why i like science fiction

i’m never going to be able to craft this essay to my complete satisfaction – particularly since it is inspired by an epiphanous flash, the kind of thing you have to hurry to write down before it fades – but i have to start somewhere.

as i may have mentioned before, i suffer from a mental illness called, for want of better terminology and with the caveat that it represents little more than an educated guess by several different authorities, “major depression with disthymic features”. what this means is that, unlike people who plunge into a depression for a limited period not greater than, say, two years due to a specific event or situation, or people with bipolar disorder who are on an observable cycle of mania/depression, i have literally been at the bottom of a deep hole for most of my life, with a few exalted moments where i was able to come to the surface for a gasp of air and feel sort of normal. the best metaphor for my psychological existence would be that of a deep ocean cetacean such as the great blue whale. except i’m not singing when i’m down there.

now, i have at certain times attempted to chart this “hellishly far down – to – almost normal” cycle, and periodically, i have noticed that certain aesthetic stimulations have brought me to the surface. one of them has been reading science fiction novels. somehow, this occupation stimulates certain parts of my brain involving the imagination (neurologists, help me out here – what is that, the cerebral cortex?) which appears to alter my brain chemistry such that what at first seems to be the legendary bardo realm of the endless iron plain becomes…..something else. a realm of possibility.

i have more to think and say about this, and perhaps i will, but i’d enjoy your comments.

some bookmarks for further investigation:
how reading affects the brain

Marcel Proust may have said it best. “I believe,” said the great French novelist, “that reading, in its original essence, is that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude.”

Now, neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf says yes, but it’s more than that. The human brain, she says, is endlessly pliable. A generation of research that began on the humble squid shows that the very act of reading itself actually shapes the human brain.

more to follow…