Reader Submission: Title and Redesign by Conor Houghton who started Failed Better Book Titles.
Beowulf
(Part of Readers’ Redux week. Here is the original Better Book Title for Beowulf.)
Sometimes I think so loud that I fear others can hear my thoughts.
In my Social Change & Social Issues class, my professor assigns us a five minute “free-write” about once a week. What this means is that your hand is constantly moving, and you don’t pick up your pencil until the time is up. You know, like stream of consciousness writing, Kerouac style. Whatever is on your mind, you write it. Here’s one of them.
This is about to get a little out there.
I can’t stress how important it is to listen to your subconscious, you learn something new about yourself every time you do, I swear. I have my theories… I hesitate to call them “beliefs” because that could imply that I have completely made up my mind and that I am no longer open to any other possible ideas. I do believe (and I use that term loosely) that our souls are infinite and eternal. I believe that the universe is infinite and eternal; bound together by infinite relations of cause and effect (i.e. karma). Everything is inter-related. Every matter is connected to every other matter. Every idea is connected to another. But think about this- If everything were to be just an illusion of the mind, what if your soul is the only real thing? Maybe if our own mind is truly the only thing that exists, our friends are just personifications of our thoughts and characteristics. What if everything is projection of your own mind, this is your own reality, with no one else, just your mind and your perspective. You get along with people that are exaggerated parts of your personality. They are parts of you, which is why you imagined them. Maybe that’s a bit of a narcissistic thought, but interesting to think about (especially since you have no way of being wrong. Literally anything is possible). And it’s a little bit depressing… Would that mean that we really are in this world alone? People see you the way they do because that’s how you perceive yourself and so you expect others to see you that way. And they do. Everything in life is based on expectations of your own creation (sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy), consciously made or otherwise. It’s weird to think about. Life… Is it what you make of it, or is it set in stone? Life is far stranger and complicated than anything my mind can comprehend.
Dear You,
There was a moment in time where I was literally the happiest that I had ever been. During this time, I found myself answering the curious gazes of people around me as I grinned, rather largely, to myself (which might as well could have been to the whole world). And I was “just thinking.” Which is completely true. It was when I could spend hours laying in the grass doing absolutely nothing but watching the curvature of the earth transform into gradients of blue and white with clouds that glided so delicately across my vision. I talked about things that made logical sense only to you and my own imagination. The creativity of my thoughts expanded exponentially, inspired by you. I could only show the best of me, because that’s all that there was. A starry eyed, red cheeked face became my most defining characteristic. I looked forward to every moment in my future because I knew I could spend that moment “just thinking.”
Thank you.
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
ALL CAPS, OKAY. I would really like to visit everywhere at least once. The most, though? Probably Scotland. Or India.
