The Facts of Fiction

Learning? Yes, I am. But expanding? Not so much. That is, not until I read a short bit in the Sunday LA Times (yes, the newspaper).

I read a good deal everyday. Mostly online – white papers, blogs, news feeds and the like. And I’ve worked my way through some educational books of late, including “PR 2.0”, “The World is Flat”, “The Perfect Board”, and a “… For Dummies” book or two.

These books have provided me with great gobs of information and education. I’m left with notes and instructions and reminders of tips to practice, other websites to investigate and “best practices” to implement. I’m learning so much and applying it regularly.

Intellectually satisfied but not quite full, I found Fall Fiction in Sunday’s LA Times, with a previously unpublished Kurt Vonnegut piece on the front page.

“I was sitting in a bar one night, talking rather loudly about a person I hated – and a man with a bear sat down beside me, and he said amiably, ‘Why don’t you have him killed?’
‘I’ve thought of it,’ I said, ‘Don’t think I haven’t.”

Feast on Fiction like this tasty treat

This short excerpt – only about 2 Tweets worth – gave me nearly as much as several white papers in my search for intellectual satiation. I quickly devoured the rest of this Vonnegut treasure. And I vowed to take more fiction diversions, to stray off the path of facts and references. Feeding on fiction – even just this snack-size portion – fills my mind like nothing else. (Though I do fear over-eating, which sounds a lot like over-reading if said too quickly).

Of course, the non-fiction books I’ve read, along with all the blog posts and papers, have provided me with priceless information and an enduring education. And I have a long list of instructional works I need to get through to further this advancing rush. But I thank the Times for the Fall Fiction reminder that not all education is so scientific.

The expansive qualities of fiction are profound. (It’s not called “non-fact” by the way. I believe there is something to that!) Following my foray with this posthumous Vonnegut, I found some of my old favorites of fiction – I was still hungry after all. Look at these gems – easily Twitter-friendly bites, all of them.

“Hawaii made the mouth of her soul water.” Tom Robbins, “Still Life With Woodpecker”
“And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha”
“And by and by Christopher Robin came to an end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn’t stop.” “Winnie the Pooh”
“Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” Ernest Hemingway, “Old Man and the Sea”
“Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to heaven.” Wm. Shakespeare, “All’s Well that Ends Well.”

Take some time to dig further into these books above, to expand your world beyond the instructional, to feast on all that is Fiction.