Everyone is familiar with nonsense. Each person you meet has their own example of what nonsense is. There’s plenty of nonsense for everyone! There are people who, despite being lactose intolerant, gorge themselves on cheese and other dairy products. There’s poets who can’t rhyme for the life of them, and musicians who can’t read sheet music. Even you have something in mind that, if you were asked “what is nonsense?”, you would answer with immediately.
There exists an extremely common misconception that nonsense is impossible to understand. I am here to say, first off, that anything can be understood if one simply chooses to understand it, and second off, stop eating dairy products if you’re lactose intolerant. Seriously, it’s horrible for you. There’s a complicated thing there for some people. How do you understand nonsense? How do you “just understand something”?
Well, the first issue is that you’re thinking about it so hard. No wonder you’re having such a hard time. If you take nonsense at face value, without a second of deeper thought, you’ll understand it quite well. A reliance on logic will get you nowhere with things that have abandoned all logic. To do that is simply, well, nonsense!
Now, there are, in short, two types of nonsense. There’s sensible nonsense, and nonsensible nonsense. Likewise, there’s nonsensible sense, which I will also be discussing.
Sensible nonsense is nonsense that makes sense. When partaking in a form of media that involves this nonsense, it will not feel as though there is anything wrong with the fact that any of it is occurring. Of course, if you oversaturate your nonsense with explanations, all you’ll have left is sense. It might not be common sense, but it will most certainly not be nonsense.
Nonsensible nonsense is inherently, the worse type of nonsense. It is nonsense with no semblance of order to it. It is often used as a tool to skip any deep thinking for writers, or to disguise plotholes. In these cases, it is acceptable. However, if one becomes reliant on it, they may find themselves without any grounding for their writing. You’ll end up like a clown car on a raft in the center of the Bermuda triangle. To put it simply, lost beyond saving.
Now, there’s nonsensible sense. It is something that should by no means make any sense. However, it is completely sensible no matter how deeply it is considered. It goes by a different name, of course. Most people refer to nonsensible sense as science. This isn’t a dig at science, I swear. It is simply the fact that science, by no means, should make any sense whatsoever. Yet it is the most reliable answer to the things around us we have.
Now that we’ve got the basics covered, how about we go over the ways to understand nonsense?
First and foremost, as I have stated previously, you mustn’t think too hard about it. If you are reading nonsense, no amount of thinking is going to change how it is written. It is best not to ask questions, because you won’t get answers that way. If you trust the nonsense, it’ll eventually become sense. Well, sense to you. To anyone else you may stop making sense yourself.
Second now, you have to put some thought into it. You have to, at least, identify what kind of nonsense it is. That way, you can figure out how you’re supposed to be reading it. Nonsensical nonsense is best left unread. Sensical nonsense is the king of the first rule. Nonsensical sense, now, must be pondered. The more you think about it, the more of it you’ll find. After all, the discovery of fire led to the exploration of the cosmos. That makes, if you look at it summarized like that, no sense at all! Yet it’s the sense of our world! The way our bodies function, or the way anything functions for that matter, makes absolutely no sense. Yet here we are functioning.
Easy, right?
Don’t hold on so tightly to your sense that you crush it in your palm 🙂
Now, how about a quick exercise? I’ll write some nonsense, and you have to identify it! We’ll do it once so it’s both easier and harder to guess. Now, don’t be fooled. Nonsense is difficult to identify unless there’s sense close by.
“A person is exactly who the person they want to be wished they had been before, and likewise, the person they wanted to be when they were the person they were before. So, naturally, a person is already who they want to be. In turn, nobody is themselves, since they can’t possibly be the person they want to be. If they were the person they wanted to be, they wouldn’t want to be anyone else. So, maybe it’s best if they just avoided being a person at all”
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the nonsense!
