Creativity vs Practicality

My time here in Omaha is nearly at an end.  Although I've complained a lot about the driving, I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and I will be sorry to leave.  On another note, I was having lunch with one of my classmates and somewhere in our really random, awkward conversation I brought the subject to books.  Shocker I know.  Anyways, I asked my classmate if he was reading something and he told me that he was reading a psychology book concerning two different types of mental processes, specifically a "fast" calculation of a situation that is based entirely upon intuition and previous experiences and a "slow" calculation in which the scene is processed in a way that takes into account the intuition and learned information.  Granted he was not able to articulate it like that but I'm assuming that was the gist of it.  Sounds like a basic social science theory merely put down in a book format with hundreds of examples as opposed to a specific academic drill but interesting nonetheless and something that I will probably look into.  (Does anyone know what this book is called?  Have you figured out which book it is based on my bizarre interpretation based on my classmates understanding of it...I can't remember...)

So the book that he was reading is not the point of this post.  The point is that he made a point of saying that he only reads "practical" books.  In other words, he only reads non-fiction books that he feels that he can apply immediately to real-life situations.  Interesting and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I was a little bit insulted that he was reading a book in which inference is of profound importance and yet he did not find the value in reading fiction.  In my mind, fiction is of tremendous value in our culture.  It defines and shapes us.  We learn about ourselves and others not only through the works of non-fiction but also through the ways in which people are able to discuss and describe their own world in a fictional way.  Creativity and imagination, in my opinion, should not be seen as being impractical.  On the contrary, the ability to think creatively fuels the fires of innovation and invention.  Even though fictional stories by definition are "fake," that does not mean that they are not practical in their own way.  As I have previously mentioned, the ability to think creatively and then to articulate those imagined thoughts and actions can demonstrate a peoples cultural heritage.  Fictional books can foster and reemphasize aspects of our culture that before were unconsciously a part of our daily lives.  Fictional books allow for the continued articulation of a person's culture.  Perhaps a fictional book may not tell you how to fix your engine, but it can clue you in to the love a culture has for its automobiles in a way that statistics and hard facts sometimes cannot properly convey.  What's my bottom line?  Just because you don't see the immediate practicality of a thing, it does not mean that it does not exist.  Don't disregard the power of the human imagination.  It is just as practical and everyday a thing as understanding the latest psychological opinions on the Western thought-process.

I apologize for the tirade and I want to say that my classmate did not say his opinion rudely or with malice.  Now I am merely stating mine.  What do you think of the value of fictional books?

Photos from:

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/files/2012/06/HarryPotter1.jpg

http://buber.net/Blah/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/1776-mccullough.jpg

Dementors

So I did have a really good, funny post that I was gonna post but unfortunately this day as sucked all life out of me.  Not like the 5 Hour Energy yesterday, but rather that feeling that time has literally stopped. Its that feeling  you get when look out a wonderful, clean, huge window towards a cloudless blue sky and you just know that its got to be beautiful out.  You just know it.  Then you make the mistake of checking weather.com and it gives you that bright, comic looking sun that just screams at you to go outside.  Then you see the perfect temperature underneath the sun.  Then you look out the window again.  And the pouty face comes.  Bottom lip out.  Eyes looking longing into the distance and suddenly those windows come a cage.  A cruel, cruel cage from which you can’t escape.  I mean its right there.  And then its frigid where you’re sitting on top of everything else.  So instead of being able to show everyone your new spunky Spring top, your forced to hide it under a sweater if you were smart enough to bring one, or if you’re like me you have to hide it underneath your North Face so that, although you’re trying really to hide the fact that all you want to do is escape and frolic freely in the sunlight, it just gives it away.  Everyone knows and although you try telling everyone, “No, I’m not thinking about leaving.  Its just cold in here.”  Everyone knows.  Everyone knows.  And the cycle begins all over again.  This is what the Dementors Kiss feels like.  If you don’t know what that is…I don’t really have anything to say.  I think that just proves that either you have quite literally been living under a rock in the Trobriand Islands or you’re one of those people who tries to go against trends.  Well that wasn’t a trend.  It was merely another depiction of reality.  I just proved it.  I’m living it.  That’s right.  I am.  Get over it.  But for real though, today has been weird.  Not only has time been moving slower than usual (yes, it has. Just accept it.  Denial is a drug, duh.) but I swear people have been acting more unusual than normal.  I mean I just read an article by the Brookings Institute, a very reputable Think Tank, and the author dated the article for March 12, 2012.  And he published it today.  Yeah.  That’s right.  Don’t believe me?  Heres the link.  http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2012/03_syria_hamid.aspx  The dementors had sucked me so dry that I almost believed it.  Almost.  But you can’t fool this Gryffindor that easily (Yes I am a Gryffindor and yes I have been using a lot of parenthesis.  Sorry, I feel the need to have multiple internal dialogues at the same time.  Its part of the dementors sucking my soul today.)  That’s right.  I figured it out you tricksty trickster.  But you know what, he’s probably a Slytherin so I mean, that’s completely acceptable for them.  Totally something Crabbe or Goyle would do.  You know, like when Crabbe managed to change races from the Second film to the 7th Film.  Just like that.  So now you understand  how I feel.    Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a dementor-less type day! http://pinterest.com/pin/79376012151902231/ http://pinterest.com/pin/144959681725519369/