You are what you read
Posted by elena | Posted in General, Literary musings | Posted on 29-03-2010
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Anne: the first character I ever found myself in. I wished so damn hard for red hair.
You might think you have an eclectic reading taste. Maybe you do. I don’t know you, I’m just a schmuck who makes small observations and then turns them into general statements about the nature of reading.
But, really, when it comes down to it, you are what you read.
There will always be certain stories, certain struggles and certain characters that you feel drawn to, consciously or subconsciously; willingly or unwillingly.
Sure, reading will help shape who you are, will open you up to experiences you never imagined yourself to have in real life, but I wonder, are you shaping yourself by seeking out these books in the first place? Do you know where you stand when it comes to personal morals because of all the comic books you read as a child/teen/adult, or were you drawn to caped heroes and masked villains because they spoke to something inside you, and confirmed what you already know to be true?
If you literally became what you read, who would you be?
I would be:
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A man
Sometimes female
(Stupidly, not nobly) starving for my art
Abusing others, sometimes as a defence against my own dark insides, sometimes because I’m unapologetically cruel by nature
Confused about my sexuality
Rebelling against whomever I need to, in order to feel important
Eternally despondent about the monochrome drone my life has become, masking this with a depressingly funny black humour that only appeals to others in a similar situation
Constantly struggling between the good and evil parts that make up my character
Always in a class struggle against the world, when really I’m struggling against myself
Full of romanticised ideals about life and love and yet deathly afraid to reach out to achieve these
Impossibly eloquent
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And that’s just based on the literature I’ve found myself reading over the last few years. Has anybody else found out strange things about themselves through examining their reading choices?
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Considering my bookshelf, things do not look pleasant:
- I consistently use the word ‘droogs’ in place of ‘mates’.
- I am entirely obsessed with sex, and in particular, sordid affairs door to door sales clientele.
- I dwell far too often on the ends of the world, probably because I’m traumatised by prolonged exposure to war.
- I like to travel, especially to mexico where I tend to hit the whisky and religion too hard
I dream often of robotic sheep, particularly when frequenting deserted, fly ridden islands
- I am Jack’s medulla oblongata.
I would be in Elizabethan gear wearing a bonnet and gloves and walking down the main street with a chaperone, keeping an eye out for Mr Darcy/Mr Knightley/Captain Wentworth while pretending to really need something from Ford’s Sundries.
I would probably drive to work in a spaceship and brood most of the morning before discovering something intrinsically conflicting about myself. I might decide to change genders before lunch time, then go off and slaughter a small country’s-worth of fantasy monsters. After lunch, I’d take a trip around the world in search of ancient artifacts that control the world, before climbing an enormous tree and having dinner with the neighbours.
Mark: Sex, war, robotic sheep. Niiice.
Lea: I am not surprised about yours at all :p
Phill: You’ve been reading Look Who’s Morphing haven’t you?
I like to think of myself as eclectic.
That is, as a person, not just in what I read.