simplicity

I had a dream last night that I actually remember pretty clearly, which is rare.

I think it was about truth.

Dreams are all cloudy and colors, right?  This one was swirling with black ribbons of cloud, and I was in the middle of a conversation.  In the conversation, a person asked me about another person and said, "Why do you like them?"  Now, when I answered the question, I didn't even know who they were talking about, but I answered.  I said something close to, "Because they are simple and easy to understand."  After I answered the question, I realized that the questioner and I had been talking about a modern singer who is direct and to the point.

It was kind of cool to realize I had carried on a conscious conversation about a person who I didn't even know I was talking about.

Anyway, I will explain why the principle of simplicity seems so cosmically important to me right now.

I recently read the introduction to Ender's Game, both the book and the introduction were written by Orson Scott Card.  He talked about how the novel he attempted to write (and actually succeeded in doing) was one that was totally direct and not ambiguous at all.  He wrote straight in the prose of truth and pure story.  He totally has the power and ability to use all the fun English-language-tricks of ambiguity and layers to make texts nearly incomprehensible to people not trained in those tricks- Card graduated with a masters in literature.  He simply chose to not write in a way that was inaccessible to everyone.  However, he wrote a story that is applicable to many, many people in tons of different ways and a story that you can't walk away from without thinking, "There is a lot of truth in that book."  It has inspired a lot of people, including me, to be a better person and more than anything else, to want to fight to be more capable and more intelligent.  This comes from a story that I first read when I was in elementary school!!  This is not, I repeat, not a hard book to read.  It is straightforward and simple.  However, I still read it today and glean new ideas and truths from this masterful book.

And then, there is this guy- James Joyce- whom I have to read for my English class.  This guy is a genius.  He is from Ireland and just literally absorbed the entire culture of humanity- he learned tons of languages and learned tons of philosophy and myths and religions.  We are talking about a guy who, when he exhales, has knowledge dripping from the air molecules where the oxygen used to be.  I think standing in his same vicinity would make you more intelligent from breathing his air.  Okay.  Now, let me show you an excerpt from his last novel.  This novel is a sprawling 600+ page-mammoth, and it comprises a single night of one man's dream.  This man has about five characters, and they are representative of almost every hero, every ordinary man, every mythological creature, every Adam and Eve, every philosophy, every language, and a hodgepodge of every dream-sense you could ever have.  Here is the excerpt-

"Orkman ribpop easily cross arrows. Flaunting wissam on narrow shoulders opens me. opens me. Pilly saw Roman do the tiger on ruskpappy for Flynn. Squiggles on canvas slapped brightly on Easter fippoon aiktart. Common man sees field sorry fart on apple."

Ha.  Try to read that for six hundred pages.

I don't care how many layers there are here.  I don't care how much breadth and depth this prose covers.  I don't care that the key to every lock to every door of happiness is in this text.  I absolutely can't read it.  Is this accessible?  No.  It's not.  Does this help anyone?  Yeah, like the 50 "scholars" who devote their entire life to the interpretation and study of the leaps this guy's mind makes across every word and every sentence to every allusion to every piece of literature in all of history throughout the text.

So, do I hate layers?  Do I hate ambiguity?  No.  I think they have their place, but I think that place is nearly the same place as a puzzle.  Understanding texts like that gives a feeling that is equivalent to putting a puzzle all together.  It's fun.  Sometimes it's enlightening.

Otherwise, it's stupid.  And that's why I hate school.