sideways | (no subject)

A co-worker admits he hasn't read a fiction book in years, but the list of non-fiction material he has been marching through is varied, intense, and fascinating. Later, I tell him of how participating in our shared program has sometimes felt like those scenes where an astronaut has their line cut and slowly floats off into space, struggling madly all the while. He tells me he likes the way I describe things - that it's different.

"It's because I read fiction," I say, dry.

"Ah," he says. "Touché."

Later still, he tells me things about mushrooms I never knew. (I pledge to become a space mushroom conspiracy theorist for life.) Who is the winner here? Probably both and neither.