaphor for pain, suffering, harm, etc. I think it has to do with gaining a sense of one's own mortality. If you are afraid of "blood" and dwell on your fear, that is, all the possible things that can happen to someone, you'll soon begin to think about how they could harm you and your own flesh. It's like sitting in your house at night listening to noises and watching a scary movie. All those tales of strange noises in houses resulting in axe murderers preying on characters will eventually start making you jumpy and thinking you hear things that are wanting to harm you.
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Post by Watchdog »

Calamity wrote:This is why I love the fandom so much. Certain people overthink every possible aspect. Thomas and Lifetolifeless pretty much put it exactly the way I've interpreted it these past years so there's no need to restate it.
To be fair, this is a pretty major thing in the first game - the phrase is normally the first thing the player sees when they load up the game. Overthinking would be trying to form a reason for why in SH2 the White Chrism is referred to as the 'white liquid' in the Maria Quest. This, on the other hand, is something quite worthy of discussion.

For example, I personally have no fucking idea what it means. What are we looking at? Are we viewing it as "a fear of life creates a fear of the loss of life?" Straight over the top of my head, this one.
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Post by Shorttail »

If you're afraid to die you can't live properly because living is dangerous. It can kill you.
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"The cautious tends to live longer. And sometimes not at all."
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Post by jthomp1286 »

The fear of death is an irrational fear of something you can't control. Humans are always afraid of what they don't understand and can't control. Death is the ultimate example of this. We can't live forever, we don't know what happens after the black curtain falls, so were afraid of it. In the end, we can't stop it.

So this phrase simply means if you are afraid of life (blood), you'll be afraid of death (flesh). The blood can represent the blood flowing in your veins, keeping you alive. The flesh can represent death, the lack of blood, or the lack of the flow of the blood to keep you alive. You become but flesh, without your "lifeblood".
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Post by LoudValley »

It's not a matter of life and death, like many had supposed.
It's a matter of effect and cause.

If you're afraid of a disease, then you'll be afraid of the person who's sick.
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Post by Shorttail »

LoudValley wrote:If you're afraid of a disease, then you'll be afraid of the person who's sick.
That's the same. If you're afraid of dying you'll be afraid of living with things that can kill you.
jthomp1286 wrote:So this phrase simply means if you are afraid of life (blood), you'll be afraid of death (flesh).
Again, that makes no sense at all. The fear of death is irrelevant. It's when people start being afraid of being alive because they might die that they start limiting themselves. If maintaining safety and vitality is all you care about because you have to live as long and safely as possible then you'll never truly feel alive. You will in a sense be afraid of life. And in a sense you're dead already.
Because of your fear of the inevitable death you will die without ever being alive. That is the ultimate failure. I think Fight Club covers the subject.
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Post by F »

Has anybody already mentioned the "fear of death equals fear of life" interpretation? Cos that's what it is. If we consider the english translation, though.
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Post by Lifetolifeless »

I disagree. A causal relation doesn't constitute an equation. Flesh and Blood don't need to represent life and/or death respectively or interchangeably whatsoever in order for this phrase to make sense to me the way that I outlined it earlier.


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Post by Jim beam was yo dADDY »

The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh. I have always tought that if you see alot of blood, like witnessing a car accident, then you get scarred for your own saftey, even if the fear is unjustified. You see a dead body and you get scarred, your heart rate climbs, your breathing quickens and you get a surge of adrenaline ready to carry you away from the danger, even if the danger is come and gone. Imagine you are walking down the street and you discover a corpse, you are suddenly terrified even if the corpse has obviouslly been dead for a while. Its just a nattural respose to visual stimuli brought about by the hypoglamatus (DEFINITE TYPO THERE<) in the brain. the fear of somone elses blood make you want to save your own skin.
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Post by psychic_zebra »

What if by "blood" they mean a blood relative? If we think of the phrase as refering to Alessa, then she is afraid of Dahlia. I'm not sure what "flesh" might represent, but I guess it could represent anyone else who isn't a relative. Thus, because Alessa is afraid of the connection that she has with the person closest to her (blood), she is afraid of the only connection she has with any other person (flesh or the appearance of a human body). I hope that made sense. :)
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Post by LaraeGunn »

St. Thomas and Burning Man pretty much have this one under wraps. I don't really see how this would need to be peered into any further, but to each their own...
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Post by Lifetolifeless »

robbie-kun wrote:St. Thomas and Burning Man pretty much have this one under wraps. I don't really see how this would need to be peered into any further, but to each their own...
The reason for having gone further is because a lot of people don't agree with the equation that their interpretation relies upon. I've seen flesh equal life and I've seen it equal death; the same for blood. I've seen it as the ultimate expression of visceral freedom and I've seen it as a prison, and any connection drawn there is too arbitrary for my comfort. There's nothing in the phrase to convince me that it's about either one, which is why it makes sense to me strictly as an expression of a causal relationship applicable to an endless amount -- certainly a game's worth -- of analogous scenarios, and not as an equation.


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Post by LaraeGunn »

That's why I said "To each their own."
It's to avoid confrontation, and also implies that you may further discuss it, regardless of what someone says.

So by all means, continue with the discussion! :)
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