So, four weeks have passed since I vowed to avoid all violent media, and turn towards lighter forms of virtual experience. I haven’t watched a single episode of CSI, nor any other death-fetish show, on any channel. I have read neither Lee Child nor Tess Gerritsen, nor even dark, troubling non-fiction such as The Hounding of David Oluwale.
Without autopsies to shudder over, and bullet striations and car-carpet microfibre to marvel at, what did I do? Well, I tried watching some TV comedy. I didn’t get very far, to be honest, and it all ground to a halt with the utterly unfunny Moving Wallpaper. Who would find this dreck amusing other than people who work in telly? I have no idea.
On the DVD front I was more successful, and managed Zoolander and Superbad, both of which made me laugh – I admit not to the levels of needing Tena Lady, but I laughed all the same.
Over and above all this, though, Jack Kornfield’s A Path With Heart, which was recommended to me by Sally Brampton, and has taken me the whole month to finish, has given me the most to think about. Actually, it’s given me the most full stop.
I must have been expecting some sort of immediate transformation, which was why I was thrown so badly by the ‘grave disturbance in the force’ of last month, but that’s just part of instant gratification culture. The book is quite big, so lugging it around was a labour of love, with my handbag dragging on my shoulder everywhere I went.
I fell briefly off the wagon for Red Riding, and had X-Men-The Last Stand on while cooking the other night, but that’s all.
I’m not going to write a review of A Path With Heart right now, but just to say that I’ve removed the constant ritual of getting a hit of fictional viciousness, and started making a space in my head for other things, and it feels good.
Posted on March 9, 2009 by taniaglyde
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