Volume 16, Spring 2023
Madelyn Huerkamp
Pages 38-49
Shapeshifting
How to Validate Your Own Reality
In this paper I explain the utility of shapeshifting through the figure of the sage and the nepantlera according to the Zhuangzi and “the path of conocimiento. . . inner work, public acts,” respectively. These two figures could serve as guidelines to protecting subjective truth in a tumultuous and egoistic time, and aid in defense against mental assimilation into normative cultures. A distinction between the two will be made, with emphasis on how the contextual development of the figures applies to different social situations, and a synthesis of the utility of their application in present day will follow. The process of shapeshifting, of not clinging to social custom and normative identity categories as a means to protect ourselves from mental harm and assimilation, may serve to be of some use to us all.