Nectorist

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies" was a quote that stuck with me from Jojen after reading through ASOIAF. While it sounded very robotic, I realized it is a beautiful representation of the lives we take over while reading stories. The confusion of entering a world that leaves you behind, like Scipio Aemilianus; the depression of seeing your wife grow weaker and weaker until she dies, like Jiro Horikoshi; or, despite not knowing if it is your purpose, fighting for a brighter future for your people, like the Nerevarine. Yet, when darkness approaches at night, I cannot help but miss some of the stories or think more about them. How is Violet in her happy ever after, or Sulla and Caesar, did you believe your deaths were in vain? I felt your deaths sting despite them being two thousand years ago.

We live a thousand lives, but in these glass lenses that start at the time of their story and end at the time of their victory or death. Like you told me once, Crusader Kings showed how men, who die so young, might still have fulfilled their purpose where the player fulfills. But I cannot help but want more. Even the humble Rand Al'Thor, in a series of books that go on and on, I cannot help but fear it. Frodo only wrote so much. There is a finite amount of books, yet here my life will still go on. If I wish to revisit them, I watch the movie again, through their same glass lenses.

The dreamer in the White Nights, after learning to love and losing that love, finally awakes from his dream. He understands the world better through that fiction played in his head with his beloved Nastenka. But when he awakes, he also sees the wrinkles of his maid and how he may never learn to be together.

Perhaps it is like the dreamer thinks. He had a moment of bliss awakening from the daydream of another life. And it meant all the world to him.