Tags: books, Open Uni, sensory overload, film
Date: 30 September 2009 21:15:37
... is making Jack a very dull girl indeed. But, I have finally made a start on contacting my OU tutor group this evening (the course starts this weekend, so I need to practice what I'm preaching to them and get myself into some sort of routine to make the time for it) so that is quite a weight off my mind anyway. My next task is to figure out how to claim my expenses :D
In other news (and what I really wanted to write about) Chas's post here from earlier today has got me really thinking. I used to be a voracious reader, but now can only manage small chunks of a chapter or two at a time, and I find I'm the same with films and TV too. Over the weekend we stayed with HD's parents, and watched the TV with them (we never watch it here, there's never anything much on so we don't bother and play on the internet instead). They were watching a programme called "Doc Martin", which is a gentle slow-paced drama set in a Cornish seaside village. It was all very pleasant and not at all demanding. But when I went to bed (I'm not sleeping brilliantly at the moment, and am having lots of vivid dreams which keep waking me up - not horrible dreams but just really very vivid indeed) I kept waking up, and when I did images from the "Doc Martin" episode we'd just seen were going through my head and were really quite relentless and not relaxing at all. No wonder I don't watch TV or films much - I've noticed this happen quite a lot over the last few years. A couple of years ago when I was in Moldova the woman I was staying with was watching an American TV movie and I happened to be there too so started watching with her. I couldn't get beyond the first 10 minutes before it stressed me out too much and I had to go to my room, but I still sometimes think about those 10 minutes and can see exactly what happened (it was quite traumatic, not like "Doc Martin"!) all this time later really vividly. I think as I've got older I've become much more sensitive (sensitised?) to sensory overload. And when I'm reading novels (to take us back to Chas's post) I see the action in my mind so vividly too that I have to really psych myself up to start reading. No wonder I haven't finished a book group book in months! Though the next one is one I really really want to read, by one of my favourite authors, so hopefully I will get over it. I'd like to read something some time other than academic books (which don't have the same effect; they might bore me or even excite and grip me, but they never overload my imagination or senses!) and reclaim my enjoyment.