on jon, addiction, and the hilariously flimsy illusion of choice
jonny sims has publically said that most of his writing filters through the lens of addiction, which he has personal experience with. that’s a very private topic and the details are nobody’s business, but this post discusses addiction (non graphically) as context for tma being–so it claims–an exploration of agency and personal choice.
for more context, relisten to 172, the statement about francis, the addict who’s literally puppeteered by the web. the entity that controls and manipulates people drags them through the cycle of abuse on physical hooks. it’s pretty on the nose! note that francis’s will doesn’t break, in the end; the spider physically moves their hands to force their relapse. it is unambiguous that francis does not choose their fate; a credit to them that the story doesn’t afford jon.
there’s never explicit confirmation that the web is similarly involved with jon’s addiction to cigarettes and then to eldritch voyeurism powers, but it is absolutely deeply involved in jon’s life. jon becomes dependent on beholding to survive in a way that, factually, isn’t all that different from irl chemical dependency. withdrawal from real substances can cease function of your body and mind. it can kill you and make every moment until then miserable. you might find yourself doing horrible things for your next fix, even hurting people–though probably not by personally eating their trauma.
but let’s rewind. if we’re talking choice and agency, the million dollar question is how much did jon have in what went down, most specifically the ritual? objectively: little to none. jonah’s plot would have succeeded eventually. if jon somehow bucked his plans, jonah would have tried again with someone else. as many times it took.