Fear

Lineage

A founder, dissected by hand.

Offspring

Fear's BreathAnswering Breath, Phobopnoe reciprocaby symbiosisSelf-Fulfilling AlarmRush Breaker, Pancursor ruptorby grafting

Food web

• feeds its mechanism → the mechanism of Breath
  Fear floods the body and quickens the breath; the rhythm Breath keeps without thinking is the first thing fear changes.
• feeds the output of Breath → its intake
  Breath gives a pace that calms or quickens the whole body; Fear feeds on signs of threat, and a fast shallow breath is read as one.
• friction its decay rubs against the kernel of Breath
  Breath cannot stop; Fear held too long hardens into dread. The one keeps going, the other gets stuck.
• feeds its output → the intake of Storm
  Fear gives flight and a startle; Storm feeds on a store of energy held under a lid until something lifts it. A startle is such a lift.
• homology its mechanism resembles the kernel of Storm
  Both release at once what was held. Storm's instability breaks its cap; Fear floods the body in a moment.
• friction its boundary rubs against the boundary of Storm
  Storm is held by a physical lid; Fear needs an object. A storm happens to no one in particular, while fear is always someone's.
• grafted its intake grafted the mechanism of Storm
  Storm's runaway loop, each rise driving the next, can be fed by Fear's food, signs of threat taken in before they are checked. In a crowd, each who flees is a sign of threat to the next.
• friction its kernel rubs against the kernel of Symmetry
  Symmetry is what stays the same under a change; Fear is a change that sweeps everything before it. One is an invariant, the other a disturbance.
• friction its output rubs against the decay of Symmetry
  Symmetry breaks in motion; Fear gives motion, the startle and the flight. What Fear makes, Symmetry cannot hold.
• homology its dispersal resembles the dispersal of Symmetry
  Both travel through faces, Symmetry as a standard of beauty and Fear as an expression caught from one face by the next. The meeting is on the face.

Kin

same kind in Roget Nostalgia, Fear's Breath

same kind in Wilkins Faith, Nostalgia, Silence, Volition, Knowing Trust, Witnessed Relief, Witnessed Relief (Mycelia), Fear's Breath

same kind in WordNet Nostalgia, Vertigo

same kind in Llull Chimera, Qualia, Silence, Vertigo, Babelhum, The Common Lung, Shared Breath, Fear's Breath

same phylum Fire, Storm, Volition, Self-Fulfilling Alarm, Self-Ending Order

same dominant organ Faith, Patience, Prophecy, Resonance (Automata), Silence

Genome

• threat
• alarm also in Fear's Breath
• flight
• vigilance
• contagion also in The Common Lung, Witnessed Relief, Witnessed Relief (Mycelia)

Echoes

• a startled herd
• a shadow in the doorway
• a bristling cat
• a held breath