Gluttony
No, not the food kind but for knowledge.
I used to read a lot of gamebooks from the Fighting Fantasy series. Peer influence was one reason and interest was another. Anyway, I had one entitled "Sword of the Samurai". In this story, which is based on feudal Japan, you take on a role of a samurai who is entrusted with task of retrieving a sword known as "Singing Death" for your Shogun. As we all know, there are a hundred and one ways in which a gamebook adventure can end, particularly combat death.
In this book, however, there is one ending that never failed to make me guffaw. If you somehow manage to reach a secluded fountain and choose to drink from it, you will die. Poisonous fountain? Far from it! It's a Fountain of Knowledge. As the ending goes, you feel enlightened with a sip. But the desire for knowledge drives you to gulp more of the water, eventually immersing yourself in the fountain and in the process, death by drowning.
A silly way to die, isn't it? With all that knowledge, one would know that full immersion into the water could potentially cause drowning and that's the last thing that anyone with some decent common sense would do. Or is it?
I was reading Wikipedia a few days ago. Apparently, Pluto's status as a planet had been demoted and I was keen to check it out. What started out as a simple search turns out to be quite a long ride. From Pluto, I jumped to astronomy and astrology. No, they are not the same. Anyway, I proceeded to read about Venus and Mars and learnt about the origins of the symbols that have come to represent male and female. That wasn't enough - the innocuous related links at the bottom of the page enticed me to read more.
And so I did. I went on reading about the Fermi's Paradox, the Arecibo message and the Pioneer Project, all aimed at unraveling the mystery if there's alien life out there. And of course, how could I leave out Einstein's General Relativity when space/time studies are concerned? And with General Relativity, there is bound to be talk of black holes and quantum physics. I had barely finish reading the article on black holes and intending to move on to quantum physics when I noticed how much time had gone by. A whole 3 hours had disappeared and yet my hunger for knowledge was not the least satiated; in fact, I want more.
By then, my lower back screamed out in pain while legs pleaded to be allowed to walk. More importantly, my eyes were dry and tired and they wanted the eyelids shut, so that they can rest. Grudgingly, I dragged myself onto the bed and laid spread-eagled, physically, or should I say optically, drained.
Now, do I still find death-by-drowing-in-a-fountain-of-knowledge a ridiculous way to die? Definitely not, for I did not have the level of maturity to appreciate what the authors had tried to convey then. On hindsight, I think gluttony for anything is bad, be it food, knowledge or pursuit of entertainment; moderation has to be exercised.
I used to read a lot of gamebooks from the Fighting Fantasy series. Peer influence was one reason and interest was another. Anyway, I had one entitled "Sword of the Samurai". In this story, which is based on feudal Japan, you take on a role of a samurai who is entrusted with task of retrieving a sword known as "Singing Death" for your Shogun. As we all know, there are a hundred and one ways in which a gamebook adventure can end, particularly combat death.
In this book, however, there is one ending that never failed to make me guffaw. If you somehow manage to reach a secluded fountain and choose to drink from it, you will die. Poisonous fountain? Far from it! It's a Fountain of Knowledge. As the ending goes, you feel enlightened with a sip. But the desire for knowledge drives you to gulp more of the water, eventually immersing yourself in the fountain and in the process, death by drowning.
A silly way to die, isn't it? With all that knowledge, one would know that full immersion into the water could potentially cause drowning and that's the last thing that anyone with some decent common sense would do. Or is it?
I was reading Wikipedia a few days ago. Apparently, Pluto's status as a planet had been demoted and I was keen to check it out. What started out as a simple search turns out to be quite a long ride. From Pluto, I jumped to astronomy and astrology. No, they are not the same. Anyway, I proceeded to read about Venus and Mars and learnt about the origins of the symbols that have come to represent male and female. That wasn't enough - the innocuous related links at the bottom of the page enticed me to read more.
And so I did. I went on reading about the Fermi's Paradox, the Arecibo message and the Pioneer Project, all aimed at unraveling the mystery if there's alien life out there. And of course, how could I leave out Einstein's General Relativity when space/time studies are concerned? And with General Relativity, there is bound to be talk of black holes and quantum physics. I had barely finish reading the article on black holes and intending to move on to quantum physics when I noticed how much time had gone by. A whole 3 hours had disappeared and yet my hunger for knowledge was not the least satiated; in fact, I want more.
By then, my lower back screamed out in pain while legs pleaded to be allowed to walk. More importantly, my eyes were dry and tired and they wanted the eyelids shut, so that they can rest. Grudgingly, I dragged myself onto the bed and laid spread-eagled, physically, or should I say optically, drained.
Now, do I still find death-by-drowing-in-a-fountain-of-knowledge a ridiculous way to die? Definitely not, for I did not have the level of maturity to appreciate what the authors had tried to convey then. On hindsight, I think gluttony for anything is bad, be it food, knowledge or pursuit of entertainment; moderation has to be exercised.
posted by hg @ 20:59
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