Noted douchebag Aristotle proposed that we tell and imbibe art in order to experience a full range of emotion. I’m thinking about the reasons we doomscroll — to fulfill an evolutionary baseline for panic, to affirm our station over others, a search for answers, gambling for hope. Psychologist Jane Wu calls it “practicing having GAD” which I think is hilarious. You think you’d want to be worse at that.
Everyone’s wired differently. Personally, I get diverted and strangled much more easily by fun than by terror. And why not? Fun is up there with love and relief for the best feelings out there. Art that evokes fun isn’t often confronting, and it can flub your bus schedule. But I’m glad that, if there was ever a golden age of fun, we’re living in it.
Ten things I’ve had a lot of fun with lately:
- The Spy x Family tennis arc
- Marvel Snap (endlessly and bewilderingly)
- Marvel Legendary (I swear I’m not a Marvel stan, but it’s a great game)
- Playtesting D&D homebrew, which involves a lot of chucking dice
- Prepping a characer for a new D&D campaign
- Barotrauma (multiplayer submarine survival horror)
- Singing the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack end to end
- Cooking — spam musubi, french toast sticks, sloppy joes
- Watching jan Misali’s video on the five types of paradox
- Making voices for my cat with my girlfriend