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Two more book clubs today. Lovely to see Sara Pascoe and to talk about her excellent first novel
Weirdo. It will make you feel less bad about your own mad thoughts and paranoia, as well as making you aware that everyone is really in the same boat, at least some of the time. The book makes me glad that I am no longer in my 20s or 30s, with the slightly increased self-confidence and understanding that (sometimes) comes with being older. And that's quite a feat as otherwise I spend all my time wishing I was in my 20s or 30s.
She is a very clever person, but like most clever people (ie me) capable of overthinking and we had fun talking about the paranoid fantasies we have had in our lives and the more fantastical theories of the admittedly definitely bizarre and weird thing that is life. Like her main character I used to wonder if Australia was real or if the whole place might be faked with actors and video screens. Having thought her life was a reality show, when The Truman Show came out she thought that they'd created it to help keep up the pretence and make her think this was the kind of thing that everyone thought.
The arrogance at the heart of both these delusions is incredible. That there would be so much expense put in to keep these things going, just to fool you.
I still think I am probably in a reality show though. That's the only explanation as to why my career is foiled at every turn. Failure makes for much better telly.
You can see how people end up falling down wormholes. Do we have no free will? Are we in a simulation? It sort of doesn't matter. If we don't or if we are, then we still have to live our lives. Even if the part of us that we think of ourselves doesn't actually make any of our choices (and just justifies them once they're made) then some part of us is still doing it. If we're in a simulation it isn't actually any different than not being in one. To us it seems real. And our lives are just what we perceive to be true. It's unlikely anything is what we think it is, but we have to get on living within the parameters that we have.
Such thoughts have sent greater minds than mine spiralling into madness or to adopt unlikely or nasty beliefs. I hope not to join them, but who knows which of us is right or wrong? The truth about all arguments and disputes and beliefs is that in most cases it's probably more likely that we're all wrong. Our inability to consider that and to double down is probably the main problem. This podcast will be out in April when the paperback comes out.
Later I would take to the Fake History Hunter Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse. I thought I had the pronunciation of her name down, having listened to another interview she did, but it turned out that that interviewer had just taken a wild guess at it and was very very wrong. To be fair even when Jo told me the correct pronunciation I don't think I got too close. It's strange that a Dutch name (that nation so close to us in geography and background) could be harder to process than those from further afield.
Again our talk was of what was true and what was not and whether that is ever possible in history. Her book
Fake History is a lot of fun, mainly silly or amusing instances of mistaken beliefs on the internet, but occasionally somewhat darker falsehoods. The book and Jo's life is just about seeking out facts and questioning things, rather than blindly believing. But most people don't like to be proven wrong - even though we probably are all wrong - so they're not inclined to listen.
My own International Women's Day experience taught me that it can be frustrating trying to expel a misunderstanding or false perspective and despite a decade of answering that question, it still popped up a lot on 8th March (though maybe less than before and possibly with more people pointing out the truth). Jo seems philosophical about whether she can dispel the myths and in a few cases I think the information is getting through. More people are aware now that Vikings didn't have horns on their helmets or that spiral staircases were not in fact built anti-clockwise to give the people higher up the stairs a fighting advantage - but it will be hard to get everyone to realise that.
It was a full on day and I chucked in a session with my weights too and it was another tired and hungry evening, having had my dinner at 5.30pm and then no snacks. Unsurprisingly I am rapidly losing the weight that I put on at the weekend (and before) and oddly I don't feel hungry when I wake up, just when I go to bed. Aside from that one bit or weirdness I am sleeping better too. I will push on and maybe my body will accept that it doesn't get evening snacks any more. We shall see.
A really cracking RHLSTP with Steve Pemberton is now up wherever you get your pods. Weird to see myself looking chubby and with crazy long hair. It's not from that long ago (recorded in early October) but it seems like a different person.
