why are brains so ridiculous?

[ratcreature]

Mine currently responds to even slightly suspenseful moments in fiction, even ones that I know will be okay, like in romance, with a strong urge to abort and avoid in favor of weird displacement activities, like playing a some game or making a cup of tea or scrolling through Tumblr.

I already read soothing, fluffy things, what more does it want? These phases are very annoying, and disruptive for immersive reading.

Comments

[marcelo]

Ugh. Sometimes empathy goes beyond the call of duty and becomes harmful. (Insert Will Graham joke here.)

[ratcreature]

Yeah. Now that you mention empathy, it feels sort of adjacent to my embarrassment squick in being uncomfortable, only gone haywire. Sort of like the autoimmune disorder version of a squick that reacts to a whole narrative structure basis instead of being focused on something concrete you can avoid.

[sholio]

Yeah; while I don't have that problem exactly, I've noticed a shift in my own reading preferences lately, to wanting to be spoiled for whether the outcome of a story is going to be happy or not. I used to prefer being surprised and basically be okay with ambiguous/bittersweet endings (as long as it wasn't too horribly bleak) but oh man, now I just want everything to work out for everybody, and I get terribly anxious if I'm not sure.

[marcelo]

*nods* That's the problem with brains, they can be very bright at being very stupid.

[ratcreature]

*nods*

I can deal with wanting happy endings, but this balking at any bit of tension is getting a bit ridiculous. I can only read so much domestic curtainfic with no conflict whatsoever. Thankfully it seems to be intermittent rather than some trajectory, so I hope my brain gets over itself sooner rather than later.

[sillimarilli]

Too funny. When I saw your post I was going to ask you if you had an embarrassment squick, too.

Yep, right there with you. I still have? *checks browser tabs* Yep, still have a tab open to the Outlaw King on Netflix. As much as the story is my jam, just couldn't keep watching as the plot was ramping up. I had to go google the story and find out the ending, and I still haven't gone back to it. It fluctuates with my stress levels and how much gross, evil stuff is happening in world out there.

I've had an embarrassment squick since I was a young child. All that humor based on people making fools of themselves - can't do it.

Can you take shows in which people are just flat out mean to each other all the time, like Seinfeld? or Larry David?

I end up taking refuge in shows in which, yes there's conflict, but people care about each other: Leverage, Good Place, Elementary

[ratcreature]

I have never watched Seinfeld and never even heard of Larry David. I'm not much into comedy in general. My TV watching has declined over recent years but reading used to be less of an issue. What is most annoying that it is hard to predict what exactly will set it off.

[armadillo1976]

I thought it was just me, so in that sense I'm glad you are experiencing this, because it makes me feel not-alone. But also I hope this passes soon, both in you and in me, because yeah, this gets ridiculous. I now have to read episode guides and what not for every silly thing I watch. My husband, who watches with me, finds it incredible - we literally have to stop mid-scene for me to google what happens next. And we're not talking wild suspense here, no no. Somebody _might_ say something slightly unpleasant in the movie/series, this is what suffices to trigger it. Aaaanyway. Hope you get better soon in this regard and me too, because the amount of fiction and TV this eliminates is too much to accept.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, fingers crossed. For me is waxes and wanes a bit, so currently it's not quite as pronounced as in December but I still find myself balking while reading or watching. At least so far it hasn't gotten so bad that I'd avoid movies in cinema and there you just have to stick it out, so that helps. But I don't go that often, so that's just a tiny portion of my entertainment.