General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReading DU too often is the antithesis of the novel experience.
Novel in the sense of a literal bound book with a story inside. I finish such a book and feel an immense sense of understanding even if the themes in their grandiosity partly elude my mind. There is a sense that I have taken part in the expansion of the world even if that may seem egotistical to refer to my own mind as world-like. I feel an interrelation to the characters and the tale as if I've lived their lives and done what they've done.
It is a holistic experience. I enjoy deconstructing and understanding the intentions of the author, mind you. I do like rendering visible the themes and subliminal tone of the book. But I find that it is a healing experience to grasp concepts as a part of life, rather than as explanations of what they are like in life. I hope that difference makes sense.
In this way, it is possible to subvert the ego, creating other identities to which you can place your trust. It is reassurance through doubt. You doubt the presence of your real self, in a sense, so that you can assume the identity of the characters. This is what I suppose is commonly referred to as "suspension of disbelief." You metaphorically escape this world in order to enter another. Not permanently in a fit of fantasy but because you're trying to both understand and better understand how to understand. All of this relates back to the actual world within which you exist.
I find that I can do this with non-fiction literature as well. You cannot read a text, even one which is academic, with a total sense of cynicism. You have to enter a world of doubt, where you run the risk of believing something which is false to be true, in order to learn. You can exit this realm and once again subject the experience to certain "realist" modalities. What you briefly had to assume was true, in order to maintain the suspension of disbelief, can be collapsed and ordered back into your understanding. The novel experience once again becomes fantasy, unreal, and you can take what you want from it.
This relates to how language is contextually based. The meaning of a logical thought is located in the surrounding thoughts. This isn't to say that everything is meaningless. It means that meaning is derived from relation rather than from tautology (ie circular reasoning).
The sky is blue because it is blue.
That is a tautology; a statement of meaninglessness which masks non-answer as answer. Because it does not seek to gain meaning through relation, it is destructive toward discussion. People use tautology to end discussions, not start or further them.
What am I driving at? Well, I come to this board and read posts about issues like the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict and I'm left in awe at how what we very often participate in isn't actually discussion at all. It's two or more sides yelling tautologies at each other for hundreds of posts at a time.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in some sort of first-person absurdist comedy. I'm interacting with elements which make no sense and, by interacting with them, I myself become the absurd. I say something which is valid but not necessarily true because it is precisely the response demanded by the absurdism. So, if I'm in an OP which claims to "stand with Israel" or "stand with Gaza," I find myself unable to articulate meaningful responses. It's as if we've ripped hundreds of pages out of a dictionary and thus drastically reduced our vocabulary.
That's the wonder of the tautology. It destroys discussion; if we dive deeper, it destroys thought itself. You read a meaningless post, which may even be emotionally persuasive because it uses pregnant terminology, and your brain sort of short circuits because it cannot grasp what is trying to be said. That short circuit happens because what's being said is nothing and your brain cannot grasp nothing.
Is this a problem of the current state of political debate? Is it an issue inherent to all political debate, regardless of period? Is there something inherent to politics which promotes idiocy? If so, why are we here?
Why are we on a discussion board not discussing subjects? Do we come here to simply restate beliefs? Is political debate nothing more than an echo chamber or can we escape this?
I wonder, I really do. I wonder why it is so difficult to maintain the novel experience within political debate. I wonder why it's so difficult to doubt one's beliefs for the sake of discussion. This isn't to say you can't hold beliefs. But it is to say that these subjects, in the context of a true discussion, demand that you temporarily abandon your ideological post and consider, if only momentarily, ideas which run contrary to your beliefs.
I hope this resonates with someone other than myself.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Pardon the tautology
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)A-Schwarzenegger
(15,596 posts)Addressing the first part of your post mainly.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brain-function-boosted-for-days-after-reading-a-novel-9028302.html
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)Which discusses how pain alters the way individuals think, how they conceptualize the world and, ultimately, is world destroying. It shrinks the world down and destroys language.
In a detached sense, the shouting matches that take place in political debate are a form of intellectual suffering, one might even suggest a self-imposed torture. Although I suppose that is a contradiction. Part of the element of torture is the lack of control. In the end, we are willing participants in political idiocy.
A-Schwarzenegger
(15,596 posts)there is a lack of control as long as I believe I MUST engage in the pointless debate--to win, to not let a liar lie, to uphold some principle. Most of it's old ego belching and farting.
I don't believe I MUST anymore. It's such an individual decision. Part of it is growing older, maybe some wisdom is in there somewhere. But I don't discuss politics much anymore even with people I agree with.
If I care about the suffering I look near home to see if there is anybody I might comfort or listen to or help somehow.
It is addictive, the "self-imposed torture" that you mention, and takes some determination and patience to be quiet and let the urge to re-enter the mad fray pass. It is like an animal gnawing at its leg to free itself, but there is no trap there, only the habit of mind and the fierce throes of the ego.
valerief
(53,235 posts)A-Schwarzenegger
(15,596 posts)For me, yes, but it's different, because reading a good novel
is mostly all pleasure, and I can't wait to get back
at it, while writing a novel is more complicated, requires more
effort, and there seem to be a million distractions
that eagerly help me not resume writing it.
valerief
(53,235 posts)In fact, I have to get back to my TV repairman trilogy soon. Partially done with the third book. Must get it done before the next ABNA!
A-Schwarzenegger
(15,596 posts)Love it. You got a category all to yourself.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Throd
(7,208 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)One can pretty much tell what another loves by what the other posts about.
In this thread the OP is posting about trying to understand what is going on in this crazy mixed up world.
Others here post a lot about war and why war is the answer.
Some post about the earth.
Some no longer are allowed to post on DU because of what they love.
enigmatic
(15,021 posts)Last edited Thu Jul 24, 2014, 11:47 PM - Edit history (2)
I did when this was an activist board trying to effect change and come together to achieve solutions. It hasn't been like that in a long, long time, and I left for a number of years because of that.
This is now a bunch of people being vicious to each other under the guise of identity politics and partisanship. It's become a black hole of hate, of rage of hating The Other.
That's why I admire the posters still here that haven't been driven off by those who want them to wallow in the garbage like they do. The ones who still talk about making the world (whether it be their own neighbourhood, city, state, country or the world) better by helping those that have less than themselves instead of ridiculing them. Or those who try to bring the different factions of what a Democrat is together, rather than endlessly trying to divide them. Those special posters who remain have my undying respect.
I come here every so often to see if it's changed and to check on my favorite posters who remain. Very sadly, there's one less today on the passing of RainDog, who was one of my 2 or 3 favorite posters here.
I really urge the people who seemingly rage, attack, and ridicule on this board at others here 24/7 to turn off the computer and this board to take a step back, do a bit of reflecting, and understand what they are really spending their time on here.
I have no doubts most of the people are good and just people, but the way that they are coming across are anything but, and it's a wasted energy they'll never get back. This board isn't worth that wasted energy, and it never will be.
Make the world a better place however you can in the real world by face to face interactions; the rewards are so much more profound than screaming at a computer screen as they post their rage. It just isn't worth it.
It's all about empathy, and yes, love. Everyone who is posting on this board right now has it in their heart to do so.
Sorry for rambling; after coming back last week again after a long absence, I just had to get that out.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)FreedRadical
(518 posts)I still get what I need here. And what I need is a broader understanding of the world around me and the people in it. This I can take into my interactions with the people in my community, and in my on the ground activism.
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)edgineered
(2,101 posts)what the eyes see and the ears hear. Once we learn not to trust our own views we can start to look at things from another perspective, like you just said.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)but it never does.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)I just got off the phone with a dear friend and we were talking about similar things. She's a psychologist in Sydney, Australia now. She's visiting Los Angeles and called me. I asked her what she is finding in her clients. She said mainly she's seeing anxiety. She said it's good that people want to find out how to address it and maybe deal with it, and they are relieved to find that others are dealing with it too. She sees people who want to be connected to something other than themselves or even their partners or families. It relates here in that we are all striving for that. But it cannot happen 24/7. The best thing I've learned from working with horses is that there's lots of down-time - lots of standing around kind of sleepy and staring out with anxiety about what predators might mess with you and your herd - 'being happy' all the time is a ridiculous unattainable goal. The best thing I learned from reading James Joyce's Ulysses is that mere language cannot express all of our feelings. I'm going out for a long walk now and will look at the moon and stars. Thanks for stimulating some thought. Have a good night folks.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Words are just weapons, they have no meaning.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,322 posts)One thing that might help debate is going international - so that there are at least a few different entrenched political systems involved. I post occasionally at http://politicsforum.org , which is populated by people from all round the world (in English, but there are still a good amount of non-native English speakers). You'll find some real extremes there, or on other similar boards, but I think you're more likely to pick up a conversation with someone who disagrees with you on some things, but will discuss it reasonably, than on an American-only board (or one that is effectively American-only, like Discussionist). Just the effort of having to explain to, or argue with, people from different systems can help people be more open to dialogue.
FreedRadical
(518 posts)I like real world news.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)There's no use in demanding the hens "trust" the fox. We've seen him in action.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)Three things ~ After many decades on this planet, reading the redundant nonsense of political conservatives, and watching the innate failure and conjoined destruction of conservatism 101 manifest over and over throughout my lifetime, every single time that it is ever been applied, it appears to be generally impossible to have a productive discussion with, for all intents and purposes, dishonest, delusional people who have never considered challenging, and subsequently thinking their way through, the "conventional wisdom" and cultural mores which have been implanted in their consciousness by social institutions.
An additional factor here is that posters come from different backgrounds, and have different levels and types of educational and life experiences. While I appreciate your plea to reason, the first time I saw the tl;dnr acronym used here, back in 2008, I was shocked, and began to realize that the "U" in DU was no longer accurate. DU went from "Poli-Sci 400 at UCal Berkeley" to "Gladiator School Reality TV 101" very quickly.
Last, and most important of all, never forget that Zorra is all knowing, and that her subjective opinions here should never be challenged.
Thanks, great post.