hitchen' post

The problem with the fiction and literature is that I can't stick with it. I had to check out The Bastard of Istanbul twice in order to finish; mind you, I liked it, but it took me a few weeks to just crack it open and get going. I've had Independence Day for almost two checkout cycles and am only a hundred pages in. For some reason, it takes a really good hook to get me deep into fiction, if it comes after somewhere beyond a hundred pages, consider that mark to be a few weeks from now. By that time I think to myself, why bother? The non-fiction, history, and political commentary has me from the get go...I checked it out because I was already interested in the characters and events, I chose the book because I already had some background. I'll equate it to meeting X's friends from law school, or her friends from the court last summer - they've been vetted, I'm perfectly happy to cook dinner when they come over. Some yob off the street isn't going to get the same treatment; it'll take time to establish a backstory, and by that point I'm well tired and not much interested in having them over. I think my mind is too closed in certain situations, too resistant to the sounds, and too worried about what to do with the techno-house music. What's peculiar to me is that when I do get involved in a bit of non-fiction, when I find something that has me from page 1 - I'm totally committed. Music is the same; if I have to wait too long for the pop chorus to grab me - it's done. Is it impatience? Aloofness? I've got no great shakes on the topic aside from the well-worn idea that if you want to impress me, you better get me quick.

What brought this on was God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I'm already in his corner on this topic even as I disagree with him on other issues. I find that I'm lost, and tormented, by his arguments. I can handle the horrible history of war, the horrible genocides, the misery of people, and most of our ills when I'm reading the histories; yet, I find myself at pause while rolling around in my mind the ideas that are put forth in the guise of benevolence. I find it all incomprehensible. I'm done reading for the night.

Peace. Seriously.

T.