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September 28, 2004
Why To Read Weird Stories (Not Safe For Work...)
Sometimes a metaphor just pops into my mind, fully formed, that is as startlingly inappropriate as it is accurate. Some background:
I've noticed that the more sci-fi I read, the more able I am to deal with really strange and weird ideas, and that other sci-fi and fantasy people I've talked to seem to have this conceptual flexibility too. I've noticed I can deal with a certain level of weirdness, but not beyond that, and my tolerance seems to be growing as I spend more time reading and thinking about this. I think it's a defense mechanism for the rational dictator living in our left brain – anything too out there, and it's just too much for us to handle, so our minds sort of shut down. (Some stuff actually makes me physically dizzy, but this may just my inner drama queen acting up again.)
Having a defense mechanism like this has probably saved quite a few people from going crazy, but eventually you want to get past it. The more we can deal with the Weird, to more prepared we will to handle new ideas, in a world that grows stranger by the minute.
So, essentially, this Weird Shit Filter is your mental gag reflex. Reading really good sci-fi, and fantasy, and horror is the conceptual equivalent of the old joke where women (and plenty of men) stick a banana in the back of their throat to get rid of their gag reflexes. So they can also do it with, y'know, other stuff.
Reading The Invisibles is like deep-throating one of those 18-inch kielbasa sausages.
That is all; Pleasant dreams.
Posted by StephenRauch at September 28, 2004 03:13 AM