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Three of The Yorker's blogs team have had a hard think about what general rules they live their lives by and written them down in the form of their own Personal Philosophies.
But then, it struck me that as a literature student I had become my own worse nightmare. I fully condoned the overanalytical process I had sworn to hatred as I agonised over the wording of a TS Eliot poem, discussed Woolf's use of syntax or picked up upon phallic symbols. To make matters worse, I belong to the unfortunate 52% of the population with 2X chromosomes, whom, by virtue of either nature or through social constructs and conventional gender roles attach (undue?) significance and meaning to every look, word, touch.
Thus I find myself not only dwelling upon meaning in literature but in all things written or spoken. Is this a religious allusion? What does he mean by "I'll prob c u in the library"? In fact why does he answer by text and not facebook? Why 'x' and not 'xx'? Why oh Why? Overanalysis, it seems, has become my default mode, a means to counterbalance idealistic, hopeless romanticism.
And so I find myself not only dwelling upon meaning in literature but in all things written or spoken.
I overintellectualise things to censor my otherwise unrealistic expectations. In many ways, not much has changed since Austen's struggle between sense and sensibility.
I would not surrender my principles or overactive imagination for the world, however. Granted, the Hollywood scenarios played out in my head have little to do with reality and perpetual analyses make me sometime fear for my sanity. But the scenarios, on another level, pale in comparison to what the "real" world has afforded me. Nothing quite compares with a chilled night out at Evil Eye sipping a Victorian Mojito with your girlfriends endlessly discussing the minutiae of last night's events.
In fact it occurred to me that this is how we propel ourselves forward, just as one day leads to the next, one question lead to the next. Whether you hold onto an overarching system of belief or morality to explain the meaning of life itself, to answer the "Big Questions", the quest for meaning in our everyday life, the "Little Questions", are just as important.
They, and they only, shape our experience and ultimately light the paths of self-knowledge and self-discovery.
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