As I’m sure is true for all of us, pandemic life gets to me every once in a while. I’ve gone down the darkly beckoning rabbit holes of despair plenty, and each time I wonder what else I could be doing with my time.
I’ve often heard it said that in times like this, it’s good to try a new hobby or skill. People I know are trying it and thriving.
I’ve decided to start pursuing a full-bore self-directed study of the works, history, and subgenres of science fiction. I don’t mean binge-watching all the Star Wars movies; I mean from a literary and academic standpoint.
Since July, I’ve been laying the groundwork for this; researching resources, assessing my motivation, and gauging the “how”. Not only are we living in the age of COVID-19, the Trumpster fire, 60s-style protests, double-barrel hurricanes, and murder hornets, we’re also living in an astonishingly well-stocked world of free learning. Syllabi, video lectures, classes, books, scholarly research; it’s ALL out there. I’m pretty sure I could come close to degree-level knowledge without spending much more than what one might possibly spend on the occasional visit to Barnes & Noble (if you’re new here, that was a chain of coffee/gift shops that also sold some books).
I’m a little leery of the nerdiness-factor of this pursuit, but you know what? Fuck it. I’m already a huge nerd and a 49-year-old grownass man that still gets a little excited about the pew-pew-pew while being able to geek out over the difference between an anti-utopia and a uchronia while having a huge mancrush on H.G. Wells and the size of his enormous intellect and if you don’t like it you can eat your own wormhole.
So yeah. This is happening.
(Originally posted 9/2/2020 via Facebook.)
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