Secret Thoughts

I have always enjoyed reading but my choice of books has changed over the years.  During my student days, followed by my early career in engineering, which then led me into project and business management, my choice of reading material was technical and factual - no science fiction for me!  Later I developed an interest in philosophy - is that real or unreal?  Well the existence of philosophical theories is real, whether the theories bear any relationship to reality is what the philosophical debate is all about.  If there's one common thread through the majority of my past reading habits, it is that it has been hard work.  Engineering text books, business management and philosophical thinking, are all brain-pounding stuff, leaving little or no scope for allowing the thought processes to drift into oblivion.  It's a bit like writing this blog post! 😊

In more recent times, I have taken an interest in reading fiction.  At first it was difficult for me because I have a natural aversion to things that aren't real.  When Harry Potter became all the rage, I read one of the books just to see what all the fuss was about and I had to force myself to finish the story.  It bored the pants off me and I quickly gravitated back to non-fiction.  My recent reading matter has mainly been crime fiction, particularly books by John Grisham and Michael Connelly, which whilst being works of fiction, have plausibility, unlike Harry Potter.  Although I am not addicted to reading and probably can't justify owning a Kindle yet, I do find burying myself in a fictional story is particularly relaxing.  It takes your thoughts away from the here-and-now and can provide an experience that is probably akin to meditation.

To say that non-fictional books are factual is, in my opinion, a misnomer.  I have written two 'factual' books - 'The Oxymoron of Managerial Wisdom' and 'Food for Thought'.  The first, as the title suggests, attempts to destroy any suggestion that management is an exact science.  The second, is a collection of articles on various 'real' issues.  But both pieces are riddled with my own thoughts and opinions and, therefore, are open to questions and comments, which I welcome.  Fiction, on the other hand, is open to review but the stories cannot be questioned, simply because they are stories, not opinions related to facts.  I suppose that is why reading a fictional story is far more relaxing than reading opinions.  The reader's mind drifts into the story rather than continually questioning the validity of the content.

An aspect of an invented story that can be very powerful, is the author's prerogative to describe the thoughts of the fictional characters.  Now in real life, I don't know what you're thinking and you don't know what I'm thinking.  If I ask you what you're thinking, you may or may not tell me the truth, and vice versa.  But in the invented story, the author can describe a fictional character's thoughts and no one can dispute it........because it's fictional!  This, in my view, is another reason why reading a fictional story can be so relaxing, we don't question the thoughts of the characters.

Returning to real life, we spend most (or perhaps all)  of our time thinking and much less time communicating.  Of course, whilst we are communicating we are also thinking.  Part of the art of communicating is making assumptions on what the other party is thinking.  So when, for example, President Obama recently said Syria's use of chemical weapons was unacceptable and the USA would take military action against them, did he really THINK that was the correct response or was he just saying it for effect?  We will never know.  Only President Obama knows.  So our thoughts are truly secret.  I ask myself the question, if we knew what others were thinking, would the world be a better place?  Wow, I think that question should be regarded as rhetorical.  A response to it could never be tested, except, of course, in an invented story.  So maybe that's a theme for a book set in a world where one's private thinking ceases to be secret.  I'm not sure if such a book would be relaxing or brain-pounding.  Whatever, if it exists or ever comes to fruition, happy reading 😊