What do you do to escape reality?

[The Deadman]

Watch sports, horror movies, wrestling and play video games.

Not in that order.

[sdp]

[Jephael]

I like to daydream and go on a nice pleasant bike ride around town.

[MrPliggins]

Come to this forum and the CGC boards. The occasional date night with my wife. One or two hours of tv a week. Otherwise I'm in reality 24/7.

[newfan]

Be useful to take some time escaping at the moment....

Anyway, always been a daydreamer for one... also the usual stuff, internet, movies etc.

I remember someone saying to me 'so you are an escapist then?' some years back when I was talking about liking Star Wars.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by newfan

Be useful to take some time escaping at the moment....

Anyway, always been a daydreamer for one... also the usual stuff, internet, movies etc.

I remember someone saying to me 'so you are an escapist then?' some years back when I was talking about liking Star Wars.

Now and again you'll run into that guy who bolsters his "cemented manhood" or whatever by trash talking science-fiction in general and pimping the merits of "baseball" or something like that instead. He'll say "well.... I mean.... why do you watch that stuff? It isn't even real"; and that's the height of the guys worldview right there. The best he can come up with.

And when, now-and-again, faced with that guy, I simply say with a semi-neutral (not rude but not inviting) tonality: "I watch it because I do things in reality all the time - I play baseball instead of watching it - you know? I do things in reality. Science fiction gets me out of reality for a bit."

And that's usually the end of the conversation with the armchair quarterback who wants you to watch baseball but can't swing a bat himself yet $#!(s on "escapism".

[Powder]

A good salad does the trick.

[Wesley]

I was never one for escapism. If I have a problem, I prefer to talk to someone about it or watch/read anything that might help with it.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Wesley

I was never one for escapism. If I have a problem, I prefer to talk to someone about it or watch/read anything that might help with it.

Your post here raised an interesting dimension - maybe willfully or otherwise. But basically it has a slight context that "escapism" is synonomous with "performing an action to avoid negativity".

I guess in some ways it could be argued that it's implied by the word "escape", but I never perceived it that way. In many ways, taking time to go to Disney World or to Great American is also "escapism".

I don't live with these concepts as a negative thing though. As if "strong people don't employ escapism, they deal with it". I can't help but feel that approaching the topic with that negative connotation is..... some other psychology to be honest.

-shrugs- I dunno....

[Leo656]

I get what they mean, though. So often, for example, we see people defend their enthusiasm for absolutely vapid movies and TV shows by saying "I don't wanna think or deal with anything 'heavy' in my entertainment, it's supposed to be escapism." Which implies that they're using entertainment as a coping mechanism, a way to "escape" from the negativity of their real life, and that in turn anything too "deep" can be "triggering" for them. And point of fact, I have had many, many drug addicts claim that their form of "escapism" is no different from the way I watch movies or play video games to relax.

So I confess, whenever I see or hear the term "escapism" at all, at this point I do kind of roll my eyes because in my own experience it's a term most frequently used by very sensitive people who can't handle reality, or anything resembling it, for more than a few minutes at a time. Not exclusively, mind you. But predominantly.

"I just wanna shut my brain off and watch Transformers 12" isn't more than a stone's throw away from "I just wanna get blackout drunk and forget that my boss yelled at me," or "I just wanna stick a needle in my arm and forget that my wife's being a bitch." It all kind of blends together and you hear it a lot from the same types of people, is the thing.

So I in turn become very suspicious of people who champion "escapism". My gut reaction, right or wrong, is that they're very sensitive people in general. But that's simply been my observation from dealing with those types of people; others' mileage may vary.

[IndigoErth]

I dunno if it's escapism or just time killers/leisure time (both?), but... peruse any latest TMNT stuff that interests me, window shop eBay, etc, a little gaming on Fridays and/or Saturdays with a friend, daydreaming, get focused on some project idea that may or may not even be possible for me to pull off myself, used to write a little and aught to pick that back up, ponder how I might destroy the world.

[CyberCubed]

I never escape reality. Everything I do in life is reality.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I never escape reality. Everything I do in life is reality.

Boo-yah!

[newfan]

I think I was looking at the term more lightly than being described here.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by IMJ

by trash talking science-fiction in general

Science fiction is so much mroe than reality escape. It has inspired Humankind for a future amongst the stars, and will continue to do so.

Imagine when this was the most exciting thing.



Where are we today? Sill stuck here, reading and watching Facebook, obsessed with what the neighbours next door do all the time.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by newfan

I think I was looking at the term more lightly than being described here.

Me too. Read post #9.....

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Science fiction is so much mroe than reality escape. It has inspired Humankind for a future amonst the stars, and will continue to do so

Well said!