I have been wanting to write about lots of stuff, all the thoughts I have been having. But somehow I cannot allocate any time to write it on my blog for several reasons ranging from its questionable appropriateness to fear of small reader audience. So much energy spent and only a few "loyal" readers (I know I have some) would ever read it. This thought puts me off every time.
Instead of writing what's on my mind and expressing my ideas, I have resorted to absorbing /cramming yet more material, information and literature in my mind through reading books, mostly popular non-fiction. Ideas that they have filled me with make me feel albeit for an instant like an intellectual. All of those ideas are borrowed obviously but now I am starting to see it manifest in real life. Human behaviour is mostly what I have been reading about. But I have learnt about it from different perspectives: from a zoologist Desmond Morris, a behavioural psychologist Paul Ekman, evolutionist and physiologist Jared Diamond and another psychologist Nancy Etcoff among others. Below are some of the books I would recommend you read if you haven't already. Most of them are relatively old, meaning published before this millenium (2000s).
- The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris
- Survival of the Fittest by Nancy Etcoff
- Telling Lies by Paul Ekman
- Why is sex Fun? by Jared Diamond
The books listed above are by no means the masterpieces by respective authors for they have written several other notable good books. Feel free to read other books by these authors. After reading The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris, I set on to watch six volume TV series called The Human Animal presented by Morris and premiered on BBC in 1960s or something. I have only managed to watch four out of six since all are on video cassettes that have to be played in VCR players in the library. And, I am only allowed to watch them inside the library. I don't mind that.
I have learnt quite a bit from these books and some have overlapping descriptions and examples. For instance, Diamond, Morris and Etcoff all use example of a peacock's tail to stress the fact that it is used as a courtship signal since it advertises its ability to maintain such a resource consuming entity. If a peacock can afford to maintain such a bulky and beautiful tail despite of being vulnerable to be preyed upon, then it surely must be special and capable of devoting resources to her partner or off-springs. I will describe more in my other posts how I have started experimenting with the ideas presented in these books in my real life. I have started watching people more now, observing their behavior and trying to understand why they do what they do. A human watcher, you can call me. Desmond Morris employs secret cameras in restaurants and bars to understand human courtship behavior. So, I don't feel bad about it.
Today I was reading the book called "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for..." by Elizabeth Gilbert and is truly entertaining. I don't particularly like fiction, but descriptions in this book is so honest that it almost seems real. I seem to agree with lots of her statements and inadvertently feel like I am the protagonist. It's crazy to realize men and women despite their biological differences share so much in common when it comes to desires and instincts. I thank her for giving such honest descriptions about human feelings. At times, it does get cheesy though when she starts talking about God and adds drama which breaks authenticity and makes it seem like yet another fiction novel.
I haven't finished the book yet since the library did not let me borrow it. It is listed under Continuing Education section and apparently I have to be a member of that to borrow it. Strange. I am also going to watch the movie based on the book today. I wonder how it will be to read rest of the book after watching the movie. Julia Roberts is my favorite actress and so I am confident she will do justice to the role of the protagonist in Elizabeth's book. This book is written in a style that appears a work of fiction but is also an awful lot like autobiography of the author. It reminds me of Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. You should read it, if you haven't. It's wonderful and has an open ending.
The ideas expressed in this post will be followed up later in other future posts.
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