The Picture of Sonichu: A Tale of Gothic Materialism
A Gothic tale becomes reality in an increasingly digital world
The name “Chris-Chan” is something of a legend in certain web circles. A name spoken in hushed tones in the dark of night. His deeds, discussed as a number of sagas, akin to the Icelandic Vikings. His work make some tremble in fear and cringe. For others, he is an inspiration and a hero. He earned the name “Chris-Chan” as both a shortening of first name and surname, in addition to the prefix of “Chan” being a popularized Japanese honorific used by English speaking web subcultures on 4chan and Something Awful, who were fans of Japanese animation. If there was ever a man on the internet that will be remembered, it would be Christian Weston Chandler.
Chris first rose to notoriety, when users began to unearth his Lovecraftian nightmare series of works on 4chan and Something Awful forums when anonymous users were first discovering Chris-Chan’s life’s work; Sonichu. Sonichu, is very obviously, Chris-Chan’s deepest fantasy. Most if not all of his obsessions, a consequence of his autism diagnoses, are put on full display. Chris clearly desires to live in this world that he has created for himself. It is his escape from what he likely sees as a hellish reality, given his experience with ostracism from just about every real world community he has found himself in. In a way, Sonichu is a tragic piece of art when you understand it’s creator. Otherwise, it’s just your typical teenage power fantasy with very poor artwork that you might have found on DeviantArt between 2003-2013 and very likely still could. Some fads are unfortunately eternal it seems.
A Millennial Odyssey
To discuss all of his fearsome acts of autism-induced terror that regular people simply cannot handle, is out of the scope of this article. His clashes with brave internet trolls such as Liquid Chris are remembered in infamy and the seemingly endless Love Quest, are recalled by web inhabitants like they were Trojan War experts on track to receive their PhD degrees in the field of “Christory”. Chris has his very own wiki archive where most of, if not his entire life has been recorded and tracked by fans, trolls, critics, and spectators. The recorders of his life call themselves “Christorians”. Chris’ life story is complete with heroes and villains and everything in-between. The tales read like a Millennial Odyessy; one autistic man’s journey through a digital frontier and a world yet to be discovered to this man.
As a consequence of this, Chris may be the most well documented person in human history. Celebrities don’t get as much attention as Chris-Chan does. There’s even articles about what he eats on a given day and how he treats his pet cats. He is better recorded than heroes of legend and virtuous founders of modern regimes. Chris lives eternally in the public consciousness of the web-weary. Chris’ life may perhaps be among the only modern legends that could stand the test of time, one that may be recalled as a tale of myth far into the future. Imagine; It’s the year 2168, and mothers tell their children that if they stay up too late on the internet instead of sleeping, Chris-Chan will appear on-screen, scream at them, and send Sonichu to live in their closet before trapping their soul in CWCVille. Truly, a terrifying tale.
Fascination with the Authentic
Why are people so fascinated with Chris? As mentioned previously, Chris has autism. This makes him particularly vulnerable to bullying both online and in meatspace. This has been his defining characteristic for time immemorial. But, the defining characteristic that creates the onlooker’s fascination with Chris-Chan, is his authenticity. He really believes in his creation, his ambition, and his delusional world he’s created for himself. In addition, due to Chris’ mental illness, this authentic world is easily shaped and manipulated by onlookers and trolls because he’s a very gullible person. Not only is this world, this fantasy, authentic to Chris, but it is one where onlookers can interact with and engage themselves as part of the life spectacle that Chris lives in.
Where Chris differs from his autistic peers, is that Chris expresses his illness in a genuinely awful way that people can’t help but look at and form an opinion about. Chris believes in his grandiose fantasy with such religious fervor that he continue to ignore criticism of every kind, between his work with Sonichu to his own unhealthy life path to this day. But Chris wouldn’t be Chris if he wasn’t like this. It’s the rigidity of his belief and his growth that is part of the entertainment.
Digital Dorian Gray
Much like the infamous story of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Chris finds himself in similar but different shoes. Gray is an aristocrat from a wealthy family, however Chris does not come from such origins. Chris was born in 1982, during the rise of Reagan induced western decadence, to a lower-middle class family in Virginia. On that note, Chris comes from fairly humble origins, relative to most Americans at the time.
What Chris shares in common with Gray, is the circumstances of their spiral into a life of amorality, and an amount of liberty that can only be described as decadent. But before we move onto Chris, let’s briefly recap the plot to Wilde’s story. If you know the story, then skip to the next header.
For Wilde’s Dorian Gray, his obsession begins with beauty. When the actress, Sibyl is no longer seen as beautiful, Gray tosses her away with little regard, only seeing her as a product that has outlived it’s use. Gray uses ideology like sensualism beauty to justify his behavior. He isolates himself deeper in his soft, ideological narcosis by hiding the painting, a reflection of his consciousness, from himself to escape the guilt of Sibyl’s suicide and turns to an opium den to escape. Dorian only awakes from his opiate induced mental paralysis when he is shocked “awake” by Sibyl’s brother James, who had promised to kill him eighteen years previously after Sibyl’s suicide. Gray has not aged a day in this encounter. James is later killed in an accident and Gray has feelings of guilt about this and decides he will be a better person, but he is not authentic about this. He does so out curiosity for an experience he has not had before, his sensualist ideology rearing it’s ugly head once again. Finally, Dorian decides that only confession can save him. He destroys the painting in anger when it no longer reflects his previously held beauty. It is only in his death, that Dorian’s painting is restored to it’s former beauty.
Reflections in Sonichu
For the real life Chris-Chan, his obsession begins very young; as an escape from his babysitter who bullies him and locks him in a closet. From his neglectful parents, too enamored in themselves to attend to their child, and from his peers, who ostracize him for reasons his growing autistic mind cannot fully understand. Chris eventually turns to a realm of fantasy, anime and video games, which he finds beautiful in much the same way as Gray finds Sibyl beautiful. Characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and Pikachu becomes muses for Chris. Chris turns to this because he is unable to escape a world he sees as against him, so they must all be jealous of something he has, the reasons change quite a bit over the years. This rationalization of his ostracism begins Chris’ journey into a soft narcosis of his own, and the digital world becomes his opium den.
Chris’ justification for much of his actions as he grows has been his autism, which preserves his childlike mentality and prevents him from maturing, much like Gray in the opium den. Chris never touches drugs or alcohol for many years, his hedonism stemming purely from a digital feedback loop starting when he becomes active online, publishing his webcomic, Sonichu in 1999. A key difference between Gray and Chris, is their view of the “painting”. For Chris, Sonichu is his painting, however he makes this himself and he’s proud of his work, even though it only ever reflects his own increasingly decadent and atomized fantasies and deepest desires, however shameful they may be. It is because of it’s perverse authenticity that viewers come to love both the comic and Chris himself. Unlike Gray, who seeks to hide his flaws both from himself and those around him. Gray is self aware of his flaws and chooses not to confront them, while Chris is simply not self aware and is feeding into perceived positivity and celebrity from his work, unable to understand that he is being laughed at and not laughed with due to his opiate of choice; the digital feedback loop.
It is this electronic opium that becomes Chris’ perception of beauty. It is an experience he has not had before. Chris eventually comes to change his homophobic views after his love quest fails on every front. Meaning to him, that the only way to find “girlfriend-free” girls is via lesbianism. This causes him to transition from male to female, but he does not truly believe this, much like Gray attempts to turn over a new leaf without truly believing it, causing his painting to reflect his deeper ugliness in opposition to his ideological pursuit of beauty.
Chris is still very much alive and well, so his story does not currently have a conclusion. However, the comparisons to Oscar Wilde’s infamous tale are very apparent. Perhaps when Chris meets his version of James, the tale will take a turn for the better.
Your’s Truly,
Subcultural Research Lab.
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