I can't watch scary movies because I have a hard time separating fact from fiction. Intellectually I know that what I read and what I see on screens are stories created by people who sat at a desk and hammered out the dialogue and rising action and denoument.
Even knowing that, my mind latches onto stories and doesn't let go.
At work today, I was mindlessly tearing apart stickers to use as prizes this summer. Suddenly I thought, "Flora is riding a freaking bear! They're swimming across an ocean, and man, I wonder what will happen to them when they get to the pirate island. She's on a bear! That must be terrifying."
Then I thought about how weird it was that I was imagining a fictional character in the midst of her fictional adventure, and worrying about her. Rather than curing me of this misplaced emotion, it caused me to think, "Loki and Thor are back in Asgard! I wonder what's going on there. Is Loki is a prison? Does Thor visit him every day and speak heavy-handed words of brotherhood and love? Is Odin picking up any slack as loser-father of the year? Will Loki realize that people do love him and that it doesn't matter that he's a frost giant? Ooo, and what if he escapes! This could all be happening right now in another world, and I wouldn't even know because it's another world!"
Also, because it isn't real, but whatever.
I have this problem all the time, but it was especially bad after I saw The Matrix. I was so intrigued by the idea that everything I sensed and lived was just a computer construct. I mean, for like a year, I would think, "This isn't even real. My homework? I don't need it. If I could break out of this, I could stick a needle in my head and just know algebra."
My imagination is a little overactive. If I'm going to obsess over stories, then they'd better be good ones. No horror or gore for me. I'm already paranoid enough.
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