Friday, May 19, 2006

Floating Over Nothing

Ever notice how people always tell you to just be yourself but they're never happy when you do. Even people who like you just as you are the way they say friends are supposed to don't. And can't, for that matter. Sometimes they don't really like you, this isn't always the case, more often it's that they don't know how you are when you're just the way you are. They may like the way they see you, but once you change the way they see you, they look at you differently. They have to, there isn't another choice.

Everyone has secrets, it's just a matter of who knows them, and when you decide to share them with the ones who don't know yet. Sometimes they're secrets because you're ashamed, or afraid of what might happen if they weren't secrets anymore, sometimes they've been pushed so far into the back of your mind, it just never occurs to you to tell anyone.

Changing gears, have you ever noticed that even though people fear the unknown, they also crave it? Why else did explorers sail, possibly to their deaths, from Europe to chart out a new world? Why else do fantasy and science fiction books and movies sell so well? The unknown is exciting. It offers us a place where we don't have to wonder where our next meal is coming from, or think about any of the mundane day-to-day routine that has lost its novelty. Although the unknown is frightening because we can't predict how it will react to us, and how we'll react to it, it allows us something that is hard to find in what you already know, something new. Something that can give you a new lease on life. If you get that chance, take it, new leases on a thing like life don't come around too often.

Changing gears again, but not so much, I've been reading this really phenomenal book, called Pillars of the World. There are a bunch of reasons why it's so phenomenal, one of which is that I didn't think it was going to be that good, but it sucked me right in anyways. Another reason is the intricate plotline. There are several different sub-plots going on, but they're woven together so well you don't have to work hard to keep the mseperate in your mind, also, although the connections are clear, they aren't made blatantly, with boisterous fanfare and a circus announcer screaming, "I'm an important plot point, remember me when you get into the next chapter!" Another thing I found interesting about the story is that since sex is an important aspect of the story, it is, after all a power struggle between ancient matriarchs and those who would usurp them, the text carefully toes the line between shying away from the actual sex and gratuitous overuse. Something I found interesting was the way that the society in the story approached sex in general. Granted, they aren't actually human, but their cultural mindset accepts the fact that sex can be pleasurable, and more importantly, it accepts that as a species, their nature is to be polygamous. Apparently some studies have recently come out suggesting that humans also by nature, are polygamous, and before civilization as we know it came about, likely did not mate for life. This could be poppycock, but if there's any truth to it, it would explain an awful lot.

Anyways, that's all I've got on my mind for now.

Daydream Believer

1 comment:

GoldMatenes said...

I think I should read that book...