A System's Guide to Plurality
Afterword
You might be reading this as your first introduction to plurality - rest assured we're both proud of and terrified by this fact. Our first introduction to plurality was more than one. At the time we found it invaluable - and it absolutely inspired us to write about plurality in a way that (through much introspection, discussion, rewrites, and self-disagreements) would eventually lead to A System's Guide.
More than one, to us, always felt like an excellent book to throw in people's faces to try and explain the personality crisis we were going through: It's very matter-of-fact, it makes an effort to sound impartial, and it outwardly confronts a lot of reactionary sysphobic rhetoric. But Plurality as a queer community is fledgling at best, teething at worst - and its needs change, or at least, our needs for it changed.
A System's Guide is our attempt to write an introduction to plurality that also feels like a welcome - not just for singlets or for questioning plurals, but systems for whom it feels like a genuine, arms-open welcome is long overdue. This handbook is a feeling: I don't want us to be only painted in the cold presumed-facts of our existence, or the things other people say about us - I want us to be painted in familiarity, in joy, in diversity, in defiance, and in acceptance. So, if nobody's said it to you yet - welcome; and I mean it.
Thanks immensely to our co-writers, without whom this text would not have been developed into a genuine primer rather than an extension of more than one - and without whom we'd certainly trail into a confusing pointless mass of words every single paragraph. Thanks to our friends and all the systems we've met over the years - on whom the diversity in any of our explanations rely.
And of course, thanks to you - and anyone else you might be - for reading.
-S
Addenda
As you may have noticed, it's quite difficult to speak to the experience of every system. At the same time, we've simply brushed over concepts with a lot of depth. As such, it feels appropriate to speak to personal experience and understanding, in contrast to the objective overviewing in the main text.
Ahead are a mix of ramblings essays written by individual systems and members - The guide's authors, editors, and their friends. With the intuition provided already, we hope you can interpret the potential for experiences differing to the ones within these pages - but still derive value from more detailed, personal writing.
This section will expand over time - feel free to skip it entirely, or to read out of order.
Physical Version
A System's Guide is also available as a zine. Just download the PDF, print it on A4, trim it to have symmetrical margins, and fold it!
There are also PDFs available for the Afterword (6x A7 slip) and Front Attitude Calibration (A7 zine).