Can books and/or story reading and writing cause you to go o
n a knight’s errand? Not to say that in the present day one might head out on a
horse seeking the honor and adventures of a classical knight, but can the love
of books, both reading and writing them, actually dominate someone’s life to
the point that it replaces reality. Well I think to some degree it can.
In Miguel
Cervantes’ book “Don Quixote of La Mancha”, Quixote is so attached to the
stories that he reads, it causes him to seek these adventures in his real life.
I myself may not be taping together a helmet to match my grandfather’s armor,
but there are plenty of times that reality is set aside as I am more focused on
a story that are being played out in my head. There are times that I am so into
a book that I am currently reading. In my head I am thinking about the last
chapter where I was forced to put it down. Other times I may be thinking about
the next chapter of my own novel and am not focused on what is happening right
in front of me. Is this a typical symptom of regular reading and writing of
stories? I am calling this “The Don Quixote Effect”, of a great literary works.
I strive to have my own writing cast this spell over others.
