Isn't it awkward when you walk out of a shop, or any kind of building, and somebody is walking in the direction you want to go, at the same speed, but you only clock them when it's too late and you are alongside them, total strangers walking together like a married couple? Common sense would tell you to slow down, but you don't, you speed up, what right has this person to walk ahead of you? The other person also picks up his pace too and, before long, you are stuck in a strange, married couple, power walking race.
I think too much.
Now, when I say "I think too much", I don't mean I dwell on such awkward situations, or lose sleep thinking about insults that have been thrown my way or how I could have handled myself better in an argument. I don't really care about people's opinions of me, I handle awkwardness pretty well, and, Jen will back me up, I have absolutely no trouble sleeping. I have also never said a sentence like "what do you think she meant when she said it's not me, it's her?" or "do you think he hates me?".
No, when I say "I think too much" I mean that, as I am getting older, simple things are starting to confuse me more, and it's driving me mad!
Let me explain (or try to). Media is becoming too clever. Remember back in the day, nobody knew why the blue hedgehog wanted to run dead fast and collect rings, but it didn't matter, and we enjoyed Sonic's mad adventures regardless. Today, a single video game can have about 60 different storylines, they encourage you to take detours, use your initiative and look for secrets.
Films are the same, remember when you first saw The Matrix, or Donnie Darko, and you left the film with thousands of questions, massive discussions were had about the plots, subplots and plot-holes. More recently, films like Inception and Cabin in the Woods force you to read between the lines just to figure out what in the blue hell is going on.
This really is brilliant, as media has become more advanced, it is making its audience think more, therefore we're becoming cleverer, and as people get smarter, our entertainment will continue to get better. Fantastic, right?
No, it is becoming a problem for me. I like to think I have always been quite clever, even when I was mindlessly guiding the blue hedgehog towards his goal.
Now, when 28 year old me is playing a game, I search the entire place where I am, top to bottom, front to back, left to right, throughly, before moving on, just in case I miss something, or do something wrong.
Films and books are the same, I find myself filling in plot-holes and trying to predict twists before the story has even begun, and this is not as rewarding as it sounds.
I recently watched a great film called Hobo With A Shotgun... The title says exactly what it is, it's about a homeless man who goes to a city that is completely corrupt, befriends a hooker, buys a shot-gun and inserts his own brand of justice to the city, blasting the shit out of everything. A really simple idea, not much thought required and a whole load of fun. I, however, found myself trying to find hidden meanings, analysing everything that was said and reading between the lines. This film didn't require that, everything was to be taken at face value and I just couldn't, so I found the film rather confusing.
It's now happening with everything, I can read a lovely little article on discovery news or howstuffworks.com, and I end up reading each line 4 or 5 times. It becomes a tangle of over analysis in my head and I just get confused. It's even beginning to happen with text messages and blogs.
Is this normal? I think I need to just keep things simple inside my brain, see things for their face value, stop reading between the lines and just enjoy that which is meant to be enjoyed as the artist intended.
...either that or play Sonic The Hedgehog more.
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