The Real Challenge - going without fiction

[finneco]

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

Comments

[ramou]

good luck!

[finneco]

Thanks!

[littlebluenote]

yeah i can get totally absorbed in fiction too and i hate the feeling so i mostly avoid it. if i do read fiction i read it real fast like a binge, or else i read something so dense that it's hard to read so i'm not tempted to spend too much time on it all at once. also, not having the internet helps with things like not watching the L word. which is a really, really horrible show, but OMG SHANE!

[finneco]

I think Shane is the principle reason to watch the L Word. It's funny how not being able to satisfy my curiousity re these stories I'd been following exposes how present they are in my thoughts through the day. I find myself wondering about characters in books I read in elementary school along with events forshadowed in comics of this past week.

Speaking of dense reads, I still have your copy of "Chez Swann" around somewhere. If this does turn into a year long exercise I may make exceptions for slow-paced french classics, as their effects on my psychie are less overwhelming.

[xenoman]

While I applaud your experiments to push yourself, I'd warn you that this seems to me almost like a crash diet-and they are similar in that theymay give the desired result, but at the cost of something more important.

I'd urge moderation over cold turkey, myself-but I could be being slightly alarmist. Perhaps because in my line of work, I can't avoid fiction at all.

[finneco]

I've been amazed at how defensive people have been at the idea of cutting out fiction completely. It's often confused with the puritanical rejection of escapism, or some kind of quality judgement on leisure pursuits that ranks newspapers over novels.

I want to underline that this is an experiment - I am trying to see what this change in stimulus categories effects in my day to day. I want to be more aware of the place of fiction in society, how individuals use it and pursue it, how it can change how we are and what we expect. While I hope to gain control of some bad habits through the process, the challenge is designed for the purpose of learning, not self-improvement.

Moderation is a reasonable goal if I was trying to set up lifelong habits that fit well within the expectations of my friends and relations. Once I've taken some time to explore this extreme, I'll be in a better position to understand how the middle ground is shaped, and will hopefully work towards a healthy and more deliberate degree of inclusion.

[immerrichtig]

Interesting concept, and I can imagine how challenging it would be! Only imagine, that is, because at present, removing fiction from my life would leave me with very little to do! Since moving home to cable and three televisions, I spend copious numbers of hours in front of the tv, mostly with my sister.

However, I'll be leaving said television behind in 11 days, and moving to a place where English fiction is more difficult to find. When I lived in Montreal, I spent a lot of time realizing how important it is to live in the moment, where you are. If you spend all your time hiding from reality, or trying to live elsewhere, your life becomes bland and stale. May your life be richer without fiction!

And best of luck with the piano!!