The Tie that Binds – The Weird Side of the Internet

The Tie that Binds – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

Personal space. We all have it to some degree, not just physical proximity, but a need to be alone. It’s different for everybody, from the J.D. Salingers to families with kids where personal space is catch as catch can.

People who are married will probably freak out about the following event more than people living solo, just because the closer you are to this, the more it resonates. Performance artists Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh spent a year tied together by their waists with an eight-foot rope. They couldn’t touch each other either. Celibate.

They started out fine, but over the months, their relationship deteriorated. The reduced communications to grunts and groans, and they stopped going places just because it would keep the other from going anywhere.

There should really not be a thing, in my humble reckoning. A mother and her baby could be eight feet from each other for a year. Prisoners live with a cellmate. But the cool part is that they got to pick each other. It’s not like they weren’t compatible. I mean, they both had every chance to find the right person, and over time, they still grew to dislike each other. This says something about humans.

Can you imagine, though? I get up at like two with a loaded firehose, I gotta wake her all of the way up to walk with me to the can? There must be commodes involved here. And if you’re gassy? Tough luck. And no flatulence will go undetected, for after all, it’s not the dog you’re tied up to. You know, most of it is just the same as living with someone anyway. Fighting over the TV, stuff like that.

Either way, props to Linda Montano  and Tehching Hsieh for sticking it out. You know, maybe the hardest part of being tied together is telling interested people walking down the street that no, it’s not a kink.

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