Today I thought a bit about running and thinking. In order to make that easier, to let my mapping brain switch over to more fluid phenomenological, philosophical cogitation, I programmed my watch using Strava's heat map function to 'lock' my route onto the most used paths between here and Ascot.
With my route pre-determined, and my watch designed to run me through it step by step, I could think more easily. I was observing too as I went, and noticed a lot of people, especially on Ascot's racecourse itself.
Now, as to thinking. When I'm running faster my mind tends to clear, and the only thought that might intrude will be a strong visual image of my finishing pace/emotion. Slower, I can think thoughts more academic, blurry, and philosophical.
A lot of those thoughts revolve around hard problems I'm trying to solve at work, and right now that means "the role of the map and the cartographic appendix in speculative fictions, both diegetic, and paratextual." And then I start thinking about how to break down the metadata of Dune, the anthropology and remote sensing of Helliconia, and the like.
Actually, just as there is a link between Running and Philosophy, there is also a link between Science Fiction and Philosophy. Both produce a kind of 'cognitive estrangement' that I've talked about before on this blog.
Now more than ever however this estrangement is literally true. We are running, after all, in a time of CoronaVirus, a global pandemic the likes of which just a few weeks ago would have been in the realm to the strictly fictional. Think The Stand, The Wanderers, elements of The Handmaid's Tale, The Day of the Triffids, and other titles by John Wyndham.
It is a Cosy Catastrophe indeed. We are all comfortably jogging, drinking tea, gardening in our allotments, thinking we are exceptional to be weathering things so well. Until we're not.
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