Reading Deprivation

Sounds a bit weird, huh? I thought so when I read the title. But it's an interesting concept.

As I said the other day, I'm re-visiting The Artist's Way. We were introduced to it in our first year of drama school but the brilliant Glenda Linscott, yet I have never managed to successfully complete it. Basically it's a 12 week program for reclaiming creativity - your "artist". It's quite demanding though - to get the most out of it you have to dig quite deep and some emotions and experiences from the past do get dragged up, no matter how much to try to suppress them. Last time I did it I got stuck on Week 8. This time I'm determined to get all the way through even if it kills me.

Which it won't, obviously. It will make me stronger and a better creative being, I just have to have faith that I can do it. Surrounding myself with a little pool of like-minded beings is definitely helping.

So anyway, I'm in Week 4. And one of the tasks for this week is Reading Deprivation.

Let me explain. Or even better, let me copy a brief piece from the relevant chapter:

"If you feel stuck in your life or in your art, few jump starts are more effective than a week of reading deprivation. No reading? That's right: no reading. For most artists, words are like tiny tranquillizers. We have a daily quota of media chat that we wallow up. Like greasy food, it clogs our stem. Too much of it and we feel, yes, fried.

It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the well, Without distractions, we are once again thrust into the sensory world With no newspaper to shield us, a train becomes a viewing gallery. With no novel to sink into (and no television to numb us out) an evening becomes a vast savannah in which furniture - and other assumptions - gets rearranged.

Reading deprivation is a very powerful tool - and a very frightening one. Even thinking about it can bring up enormous rage. For most blocked creatives, reading is an addiction. We gobble the words of others rather than digest our on thoughts and feelings, rather than cook up something of our own."

It was that last paragraph which hit the nail on the head for me. I am a voracious reader. I always have been. As a kid my dad used to take me to the public library twice a week and each time I would come away with at least six books. By the time I was 8 I'd read through the entire children's section. Twice. I was like an addict. I couldn't NOT read. Trying to get me to do anything else was useless. I preferred reading to running around outside, playing sports, playing with other kids, eating, sleeping... in short, pretty much everything. I was reading at university level by the time I was 11.

I think escapism was a big thing for me. I didn't much care for my real life so I used to get caught up in the fantasy world of books, where I could be whoever the character was on the page. The character who always triumphed over adversity. Who was pretty, popular, smart, sporty, funny... all the things I didn't believe I was. In retrospect, should my parents have forced me to live a more well-rounded life? Maybe. But they hadn't ever dealt with someone like me before, just as their parents had never had to deal with someone like them... they did the best they could with what they knew. But I think a kick up the butt every now and again might have been a good thing for me. If they'd known about reading deprivation I like to think they might have tried it on me for a week or so. It would have been interesting at least!

In recent years I've learned the art of balance. I still have at least two books on the go at once, but I don't let it rule my life like it did when I was a kid. And I've learned that while it's great to get caught up in the fantasy for a while, you can't forget the real world and your part in it.

Having said that, this week of reading deprivation is going to be tough. Even things like facebook and email (not to mention my daily fix of Daily Mail gossip!) are classified as "reading". So I'm trying to limit all of them. I'm allowing myself to log in twice a day (morning and evening) for a maximum of 15 mins. What I can't read in that time has to wait. Blogging doesn't count, because I'm not reading blogs, I'm writing them. Writing is allowed. Encouraged even!

So what else am I doing with my time?

Well... ummmm....

Crotcheting. Of course. We still have at least 40 to go. That's about 5 a week each. Totally do-able.

Exercising. I am pretty rubbish at exercising. I hate gyms. I hate running. I think lap swimming is a pain in the arse (just the getting there, getting changed, etc). However I like to bike ride and I like to dance. So I am going for a nice long ride on Saturday with a friend and have instituted Dance Party Thursdays and Mondays. You heard me. Dance Party Thursdays and Mondays. These are the two days I don't have to be anywhere particularly early, so can crank up the music and dance my ass off.

The rules are simple:

1. The iPod must be on shuffle. No pre-choosing a soundtrack. Whatever comes on is what must be danced to. Unless of course it's a slow number. They can be skipped, but you must keep moving while flicking through.

2. Dancing must be high energy. It doesn't have to be graceful or coordinated or even in time, but it must be full of fun and joy and energy.

3. No stopping. For the full hour. Even when flicking through the songs, the body must be in motion.

It's heaps of fun.

Oh and I've bought a cello. I've always wanted to play but when they were assigning instruments at high school, the cello quota was full, therefore I was lumbered with the viola. The poor man's violin. I was rather ticked off at the time but too shy to speak up and say "Actually, fuck you. I want to play cello, I am going to hold out for the cello.", so I'm doing it now, some 20-odd years later. I just happened to search for them on eBay a couple of weeks ago and there was one going for $140. Brand new. Utter bargain. It's certainly not the world's best cello, but it's decent enough for me to learn the basics. If I turn out to be the next Yo Yo Ma or Jacqueline du Pre, I can always upgrade. So now I'm waiting for The Book Depository to deliver a couple of "how-to" books and then I'll be onto it.

Reading?

I might find I'm too busy for that come the end of the week!

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