Yes, reading is important and good. But here I am indicating a different aspect of it. Like many things in reality it has several aspects.
Plesiohedron
joined 2 weeks ago
Nothing is an unalloyed good. That's reality for you.
We can discuss the good of reading and also the bad of it. Right?
Maybe it was a mark of his alienness. A fundamental human pleasure rendered painful. He was on his hundredth universe after all.
Well it does tend to stick. So if you repeat it within that sticking period then yes, it becomes the normal permanent mode. And memory of any alternative is lost.
But sure, not necessarily permanent.
I think it is a certain perspective. A perspective that includes the option of abstract thought.
I love tower defense games.
The SUPREME tower defense game was "Beat the Geek".
Are you familiar?
Permutation City blew my mind too. Such great ideas. Definitely in my top 10 faves.
Diaspora, and other Egan too, ya. But PC most of all. I've read it like 6 times. It's got that proper scifi vibe. The walls of reality crumble.
(Btw, what was the meaning of the testicular spasm? Was it a metaphor?)
Whether you enter this state of "mental screen fixation" through personal preference or pressure from outside forces makes no difference in the state arrived at, surely.
In the analysis sure, words, thoughts and symbolic stuff are just little 2d cartoons. Obvious stuff. But in practice we treat them as God's own titty, flowing with the milk of truth.
There is a willing suspension of disbelief going on there. Like, if I don't pretend that your idea for the word "dog" is the same as mine, then the conversation just collapses. So I let my grasp on reality slide.
I don't deny the utility of the shared symbolic thing, be it the precise scientific engineeringly version or the rough common version. It is quite beside my point.
My point is the way of looking that reading involves and the habit that we fall into. That fixation upon the little screen in my head where symbols play. To narrow my attention to that screen permanently is a kind of chronic crouch, and to mistake that screen for reality is insane.
For the sufferer of this disease all of the senses dim while the screen grows brighter and brighter.
Behind the flags, propaganda, soldiers and murder it's always a bunch of billionaires looking for a nice investment. Every single time. You'll never bring them to court.
Yes zing