Peewee is me?

18 Jun, 2020

I grew up in the thrall of Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

The idea that each of my things, whether it be my couch, or a lamp, or my commode each having a different personality that I could interact with made me, as a child, indescribably happy. I was always more of an introverted kid, and having a home that had its own personality that could be at times antagonistic—and at times complimentary—to my own, struck me as very funny.

It still does.

Thankfully we live far enough into the future where I believe that making some rudimentary version of this is not only possible, it’s what I want to get paid to do. It’s what I want to make my life’s work.

I’d love to design a cranky lamp who doesn’t want to turn on when he doesn’t want to turn on, or a couch with anxiety, who’s worried about his body image. Basically, I want to project all of my neuroses onto the environment around me, but not on to the people around me. Imagine an AI that’s emotionally yours-ish. I guess it would be helpful to live alone.

Anyhow. Perhaps this is my own anxiety about my own childhood, and as such I guess there are some questions that are raised that probably should be thought through before undertaking making this my life’s work.

Questions like:

Does this constitute some sort of abuse?
Would I raise furniture that has to go to therapy like the children of so many neglectful parents before me?
Would an anxious couch learn how to deal with their anxiety in a useful way?
Would there need to be a Jungian analyst for my sideboard?

Is this funny or just sad? What does this say about me? Does even the thought of doing this put me on the path to turning myself into a somewhat more hand-wringy Dr. Frankenstein?