The Real Challenge - going without fiction
Despite the numerous events in the last while, I've been postless for ages. In summary, the last few months have included: biking around the maritimes with awesome people, returning to montreal, experiencing not being in school for the first time ever, breaking up with my principle romantic associate of 1.6 years, deciding I need to look less like a girl, setting myself up to cycle through the winter, continuing the in-complete-able research, and taking up piano. Bits of the above will likely leak out in the future, but for now, I'd like to expound on what change has enable my posting once more.
I am trying to give up fiction. This means no novels, no movies, no television series, no video games, even no webcomics, except in the case of these documenting something "real". I can continue perusing Bertrand Russell's autobiography (hilarious character, amazing life) but have to forgo the Girls with Slingshots updates, and I am free to watch the Nature of Things, but ix-nay on the omantic-ray omedies-cay.
Given that I am currently self-directed in daily activities (i.e. unemployed), it is rather easy to get absorbed by these stories of lives other than my own because they:
a) are much more exciting than whatever might happen to me in over the course of a few hours
b) are designed to give mild satisfaction while leaving the observer yearning for more.
While there is a lot of absorbing documentaries out there, and very exciting historical and current events, the attention control patterns are harder to fulfill when you can't change your subject to suit your audience.
After too many days of going to bed wondering how I managed to not accomplish any of my apparently-weakly self-motivated goals, I've decided to take matters into my own hands by putting temptation out of reach. So far, so good. I mean, I am posting here, which is much more sociable than working through yet another eyecandy comic archive, and I have almost fixed the upstairs toilet instead of siting on it to reread The MacIntyre Liar, and I've had time to think about those recent happenings of My Life instead of contemplating Shane's (of the L Word). Maybe the best side effect is that to avoid thinking about reality, I can turn to practicing music instead of investing more time in characters that need not be part of my consciousness.
I've done this kind of things before. Some time in my early teens I got feed up by the effect of pop music on my self-esteem via my non-existant love life, so I quit listening to MIX 96 and CHOM 97.7 (this may have predated the BUZZ) and replaced it with CBC Radio 2. I didn't miss out completely on my peers aural culture because there were still dances and people talking about music, though I admit my sense of tunage for that period is rather weak, and I still don't know what the Cure sound like. I think it worked out well for me, though, because I did curb the hours spent daydreaming about "boys", and managed to keep up with a ridiculous rehearsal schedule through the rest of High School.
This fiction ban is exploratory - if I last until New Years, I may consider trying it for the whole of next year, but for now I am taking it a day at a time. And while there are great works of fiction that satisfy many other ideals of education and inspiration, but they will still be there (for the most part) when I am satisfied that my will power is strong enough to control the rate of absorption.
Wish me luck!
Finn
I am trying to give up fiction. This means no novels, no movies, no television series, no video games, even no webcomics, except in the case of these documenting something "real". I can continue perusing Bertrand Russell's autobiography (hilarious character, amazing life) but have to forgo the Girls with Slingshots updates, and I am free to watch the Nature of Things, but ix-nay on the omantic-ray omedies-cay.
Given that I am currently self-directed in daily activities (i.e. unemployed), it is rather easy to get absorbed by these stories of lives other than my own because they:
a) are much more exciting than whatever might happen to me in over the course of a few hours
b) are designed to give mild satisfaction while leaving the observer yearning for more.
While there is a lot of absorbing documentaries out there, and very exciting historical and current events, the attention control patterns are harder to fulfill when you can't change your subject to suit your audience.
After too many days of going to bed wondering how I managed to not accomplish any of my apparently-weakly self-motivated goals, I've decided to take matters into my own hands by putting temptation out of reach. So far, so good. I mean, I am posting here, which is much more sociable than working through yet another eyecandy comic archive, and I have almost fixed the upstairs toilet instead of siting on it to reread The MacIntyre Liar, and I've had time to think about those recent happenings of My Life instead of contemplating Shane's (of the L Word). Maybe the best side effect is that to avoid thinking about reality, I can turn to practicing music instead of investing more time in characters that need not be part of my consciousness.
I've done this kind of things before. Some time in my early teens I got feed up by the effect of pop music on my self-esteem via my non-existant love life, so I quit listening to MIX 96 and CHOM 97.7 (this may have predated the BUZZ) and replaced it with CBC Radio 2. I didn't miss out completely on my peers aural culture because there were still dances and people talking about music, though I admit my sense of tunage for that period is rather weak, and I still don't know what the Cure sound like. I think it worked out well for me, though, because I did curb the hours spent daydreaming about "boys", and managed to keep up with a ridiculous rehearsal schedule through the rest of High School.
This fiction ban is exploratory - if I last until New Years, I may consider trying it for the whole of next year, but for now I am taking it a day at a time. And while there are great works of fiction that satisfy many other ideals of education and inspiration, but they will still be there (for the most part) when I am satisfied that my will power is strong enough to control the rate of absorption.
Wish me luck!
Finn