My sister managed to accidentally superglue her eyelashes together today.

First reaction to this potential emergency? “Oh, shoot! What?! How?…Doesn’t matter…Hang on, let me ask google what to do.”

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So there’s this article on CNN about the growing success of love hotels in Japan, there are thousands of them, blah blah blah, I don’t think this is really news, Japan’s been doing this for decades…The point is that the article ended with the following:

Whatever the reasons, the hotels have been doing well enough that Mansfield recently went to London, seeking investors to expand.

“The industry has 25,000 hotels, and through our research we’ve worked out that 90 percent of owners have five or fewer hotels,” he said.

That fragmentation is a structural inefficiency in the market, he said, one he would like to help correct.
Oh my God, you mean there’s no single Love Hotel Inc. to pre-package and streamline the products, thus making billions of dollars for a select few?! You mean it’s actually a competitive market?! What a travesty! How inefficient!

I’ve only studied economics at the very basic level, but I think I know enough to know that this kind of mentality just disgusts me. It reminds me of the story, “Poor Little Rich Town” by Kurt Vonnegut. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it online.

this is what i call a sense of humor:

Me: Hey dad, what’d the doctor say?

Dad: Oh, it’s awful. He says I’m going to end up dead!

This is the first of four questions related to reading that I feel so strongly about and take so much effort to answer every time I’m asked that I’ve decided to write down what I think. You can see the introductory post here.

“What’s the big deal about reading anyway?”

I feel like this will be the easiest and hardest question to answer. I admit that there are so many right answers that I couldn’t begin to cover them all. I’ve decided to list four that I find particularly important. Also, I should clarify: My intention is to persuade you that reading BOOKS is important, not just having the ability to read, because I think (hope?) that basic skill speaks for itself as far as importance goes.

1. Reading helps with your vocabulary, spelling and writing. Therefore, you are better and communicating and expressing yourself. Communication and self-expression are vital components of relationships, personal well-being and usually success in whatever work you do. You can argue that there are other ways to improve these skills – a test prep book, for example – but reading really internalizes word meanings and sentence structure by giving them context.

2. You learn when you read things. Okay, I know, you also learn things in school, but let’s pretend for a moment you’ve already finished school. For most people, reading is the most accessible way to continue gaining knowledge. It’s nice to be able to talk about a subject you care about but never had time to cover in school in an intelligent way (ie: beyond what’s included in the wikipedia page), and it’s nice to listen to people who know what they’re talking about, too. Also, knowledge is often the basis of action. If you read about a place you hadn’t heard of before, you might consider traveling there. If you read in detail about injustice rather than just hearing two-minute clips on the news, you might be more encouraged to do something about it. If you read about a subject and find you’re passionate about it, you might consider a career change, etc.

3. Remember all those stories in history class about a slave that decided to learn how to read despite it being illegal? Historically, oppressors have tried keeping the masses uneducated so they don’t consider rebelling or fighting for a better life they feel they deserve. The ideas found in books are strong, irreversible and feared. They open your mind and expose you to things you otherwise might have passed by.

But okay, I know, that’s paranoid, right? Our government isn’t trying to do that. They, in fact, MAKE us go to school. So we’re educated. What’s the problem?

The thing is, you aren’t just /educated/ or not – you’re either _thinking_ or not. That’s the key. That’s probably why students are more likely to be activists, why they feel more empowered than the average joe to change things. They are tuned in! People lose their student mindset after college, and I don’t know why.

And if even that seems too far removed from your life to be relevant and therefore make reading seem important, consider how much better you could handle stressful situations if you were exposed to opinions and insights beyond what your friends can provide (let’s face it: your friends are probably your friends because they support you in everything you do and have similar values, meaning you’re just hearing someone else validate what you already know instead of a truly different perspective. Books aren’t afraid to insult, but they won’t judge you either…They just give your brain something new to explore. They make you think! And as I once heard a very wise t-shirt say, “Think! It’s not illegal yet.”

4. The final reason is the one that I find the most important and relevant to you, yes you, on the computer. Reading forces you to concentrate and have sustained thought. For those of you that have forgotten, sustained thought means thinking outside the 140-character box, beyond the self-censorship you unconsciously provide yourself so all of Facebook doesn’t think you are weird in the wrong way, trying to solve problems without asking google or waiting for someone to reply on the note you posted, and actually considering multiple sides of an issue instead of adopting whatever quick-fire opinion the internet is shooting at you and moving on. Remember when people used to sleep on things?

I find it worrying that people are so distracted these days. That somehow, people justify expressing themselves in one sentence or paragraph as Straightforward rather than calling it what it is: lazy. Okay, you, I know what you’re going to say. You may update Twitter and Facebook, but you /also/ think about these things on your own time, and you discuss things with your friends at length outside the realm of comments. That’s fantastic. Great. I’m happy. You give me hope. But sorry, if that’s true, I’m not really talking to or about you. The person I am talking to or about is the person that is ONLY on facebook or twitter and just because they sometimes post thought-provoking quotes or their opinions about the latest news story, they think they are reflecting enough. The person that reads BBC news every morning and considers themselves “informed.” The internet is here to enhance, not to replace, how you learn. It’s just not a good environment for your brain to grow, with everything that’s going on.

You cannot chat and read a book at the same time. You cannot watch a YouTube video and read a book. You can’t do anything while you’re reading a book except…read. And so, your brain goes beyond those intellectual barriers that are so prevalent on the internet. And it does this for hours! Days! For however long it takes you to finish.

I guess this is so important to me because I live to solve problems. Even if you do not live TO solve problems, though, you cannot live without doing so. And in order to solve problems efficiently, you NEED to be able to concentrate and think. These are not skills that will come naturally when it’s necessary – you need practice and strength, both which can be gained from reading (among other things, such as solving math problems for example, but I think reading is more accessible).

One last thing. This is part of a comment I received in my last entry:

“I love reading, especially when it challenges me…But I can see where there’d be people who satisfy those desires through other mediums like music, movies, or art galleries. or not at all.”

This is an interesting idea. I actually believe other forms of art are fair trades for literature. I think movies are the best source for this, because they’re easy to watch since they’re short, and people are very rarely opposed to giving a movie a chance (a book, on the other hand…). The problem is that almost no one gains anything from these different medias anymore. The vast majority of people are interested in movies that don’t encourage much thought. This isn’t entirely their fault, with the intense marketing and surefire and instant thrills. But the fact stands, that people very rarely watch quality movies. And sure, everyone listens to music, but mostly as a form of entertainment. For those that do appreciate it for what it is, I think it’s a more emotional experience than intellectual. And that’s okay – I think both emotional and intellectual growth is important. Which is why I think for the most part, even people that experience music (rather than just listen to it) are not gaining everything they could from reading. And as for art galleries, I personally find them so crowded and visually overwhelming that it’s difficult for me to concentrate on one piece. That’s my personal experience, but I doubt it’s a unique one. I know there are smaller and more encouraging galleries, but in general I don’t find that people seek them out, or are even very interested in going.

The question that follows, in my mind, is “if you believe other forms of art are ‘fair trades’ for literature, then why do you insist on reading in particular, and not just watching better movies or something?”

The reason that springs to mind is that books force you to sustain and organize your thoughts in a way other mediums don’t. When you listen to a song or even an album, or watch a movie, you are affected for a couple hours, maybe a little more (with the exception, of course, of particularly exceptional examples that stay with you for a long, long time). I believe there’s a lot to be said for thinking about things for the days or weeks that it takes you to read a book. It’s too easy to watch a good movie, go to sleep and forget the feelings and thoughts you had last night. This is true of books as well, actually, but most people don’t read books all in one night. I have a habit of doing so that I’m trying to break because I find that I understand everything a lot better when I’ve had a couple days to mull it over in the back of my mind. Just how retrospect makes everything clearer in real life, it clarifies and internalizes things we learn.

People have been asking me the following alarming questions with increasing frequency lately:

“What’s the big deal about READING anyway?”

(after receiving a longer response than they cared to hear, they say….)

“Okay, fine, I admit SOME books MIGHT have A LITTLE intellectual merit. I’ll just read the summaries on the internet, though,” because they think that’ll shut me up, because apparently people REALLY believe that reading internet summaries instead of books is OK. “What do you mean that’s not good enough? You’re such a perfectionist. Why does it matter as long as I get the point of the story?”

I reply, but am promptly accused of the very serious crime of Reading Fiction, and “What’s the difference between reading fiction and watching TV? You don’t learn anything anyway.”

Which infuriates me to no end. TO NO END. It infuriates me enough to write things in ALL CAPS. That’s how much it infuriates me. FURY. I try to answer without them noticing the smoke rising from my nostrils (no one ever does. weird, huh?) but people just don’t know when to stop:

“Okay, yeah, I guess I do like reading….But none of that classic literature stuff. It’s boring and anyway, it’s only ‘classic’ because a bunch of stuffy academics decided to talk about it in some of their classes. It’s an arbitrary system of merit! There are probably tons of overlooked good books in the world! And anyway, the important thing is that I enjoy what I read, right?”

This discussion always leaves me speechless. At this point, I usually just resign myself to my room, waiting for the world to fade away as everything and everyone becomes less and less substantial. I really thought the answers to these questions were obvious. I thought that people AT LEAST believed reading was important, even if they didn’t choose to act on this belief. But we’re a generation of rebels, aren’t we, questioning all that is sacred in society. Why are we doomed to question all the wrong things? Why literacy and education and civic engagement?! SERIOUSLY.

But I digress.

I am tired of being asked these questions, so I’ve decided to answer them. And the next time someone decides to INFURIATE me, I shall calmly direct them to these notes. Don’t worry, I’m not going to answer them all now, or all at once, because I know people don’t like to read things more than a page long nowadays, because, omg, an email, a text, skip this song, oh, I need to download that episode, oh have you seen this youtube video?, wow look at this really interesting story on digg….

I won’t keep you from your very busy lives. I’ll break this up into manageable chunks for your convenience. Stay tuned.

[I know you'll probably want to start replying/defending now, since it's 4am and what else are you going to do? Feel free to do so, but I won't get into a discussion about any of this until I've actually addressed the question]

I went to the pride parade in Chicago yesterday. It was kind of disappointing. It was so….commercial as opposed to cultural. Home Depot has pride. Southwest Airlines has pride. Jewel Osco has pride. Isn’t that great? Shop at our stores. I would have liked to see some speakers, maybe, a history exhibit, some discussion of current events – AT LEAST some information on all the different organizations that were present. I guess in general more academic things interest me, and parties do not. What I desire is called a “conference.” Parades are not, and should not have to be, conferences.

Also, I was really disgusted at how dirty the ground was. I know they’re going to clean it up, but they really could have installed some recycling bins, handed out condoms for empty bottles and cans – something that encouraged people not to throw their trash on the ground. I feel betrayed when an event for a cause I believe in (literally) steps all over  another cause I care about. I feel that social and environmental justice are very connected.

Yeah, yeah, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

My dog is on anti-depressants.

Okay, before you comment (or, think silently to yourself without ever letting me know you read this) about how it’s ridiculous for a dog to be on anti-depressants, and we got ripped off by a greedy vet, and “ugh, everyone and their dog is popping pills nowadays, what happened to good old-fashioned dealing with your problems-”

Please consider that my dog is actually…depressed.

For months now, my dad has been trying endlessly to find out what’s wrong with our lovely Chico, and how we can make him feel better. All he does is lay in his bed and stare dejectedly at us, he’s lost considerable amounts of weight (and he’s a small dog, so it’s a huge difference), doesn’ t eat, if we pick him up he’s limp, doesn’t chase the raccoon under the deck, doesn’t even greet my sisters

Of course our first conclusion was that there was something physically wrong, but after multiple visits to the vet, they found nothing wrong. My dad got another dog to keep him company, and he got better for a little bit, but went back to his old ways pretty quickly. We thought maybe he just had the winter blues and didn’t like the cold weather and lack of green grass and sun that he enjoyed so much, but it’s summer now and he still mopes around like a lone harp seal survivor that saw its whole family clubbed.

So, the doctor prescribed anti-depressants, and he’s just like his old self again.

It’s really weird.

Is he really my old dog? Or is it just the drugs? Has he refound the joy in life? Does he really see meaning behind the world again?

…Did he ever? I mean, he is a dog. I tend to give animals more credit than other people, but I think this is higher cognition than even I thought they had. Is he capable of thinking “there’s no point” or “my life is meaningful and has purpose?” Does he understand the concept of “why?”

I feel like taking pills in order to combat those feelings is cheating, or an easy escape. I guess that stems from my belief that severe depression in people both A) has an origin within the self or the environment, and is not purely biological, and if that origin could be found and fixed then the depression would be improved to a tolerable condition, and B) is part of the human condition for periods of time beyond “2-3 weeks” and is something we should accept instead of believing we should be happy all the time, and also something we can take as a sign that some part of the life being led needs to change.

What I’m saying is that I don’t believe taking anti-depressants won’t change all the mechanisms that led to being depressed, so I think the happiness is artificial because true happiness comes from the belief that life has meaning, or the peace from the acceptance that it doesn’t, but life can be good anyway…not from sparks in your brain.

I guess all this comes from the fact that I believe in souls, not just brains.

And the reason that all matters is that I just want my dog to actually be happy, but I can’t truly believe that he is, when I know that when he doesn’t eat his medicine he won’t even lift his head for a hot dog.

Who  knows if anyone reads this thing anymore. Hopefully. Or hopefully not. I don’t know. Blogs are weird. At least for me, what I write is what I would tell people if they cared to listen. Not that I think they should care, cause to be honest, it’s not really that interesting to hear all the details of someone’s life, unless you’re me.

I mean that I like to hear about all the details of your day, not that it’s interesting to listen to me.

Well, I had another blog but it seems that I have indefinitely lost access to it, and I’m not really okay with that because – well, I don’t know why – I’ve been writing things down online for nearly ten years now, and I have a bad memory, and also the way I lost it is really silly and makes me feel stupid, so…I hope that someday I’ll be able to get it back. Meanwhile, I’m moving back here because when I don’t have somewhere to write, I panic, and when I do have somewhere to write I never post. Just to let you know.

I’ve made the previous posts on here private because…I don’t know. I felt like it. No wait. I’m working on my internet honesty: I made them private because they embarrass me. I was so hopeful for a time, then so hopeless, and in retrospect I was wrong in both situations. And it’s embarrassing to be wrong, especially because to this minute, I still identify with myself at both of those times, and I don’t want to put myself at risk of being wrong again…It’s also embarrassing that the past three times I’ve tried to spell some variation of “embarrass” I’ve spelled it wrong. Clearly, I have issues with being “wrong,” which is ridiculous, because I don’t believe anyone can ever truly be “right.” Except about spelling, I guess.

What else?

I’m in Illinois, and I miss home.

I’ve discovered that wherever I am, home is always the house 1000 miles away. I sound like a misfortune cookie.