Thank you E-C. Seriously. You spend an effortless amount of time to thoroughly and emotionally answer these asks. Its almost like u perform it like its ur job. (; u are so great at what u do. Thank u so much for taking your time to accurately answer!

Effortless, huh? Ā You have no idea. Ā It’s like giving birth every time. lol Ā It oddly feels somehow like it’s a job but it isn’t one all the same.. if that makes sense.Ā ā˜ŗļø Thank you so much..means a lot – and you’re very welcome. šŸ’žĀ 

In a journal entry Dylan writes, “i know he & i are conceived from ourselves & each other. every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we conceived, we have finished the race.” He goes on for a few more sentences and then adds, “the zombies were a test to see if our love was genuine. we are in wait of our reward, each other. the zombies will never cause us pain anymore. the humanity was a test. I love you, love. Time to die, time to be free, time to love.” [to be continued]

[cont’d] If you read that whole journal entry it’s clear to me he’s talking about Eric. Then suddenly he writes about the zombies being ā€œa test to see if our love was genuineā€ and that their reward is each other. Now, I don’t believe Eric or Dylan were gay. I think Dylan may have been talking about his dream girl at the end but if that’s the case he didn’t write it well. The way it flows is that it’s his and Eric’s love that was tested etc. Maybe this is where ppl get the idea Dyl was bi.

This is a loaded question but a great one nonetheless. Ā So, grab a seat and here we go with the Dylanosophy 101… Ā šŸ˜‰

First off, here is the entry you’re referring to:

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In a journal entry Dylan writes, ā€œi know he her & i are conceived from ourselves & each other. every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we conceived, we have finished the race.ā€

First thing to keep in mind always, is Dylan is very laazzy with his handwriting. He often doesn’t finish off letters on words so they look a bit like short-hand. If you can picture him alone at night in his room, restless, unable to sleep, (maybe even at times partially buzzed on that screwdriver he snuck into his room) while scrawling out his emotional writing, it’s easy to see how different points of reference blend seamlessly within his paragraphs and how letters come out half completed in his haste to get thought to pen onto his notepaper.

What you think looks like a ā€˜he’ at first glance, is actually a ā€˜her’. Ā  But first, to verify this, we need to look at his examples of his hand writing in which he is referencing ā€˜her’ to make a comparison.

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With Dylan’s other occurrences of the word ā€˜her’ in general, notice how the ā€œrā€ has a slight upward hook at the end. Ā  Ā 

Particularly, if you look at these bits:
ā€œI see he-rĀ in perfection,ā€ and Ā Ā ā€œless than nothing w/o he-r Ā -O.ā€ Ā 

The ā€˜her’ could easily be mistaken for the pronoun ā€˜he’. Ā Dylan doesn’t even bother to finish off the ā€˜r’ there at all. Ā  Sometimes his writing is so sloppy free flowing that he gets lazy on the ā€œrā€ and it barely shows up as a hint -or- it doesn’t show upĀ at all and appears as a mistaken ā€˜he’ as the loop starts to go up but then abruptly stops.

In making this comparison to his other entries, I’m pretty certain that Dylan is referencing his true love, his Halcyon Girl with Ā ā€˜her’ and not ā€˜he’ in his first sentence:

ā€œSo I wait.. 5 more days. 5 eternitys. & i know her & i are concieved from ourselves & each other. Ā 

What Dylan means by this is that he and his love are Soul Mates, kindred, one and the same. It’s essentially like the Emily Brontë quote:
ā€œHe’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.ā€Ā 

The second sentence of this paragraph becomes a bit ambiguous and blurred.

every night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we concieved, we have finished the race. time to die. everything we knew, we were able to understand it, to percieve it, into what we should, everything we knew, we know & use. an understanding of the everything.

Dylan uses ā€œweā€ because he sees his joint connection with Eric and their united ā€œself awareness / godlikeā€ destiny partnership on the earth for what it truly is. (see purple below). Ā 

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Dylan then appears to meander off in his thoughts and flows into referencing hisĀ Object de Affections, the girl. Ā (see pink below).

His loose, flowing train of thoughts interweaves fluidly in metaphorical references to Eric and back again to his Halcyon Girl, suggest that he is reflecting on a combination of both who he shares a differing Fate with.

Pink – His destined True Love Ā (his reward at the end of the test)

Purple – The Gods: Himself and his partnership with Eric
ā€œweā€ (purple section) as in his unity with Eric and the journey they have been on together in partnership up to the NBK destiny.

ā€œevery night of the self-awareness journey, every thought we have conceived,we have finished the race, time to die. everything we knew we were able to understand it, to percieve it, into what we should. everything we knew, we know & use. Ā an understanding of the everything. An einstein stuck in an ant’s body. we are the nature of existence.ā€

Eric and Dylan’s self-awareness, the nature of their existence – the very purpose and design of their journey on the earth and what it’s lead them to in this test. Ā The first sentence in purple comes across very verb active as if the two ā€œwe’sā€ have engaged in these tasks together on the physical plane. Ā 

My interpretation of the Dylan and Eric (We/Purple section) Ā can roughly be interpreted between the lines like this:

ā€œEvery night of the self awareness journeyā€ (writing in their journals perhaps, playing Doom late at night and talking?) ā€œEvery thought we conceived, we (Dylan & Eric the 2 man war against everyone else) have finished the raceā€ (the race toward the finish line on the ā€œtoilet earthā€), Ā "Time to dieā€ (NBK) ā€œEverything we knew, we were able to understand it, to perceive it, into what we shouldā€ (we evolved and are one step beyond the zombie-like human shit with our self awareness) Ā ā€œEverything we knew and know and useā€ (we, in our state of awareness, have utilized everything around us as a means to an end) ā€œwe are the nature of existence.ā€œ (the natural selection of the gods).

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Dylan then flows back into his thoughts about laying in wait ofĀ ā€˜Our Reward’.Ā  What is that ā€˜Reward’ you might ask? Ā Each Other.Ā  The reward of being united where they couldn’t do so in his earthly existence. Ā At last, being brought together with his fated True Love, this Girl and he would unite in the Halcyons after the test of this life existence was through, finished, completed. He, like Eric had come to his own sort of epiphany, living in humanity and realizing that he was among zombies and unable to assimilate. This was all part of ā€˜the test’ which hadĀ proven that this place and it’s people were false and the only thing that was real, pure and genuine was his love for Her and nothing else mattered as everything else had proven to not matter. Now that he knew this, the Zombies could never cause (the two of) them pain anymore. His love had transcended this false, painful existence. Ā He passed ā€˜the test’ and it would be over soon once it was ā€œtime to die. time to be free, time to (find) love (with Her). Ā This End of the test is the Beginning of our reward, each other united as one in the Halycons. Dylan wrote his afterlife. He created it with thought, will and intent, the most powerful tool of The Everything. Ā ā€œThought is the most powerful thing that exists- anything conceivable can be produced, anything and everything is possible, even in your physical world.ā€ Ā It’s a bit like him riding off into the sunset with his love and the two living happily ever-lasting more.

I’m sure Dylan’sĀ ā€˜her’ gets confused a lot for aĀ ā€˜he’ by people straining to read his difficult script and so, of course, they might assume he may have beenĀ ā€˜bi’ given this section of his writing but that’s simply not the case if you examine his script within the context of all of what he wrote. Ā Also, if you look at the rest of his journal, it’s pretty apparent in other passages that he is clearly referencing a girl or girls. Ā Ā 

How do you think Dylan would act after getting into a fight with his love?

When the two would fight, it would be hard for Dylan to articulate because he wouldn’t want to cause her upset or allow her to see that ā€˜negative’ side of himself. It would amount to him fearing rejection. Ā He would get moody and sullen and maybe even act like nothing was wrong but she could tell there was. When she tried to engage him in an argument, he’d clam up until he’d reach the point where he’d have spurts of angry words in return with her. As a boyfriend it would be a challenge to get him to express his negative feelings and upsets, to help him identify and put voice to what he was actually feeling and without withholding or suppressing. In the midst of a making up, Dylan would probably knee-jerk apologize profusely. He’d more than own his fair share of blame having finally gone off on her in his exploding like a volcano. In not feeling quite smooth and confident enough to confront her and express his regret verbally, he’d likely resort to initially slipping his girl a breadcrumb trail of make-up notes – some of which, when opened, would be nothing more than a simple but perfect poem expressing his regret and how much he missed being with her and ending with a very earnest, heartfelt Ā ā€œI love you, Dylan..ā€ Ā 

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you think dylan had social anxiety? What else did he have…Obviously depression but what else E-C….your reliable AF.

It depend on the social setting but I’d say probably about a 7-9 by around the age of seventeen and 8-10 as a child. Ā It wasn’t debilitating to the point where he couldn’t function but it was difficult and stressful for him to manage on a daily basis. Retreating to his bedroom was a comfort zone, Ā a way for him to replenish his depleted energy from putting himself out there with people in the world and people pleasing to keep everyone happy. Ā Once he knew certain peers well enough, that helped ease the anxiety but being in a new setting with new people would have been a struggle. Ā  He’d shut down and get very quiet, withdrawn, ā€˜an observer’ and on the inside, feeling very nervous and overly self aware/self conscious. If he attended a party, he’d stick with friends Ā he knew and that’s why the drinking and projecting as a ā€˜party animal’ helped him to push aside his social anxiety and allowed him to relax a bit more around other people. The drinking would be a sense of relief to be more like how he wished he could be. Ā I think he probably had more panic attacks as a sensitive child but sort of eased out of that with more practice being around people. As Brook’s Brown’s mother said, it took little Dylan a good 15-20 minutes to warm up every single time he came over to their house for a play date. The time he slipped in the mud (as described in Brooks Brown’s book ā€œNo Easy Answersā€) and everyone laughed as he took a spill was excruciatingly unbearable for Dylan. His reaction to his fuck up, his inability to cope with people laughing at him was an exaggerated and off the richter scale reaction. The public humiliation (which in his eyes it was) was amplified where as for other kids, they’d just laugh it off and get on with the day.

And always, there was that underlying feeling of not being made right, feeling like a fuck up with every little thing he did or said and those feelings never quite go away even with time and experience and being around the friends he hung out with regularly. Just feeling so unworthy and like an odd oddball outsider that could never fully relax and truly feel ā€˜a part of’. Ā His close friends saw the real, genuine Dylan with the guard down. They knew him to be goofy, hilarious and good company. They liked what they saw enough to stay friends with him. He never really fought and broke up with the friends he did make. Some friendships he drifted a part from but he never really burnt bridges. Ā  I do strongly feel he had AvPD which is something I struggle with myself. Ā I go into this more hereĀ and hereĀ and here.Ā Ā The AvPD distinguishes this from basic ā€˜shyness’ and ā€˜social anxiety’ that people tend to ā€˜grow out of ā€˜over time as they get older. Ā The AvPD and sensitivity would’ve limited his personal sense of perceiving himself as a successful person and certainly did not help his depression. The sense of isolation and self-hatred would’ve exacerbated his sadness. Ā One fed into the other.

Do you think Dylan ever felt unsure of going through with NBK?

Yeah, I think Dylan had moments were he was completely undecided about it. It’s not so much that he was vacillating about doing it but more that it wasn’t a reality until it actually was. He was always kind of hoping that Fate would intercede and reveal his true love to him. He was waiting for something to happen that would give him that reason, that purpose, to stick it out in his existence. Sure, he loved his parents and he’d miss his friends but in his mind, all he could focus on was the intense personal pain he was enduring..and the relief from it. By Jan ā€˜99, nothing panned out and the sense of alone-ness and pain seemed like infinity times itself. NBK was always kind of there in his back pocket and once the time began to run out and senior year was almost at an end, he decided that going for it with Eric was the best, the only option to be free of his stuck stasis. He may as well just go for it because what more more did he have to lose? In his mind, not a whole lot.

ā€œOf course, I will miss things. Not really.ā€

If Facebook existed in the 90s, & if Dylan had one, what kinds of things do you think he’d post? I’d think maybe a few poems, not tooooo deep of ones though. What other kind of El Thoughtzo’s do you think would be status-worthy for him to share? Also, do you think he’d still keep a journal for his more private/intense thoughts? :)

I think Dylan would probably avoid Facebook at all cost as a teenager no matter what decade it was available in. lol If he was in his thirties now, sure, that’d be different but as a teen, no, not likely. Tumblr would probably be it; Facebook is too older crowd. Course, back then, they didn’t even quite have MySpace just yet. Social blogging didn’t exist either. They were just on the brink of Napster music sharing and blogging actually.. I think Dyl’s journal/personal meanderings would always remain just that, private – or maybe, portions of it friends-locked to certain close friends.

When Eric wrote about his fantasies of raping girls, he quoted the song “Closer” by NIN. Dylan also wrote down the lyrics to this song in his school journal, so do you think it’s possible that fantasized about it too?

Eric briefly quoted a lyric line from two different songs in regards to his dominant-aggressive sex fantasies (which doesn’t really fit the definition of ā€˜rape’, btw ) Weisses Fleisch and Closer by NIN. Dylan wrote the entire lyrics of Closer by NIN down in his day planner. Eric was a huge Rammstein fan but not as big of a fan of NIN. Dylan, otoh was a huge fan of NIN and he wrote one or two other NIN songs in his day planner as well as made a few references to the band’s songs in his journal. I think given the very different context that Eric and Dylan are referencing NIN’s ā€œCloser’, I’d say that Dylan wrote the song down in full simply because he liked it a lot (the video was kick-ass at the time too) while Eric was using a line from it to embellish his sexual fantasies of ravishing girls while in the midst of writing about it in his journal. There’s no way to really extrapolate from Dylan writing the ā€˜Closer’ lyrics down that he was sexually turned on by these particular lyrics. What we do know is that Dylan had a ā€˜foot fetish and bondage extreme liking’. So, it’d be likely that there would be certain music that he’d listen to that would..inspire his own brand of sexual fantasies also involving certain expressions of power play yet was probably vastly dissimilar from Eric’s coercive ā€˜caveman’ type approach.