But I think you’re really on target when you talk about “adulthood” producing a jaded outlook. If you become somebody who has forgotten how to experience real joy without need to justify that joy with analysis, you’re in a pretty sad state. Reading, as you say, helps with that. It reconnects you with the more imaginative part of your brain. And science fiction and fantasy make you stretch your mind even further!

To bring all that pie-in-the sky babbling I did in the last comment down to a more concrete level, I believe being open to experience the “sense of wonder” that seems to be a natural part of childhood makes me a better reader because I am not just looking at the structure of text, the basic skill of the author, etc. but am open to pulling out what I think the author was trying to infuse into the story.

I think being this kind of reader makes me want to be a better writer (not of fiction, which I have not attempted) but with the writing I do for work and the way I try to frame what I say and how I say it to my employees and my bosses.

I think having a desire to experience childlike joy allows me to have a more optimistic viewpoint even on the worst days and makes me a person who has fun in life while maintaining a level of maturity needed to be a functional citizen.

I’m curious as to your deeper thoughts on this Zachary.

At least a portion of our childhood is one in which we are not jaded. We can find simple joy in an unexpected snow day or a few moments of undivided attention from an adult we admire. We can walk out of a movie that and adult may see flaws in and be giddy beyond belief at how cool we thought it all was. We can read a book and become so immersed in the magic of the setting and the characters and so forth that we cannot stop thinking about it for days and we cannot help going right back to that same story to spend more time with those characters. We find comfort in embracing a favorite teddy bear…I truly could go on and on and on with this.

I think I am a better “me” because I am still open to these experiences and also remain very cognizant of special experiences like this I had a as child. I enjoy what I read and watch more because I feel I am open to the “magic” that story contains, even when sometimes the story has small, or BIG, flaws that should not be ignored.

I don’t think all adults do this, though I think the majority of avid readers do. I think being able to access those simple joys have a positive psychological effect, help reduce stress and simply help us to enjoy life even more than we would if everything has to have some serious/profound meaning.

Not sure if that answers any of your question or just muddies the waters.

Sorry if this question kind of mirrors the one I put to Carl, but I’m trying to work out something here and I’d like your help: How, Abhinav, does being creative in that way make your life better — and does that creative influence make you a better person to others?

Now, I have my own answer to this, but I wonder why you think maintaining that kind of joy makes you a better person. Do you mind answering that? I’m really curious.

And then I discovered Tolkien and Asimov and Feist and Clarke and Herbert and a host of other authors. That’s when I got into Warhammer as well, and a real obsession with reading started.

Thing is, personally, it’s not just the reading that gives me a sense of satisfaction and that escapist entertainment. It’s the underlying understanding and broadening of horizons that comes with it. Reading Asimov and Clarke got me really fascinated with spaceships and galactic empires. I’ve dabbled with writing some space opera to that effect and am in the middle of a project that takes norse mythology and puts it into an interstellar empire thousands of years from now. My fascination with greek mythology began with the city-building game Zeus: Master of Olympus and with the RTS Age of Mythology. I took those experiences on board and got so… down into them that I was briefly a classics minor at college as well, with a focus on ancient mythology and the ancient greek language. Another of my current projects is an urban fantasy that takes Indian mythology and tells a classic story of redemption and revenge against (the Indian variety of) demons and vampires.

SFF in general has had a great influence on me, and I’m proud of that fact. Any claim I have to being a creative person, is due to all these influences and experiences growing up, of getting lost in these fantastic worlds alongside these fantastic characters. I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

I started reading science fiction at a young age and I believe it had a huge impact on my life in large part by stimulating my imagination and creating a kind of bond with that imagination that I’ve carried into adulthood. I have long held the belief that it is important to maintain some childlike joy in life and I know that stems from my long-held bond to those science fiction stories I read as a child.

Science fiction also impacted me by helping me to develop a passion for SFF cover illustration and that kind of art in general. I don’t consider myself to have any great knowledge on why various art impacts me but I derive a great deal of inspiration from those creative people and have enjoyed studying about the lives and work of illustrators now passed and also enjoy looking at and discussing and promoting artists working today.

I thank science fiction for all of that.