Learning To Accept We All Experience Reality Differently

It’s not easy, but the alternative is most disturbing

several people look at the same scene through different lenses and perceive different things, sleek, futuristic digital art — by DALL·E

A book takes place through four different timelines with overlapping characters. It’s action-packed, and you know very little about the protagonists or the context in which they operate. Indeed, the novel generates perplexity over anything else, all along the exuberant and vivid descriptions of sword-wielding and fire-weapon shooting. There are hints that the fantastical reality in which these dizzying moments happen is rich and detailed, but the reader never gets to explore it.

These days, I drop such a book like a stone as soon as I realise the author has no intention to explain the world or its inhabitants. My bewilderment persists for a few days because I generally love stories told in confusing parallel timelines with cryptic characters. However, I need some dot-linking. Standing under an infinite torrent of dots does not satisfy me anymore.

Nevertheless, many people love the same book I have described, so the problem must be with me as a reader rather than with the novel as a work of literature. When I notice that several reviewers reacted as I did, I understand I am not alone. It is one of those instances in which nobody is wrong. I feel creative work needs resolution: if a chord progression doesn’t…