Swords amirite ⚔️
I watched this video today from Tale Foundry, about Stories That Don't Want to be Told.
It's about "ergodic literature" which is apparently literature that takes extra work beyond just reading the text to understand fully.
The video points out stories like "House of Leaves".
I've read "House of Leaves". I did not find it disturbing or disorienting. Everything about the book and it's matryoshka doll of unreliable narrators is internally consistent. Everything makes perfect sense if you take the book at its word, if you understand its rules.
It made me think about an unsung advantage of being neurodivergent. I've spent my whole life learning the rules that govern things I cannot natively understand.
I couldn't survive in normal neurotypical society without that skill. I have to live in a world that makes no sense to me.
I actually found "House of Leaves" kind of boring if I'm being honest.
In the end, the words on the page are only half of the story. That's always the way it is when you read something.
You read what's on the page and your mind fills in the blanks.
Apparently some people can't fill in the blanks using the rules laid out in the story itself or navigate conflicting rules and contradictions. The get cognitive dissonance and feel confused. They don't understand what's being asked of them. They get defensive, maybe angry.
Welcome to how it has always been for me and people like me.
#AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #HouseOfLeaves #ErgodicLiterature #Reading #TaleFoundry