Choose Your Own Reality

----"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."- C. S. Lewis

----I believe that in this quote, Mr. Lewis is explaining how quite often literature becomes our reality, rather than a block of recycled tree fiber. Like I said before, reality is what you make it. You can choose what is real. And if you decide that a particular book is real, why then, it feels just as real as George Washington- constantly referenced but never actually seen, met, or lived. The world is a lot more pleasant if it's colorful and enriched.

----To put this in a more concrete perspective, the book 1984, by George Orwell, being literature, can add a whole other layer to your world, like discovering your eyes can do heat-sensing views. Every time I gripe about looking up words in the dictionary, that's starting the Newspeak. Each day I argue for stronger government involvement in our everyday lives, that's screwing the telescreen into my living room wall. Whenever I'm too lazy to pay attention to current events, that's allowing the Party to spoonfeed me glaring lies. How C. S. Lewis said literature "irrigates the deserts of our lives," that's true, because this book shows us what could happen, is happening, and preventing isn't enough, we have to actively fight this.

----Don't be a 1984 zombie. Fight it. Keep your emotions alive and strong. Remember what it felt like to be small and learn for the first time what was on the news and in the back of the paper. Read poetry, feel each image melting on your tongue and recall how exactly it felt to be in love for the first time. Remember what it is like to be human.