Information overload literary scientific out-of-control crisis
The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture. Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading. ~ Virginia Woolf, The Russian Point of View
The words that Ms. Woolf chose--"drawn in", "whirled around", "blinded", "suffocated", juxtaposed with "giddy rapture"--are incisively illustrative of the information overload literary scientific out-of-control crisis that we find ourselves in. We don't perceive it as a "crisis" because we're in it, immersed in it, living it, part of it, and because we don't see how it's linked to who and what we are becoming, unable to self-extricate. Not only that---it's not a crisis because we *like* it.
We have undergone an onslaught not only of information but of philosophizing, not only of philosophizing but of mind-exposition through literature (and now through the media). With access to so many other minds how does our own mind cope? Our perspective regarding this is limited since the phenomenon hasn't stopped or slowed but rather increased (we tend to gain perspective in history when a phenomenon subsides) and because we all like to believe that we're doing just fine and don't need any help or support.
There is a danger in both paucity and excess of information/literature/science/religion as absorbed and handled by a single human mind (paucity/excess in (sub)domains for a given mind). The self becomes saturated, and the ability to attain reprieve and non-ignorant innocence is lost in the saturated maelstrom fueled by giddy rapture.
Be it through immersion in science or literature or religion or any of these illusional segmentations of existence--a person can swiftly become a ravenous, wild, untamed animal, lauded by others (or worse, him or herself) as a modern-day Dostoevsky. (Metaphorically speaking-->) The trick is to be able to read Dostoevsky, realizing the beauty of the untamed animal, learning from its plentiful lessons, appreciating the beast...without becoming it.
The words that Ms. Woolf chose--"drawn in", "whirled around", "blinded", "suffocated", juxtaposed with "giddy rapture"--are incisively illustrative of the information overload literary scientific out-of-control crisis that we find ourselves in. We don't perceive it as a "crisis" because we're in it, immersed in it, living it, part of it, and because we don't see how it's linked to who and what we are becoming, unable to self-extricate. Not only that---it's not a crisis because we *like* it.
We have undergone an onslaught not only of information but of philosophizing, not only of philosophizing but of mind-exposition through literature (and now through the media). With access to so many other minds how does our own mind cope? Our perspective regarding this is limited since the phenomenon hasn't stopped or slowed but rather increased (we tend to gain perspective in history when a phenomenon subsides) and because we all like to believe that we're doing just fine and don't need any help or support.
There is a danger in both paucity and excess of information/literature/science/religion as absorbed and handled by a single human mind (paucity/excess in (sub)domains for a given mind). The self becomes saturated, and the ability to attain reprieve and non-ignorant innocence is lost in the saturated maelstrom fueled by giddy rapture.
Be it through immersion in science or literature or religion or any of these illusional segmentations of existence--a person can swiftly become a ravenous, wild, untamed animal, lauded by others (or worse, him or herself) as a modern-day Dostoevsky. (Metaphorically speaking-->) The trick is to be able to read Dostoevsky, realizing the beauty of the untamed animal, learning from its plentiful lessons, appreciating the beast...without becoming it.