Series: Keepin’ it Real
There is nothing new under the sun,
and history truly does repeat itself again and again,
making the past forever relevant, thereby
keeping the past something to honor.
By delving into the realism of humanity and history through study and storytelling, one can illuminate the beautiful act and art of real people overcoming the challenges of life through tenacity, grit, and real human interaction.
Do you agree?
Great, but that’s not really what this blog is about
*soft music playing in the background comes to a screeching halt*
This blog is aimed at discussing how the majority of people participating in fantasy, science fiction, the paranormal (regular and romantic versions) erotica, and pornography… MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE… is becoming alarming.
I’m talking about movies, games, television, books, and every other form of entertainment.
Works of nonfiction, biographies, memoirs, historical fiction, even *shriek!* the Classics more and more are sitting and “gathering dust” while the world appears to be running wild-eyed or syrupy-brained, or both, into every opportunity to escape reality.
Oh, I get it. It’s a desperate, shocking, terrible world
Wars happen.
Families lose everything.
People fail.
Loved ones die.
Cruelty abounds.
Equality is sabotaged.
All hope is lost.
Why not run into an imitation world if this one is so awful?
It’s enough to make us want to hide out in… what? A cave? A false stimulant? A pornographic movie? Fantasy games and books? Our own brand of psychosis?
Life is wonderful and horrible. Then, it’s horrible and wonderful. Tragedy is always a possibility. Loss is assured. That’s how it has always been.
Why not surrender to it, throw our hands up, and retreat into the unfathomable?
What’s the difference?
Well, maybe we should choose reality because…
Wars end.
Families can work to regain what they lost.
People succeed.
Babies are born.
Kindness and mercy abound.
Equality rises.
Hope is renewed.
We earthlings dance on the blade of a two-edged sword–reality vs. non-reality.
The fragility of life mixed with the intoxicating aura of hedonistic pursuit available in every form to one and all seems to be acting as a type of mind-numbing DRUG blurring the lines between reality and non-reality.
Is it real when labor pains change a normally reasonable woman into a cursing, screaming shrew? Sure it is.
Is it real when a person chokes in a restaurant and the world stops as fellow diners watch a man turn purple with terror, gasping for the last air he’ll ever have unless instantaneous help arrives? Uh-huh.
Is it real when a man or woman falls so madly in love with another they cannot eat, sleep, or concentrate? You betcha.
Reality exists whether we beckon it or not, whether we want it or not, or whether we feel we can handle it or not. It’s there. It isn’t going away. It’s life.
My question is…
Why do more and more people want to handle reality only when it is enshrouded or represented by aliens or superheroes or in worlds that have never existed?
Does it make it more real if creatures or fantasy characters experience a reality instead of us, ordinary people, experiencing the reality?
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
*thank you, Jack Nicholson*
Escapism is essential to our well-being.
Everyone needs some form of escapism in reasonable proportions whether it’s electronic games or fishing from a quiet stream. The problem lies in the amount of escapism a person succumbs to.
Surprise… it’s addictive, and it definitely has side effects.
In the present culture, ESCAPISM flows like a river of oil over slick rocks.
It’s everywhere.
Games, movies, children’s shows, cartoons, theme parks, books, and television are geared to the fake, the make-believe, the fantastical, and the unachievable, as well as pandering to the lowest and coldest form of human interaction–pornography.
The snare is immersion versus visitation.
Dream Worlds
It’s all about the money, you know. These Dream Worlds are created and spoon-fed to us by greedy marketers to make us desperately crave what we do not have.
Like what?
That’s an easy one: power, perfection, brilliance, strength, youth, beauty, magic, perfect and/or multiple mates, death defiance, self-rule, and unending fun and adventure. There is no way to measure what can be wrestled into our minds to make us lust for that which we do not have and, most likely, will never have.
Dream Worlds are panaceas, sugar pills. You consume them hoping they will make you feel better, and they do–for a while. The more you consume them, the more you want to consume them. Every dieter knows how it is when he or she relents and eats “just one potato chip or one teensy-weensy bite of pie.” Soon, the whole bag of chips or the whole piece of pie has been devoured, and what do they have for their forfeiture of reality? A fatter body and a bigger addiction to the object they were hoping to avoid.
What Fake Reality keeps us from worrying about
Real problems. Reality. Life. Little things such as the exponential rise of mental illness, homelessness, poverty, crime, unwanted pregnancies, international conflicts, the nonchalance of screen-addicted youngsters and teens, cultural demise, et al.
Should we fret and obsess about all the problems of the world constantly, then?
Of course not.
They are there, whether you think about them or not. You can’t let the fact the world is screwed up turn you into a fake-reality junkie… or can you?
Habits can become Addictions. Addictions can become monsters that won’t let go. What can the monsters take? Our money, our time, our thoughts, and our minds.
Sometimes, our lives.
A Scary Venture (for me, anyway) into a Science Fiction Example
Would you science fiction aficionados throw rotten tomatoes at me if I use your favorite thing in the world as an example?
Never mind. I’ll risk it.
This is only a “for instance.” Keep that in mind and think about the influences on young people more than on your own mature selves. Deal?
There are real messages being absorbed by anyone feeding voraciously on non-real commodities. It’s just the way it is.
Look at the elements of most science fiction… *calm down… this is a short dive*
So what we have are bizarre planets and galaxies populated with characters that look worse than the creatures scientists find in the deepest ocean waters, and they—bestowed with science and technological supergenius—take up with (there are no marriages in the “smart future,” of course) other monsters, have offspring, and with other alien races conceptualized by every cartoon artist’s most horrible perceptions, travel through galactical regions participating in horrific dominion battles and other superhuman activities.
Over and over.
A zillion times.
Are you science fiction people still breathing? I’m almost finished.
This is my “for instance,” so I have to ask, what might the younger generation be deriving from a CONSTANT flush of fiction and entertainment fused with that overlay?
Here are some suggestions:
- “Regular” life and people are as boring as old shoe leather
- Hideous inhuman physical features are cool, beguiling, or sexy
- Most Other Worlds and cultures need no sentimentalities, human dignities, or deities
- There are no absolute rules; nothing is truly evil or truly wholesome
- Magical powers coming from good or evil sources are no problem as long as they are used for good… or for world domination
- etc.
I submit (to no court ever) that immersion in unrealistic worlds, fake characters, mythical quests, battles, and unusual sensualities is actually a HUGE step away from reality and DOES NOT merely serve as a little pleasant daydreaming or escapism.
It is proven and understood that escapism is beneficial and fun. In moderation. Not constantly, Yet, most fantasy and science fiction converts literally live in their chosen science fiction worlds 24/7. Why? Because it’s addictive. Because it’s non-threatening to their real world. Because they can.
Fiddle-Faddle while the world burns
This trend into surrealistic entertainment and choices of “literature” and the consequences of it are being noticed more and more by sociologists, psychologists, scientists, doctors, medical writers, and others, noting that we seem to be melting into a simpler culture of entertainment and pleasure-seeking while leaving behind the vestiges of conversation, reading, hobbies, and other less dramatic pursuits.
So… are we becoming little Nero’s… fiddling away as the world burns?
Are we fast approaching a world in which the inhabitants are tagged more as addicts of pleasure and fake realities than they are known as realists who still know how to roll up their sleeves and tackle real problems?
I truly hope and pray we are NOT.
Change always relies first on facing the truth.
Maybe we should splash a little cold water on our faces.
Maybe we should just get real.
Just saying…
P.S. A shoutout to Oliver Twist for having the courage of ask for more… gruel. Check it out HERE.
Author Jodi Lea Stewart ~ Laughing Makes it All Worthwhile ~
Jodi Lea Stewart is a fiction author who believes in and writes about the triumph of the human spirit through overcoming adversity via grit, humor, and stubborn tenacity. Her writing reflects her life beginning in Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, later moving as a youngster to an Arizona cattle ranch next door to the Navajo Nation, and, as a young adult, resuming in her native Texas. Growing up, she climbed petroglyph-etched boulders, bounced two feet in the air in the backend of pickups wrestling through washed-out terracotta roads, and rode horseback on the winds of her imagination through the arroyos and mountains of the Arizona high country. Her lifetime friendship with all nationalities, cowpunchers, and the southern gentry allows Jodi to write comfortably about anything in the Southwest, the South, and far BEYOND.
JODI’S LATEST INTERNATIONALLY AWARDED HISTORICAL FICTION NOVEL ~
Watch the Book Trailer for THE GOLD ROSE HERE.
I write historical fiction centered around the early to mid-twentieth century. My latest novel, THE GOLD ROSE, involves the Japanese invasion of China and the ensuing civil war that ushered in modern-day communism. No matter what the circumstances, eras, conflicts, or main plots entail… my goal is always to create characters everyone relates to. I believe that’s the kind of connective reading in which the reader and writer actually share a point in time. 😊 Happy reading, y’all!
JODI’S LATEST INTERNATIONALLY AWARDED HISTORICAL FICTION NOVEL ~
What’s next? THE BULLS OF BASHAN… COMING IN 2025!
What happens when a young waitress working in a diner in a Texas border town is recruited to accompany a former Army major, a New York beauty, and a handsome rake of a guy who flies planes and rides bulls with equal ease on an undisclosed mission with no guarantee of safety but rife with adventure and a promise of wealth when completed? While the elusive head of the operation scrambles to unmask the identity and purpose of someone following the mission team, the team penetrates the perilous Amazon rainforest, enters the world’s deepest canyon, and takes to the seas in a wild jaunt to obtain keys to take to the only one who can unlock the mystery of the Bulls of Bashan.
Out of thousands of languages known to mankind, Miss Jodi decided to spit facts. This is such an alarming situation that we are in most youth aren’t focused on their career and they are glued to their smartphones watching web series for whole days. Yes, I have encountered those people and I always wonder why they are wasting their time and damaging their brains to such an extent that all they’ll left with is *regret*. This blog should go viral because it talks about such a common yet serious problem among youngsters.
Hi Nishi. Thank you for weighing in on this important subject affecting young and old, but mostly the youngsters and teens of our world. Reading books or anything longer than a few lines is fast becoming too time-consuming and “old fashioned” for those looking for the constant quick fix and nonstop thrills of video games and other internet pastimes. It’s tragic, and the only way to fix it is for those in charge of young people to 1) realize the addictiveness of such behavior, and 2) set the example of NOT burying their faces in the flat, dull screens of life. Instead, make nature, science, reading, board games, and “REAL LIFE” more fun than the fake world of the Internet. If we start there, we might have a chance of reversing this troubling situation. Again, thanks for checking in, Nishi!
Thanks, Jodi, for addressing another cultural elephant in the room. Some may suppose an attempt to fix this from the other angle. I can’t get past the endless “reality” shows that have obvious attempts at staging various dramatic moments for extended viewership.
On another note, I am convinced that what makes what appears shallow to become enjoyable is recapturing the a depth of meaning to each event of life. Something like work is not just work, it is a smaller heroism- providing for a future and security for a family and a maintaining of one’s character. An old saying is valuable: ” The carpenter built the house and the house built the carpenter.” Work is just one example of the “everyday” restoring its sense of wonder when it contains virtue as a meaning. There are many more.
King Solomon had the ability to chase every pleasure and found everything to be vain if one did not, along with the pleasure, maintain a reverence (aka fear) of God. Once this is principle is learned, escapism may find itself inferior to a greater joy- being present- and the sense of becoming as a result. Fantasy can’t do that, it only further causes the longing for it.
A really astute answer, Matthew. I like your approach to work having a deeper, intrinsic meaning other than repetitious monotony. It truly is an act of heroism to sacrifice our time and efforts for countless years for our families. The key, as you point out, is in realizing how those sacrifices change us and make us better inside where it counts. All trials and tribulations of this life either shape us or break us, and the beauty of it is that we have the choice to handle them either way. More and more we see folks retreating into the “fake joys” or “fake rationalities” of life contributing to an endless cycle of dissatisfaction. It’s sad, to say the least.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Matthew! Don’t be a stranger, okay?