William Essex
  • About Us
  • About Me
  • Dear Diary
  • Books (and other stories)
  • This takes you to Medium Dot Com

Omitting the question mark

28/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Why can't we suspend disbelief in real life? That's a change. We can feel for the characters in a box set, or a book, even if we've seen/read it before. I watched the episode Tamerlane from the first series of Madam Secretary (CBS, 2014-) last night, and - omitting spoilers - felt for the characters. The emotional pull is expertly put together, of course, but so's a sunset (discuss). I'm re-reading A Closed And Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, sequel to The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet, (self-published, 2014, and then Hodder & Stoughton) and - again, omitting spoilers - I really want Pepper to find what she's looking for. I've even read it before, re-reading it to orient myself because there's a third book now, but I'm engaged.
     I can slip into belief so easily. But that's not allowed - and difficult to do - in real life. Looking out now at a hazy distance, the blue sky just lightly dusted with cloud, the water shimmering and the boats all still at their moorings, I could quite happily believe ... in a lot of things. I'm open to all that (and/or I want to be; not sure). Until a few generations back, my ancestors would have accepted ... a lot of things without question, and got on with their lives. Watching a bee bounce impossibly from bloom to bloom of the purple plant outside my window (no idea what it is), I would be really happy to accept without question that small round buzzy things can fly. Bees came before aerodynamics; they're exempt, in my book.
     I've just put the words <how do bees fly> into Google. And what I can reveal is: a lot of effort has gone into "debunking the myth" that bees "violate the laws of physics" by daring to fly - I'm quoting from the first of my 6,160,000 search responses. Six million. Why? I was happy with that myth. Is it really compulsory not to have myths in our lives - outside the accepted boundaries of fiction? So often we depict the scene where somebody says to somebody else: "It's all real," whether the "it" is vampires, aliens, ghosts, the supernatural in general, even terminators. We kind of want it.
     But we won't let ourselves have it. So my question is: if we want to live in a world where, say, the old gods are rallying against the new gods (and they're all American Gods, Neil Gaiman, Headline, 2001), what's stopping us? It never stopped us before. We open our minds in so many ways nowadays, and we prize open-mindedness, acceptance, tolerance across cultures - so why have we so firmly shut that out?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Dear Diary: The Archive

    April 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    April 2024
    July 2023
    March 2023
    May 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011



No animals were harmed in the making of this website. Other websites are available online (and off). All the content here is copyright William Essex, this year, last year, the year before that and, you guessed it, the year before that, although I don't have the time right now to hunt out that little symbol. This website uses organic ingredients and respects your privacy. Come back some time.

Promoted by T&F CLP on behalf of William Essex at PO Box 16, Jubilee Wharf, Commercial Road, Penryn TR10 8GF.​