Confessions of a Book Nerd: Down the Rabbit Hole

Breathless. It’s the best feeling you can get when reading a book. It’s the most intense feeling you can get when experiencing anything artistic. And I’m not talking about that bullshit sentimental “breathless” that rode a motorcycle right out of Top Gun, bringing its ridiculous and beautiful sunsets with it. I’m talking about the kind of breathless that happens when someone is beating the shit out of you. That pressure in your chest when your trying like hell to inhale. I’m talking about the kind of breathless that feels like you are being held under water, your arms flailing until you realize you’re holding yourself down there. It’s that feeling you get when you stop reading, when you stop watching the players on the stage, when you finally manage to rip your gaze from the piece of art that has held you transfixed. I call this feeling, that scratching for air, going “Down the Rabbit Hole.”

Last week on the Wordstock Book Festival blog, guest author Bo Caldwell talked about this feeling briefly. Saying the best writing and best movies do this to you. And I have to agree. It’s the only time I know I have been sucked in. I got pulled under.

Two years ago I was at the University of Denver to attend their publishing program and I gathered with a few friends to go see Batman: The Dark Knight in a huge IMAX theatre. I had been looking forward to the movie for some time and had a relatively good idea that I would enjoy it. Hell, I liked watching the trailers online over and over. But Christopher Nolan managed to do something that hadn’t happened to me in a long time. He managed to pull me under. When I walked out of that movie, I had forgotten what day it was. I was confused, I didn’t know which direction was which.

Prior to that the last thing to do that for me was The Road by Cormac McCarthy and prior to that the first three books in George R. R. Martin’s: Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords). I got pulled in and did not want to leave the world they had created or perhaps couldn’t. I would keep reading and reading and reading.

It’s different for everyone. What pulls you in can be something completely different from that reader next to you, but it can happen. The world built by the text on those pages just grabs you and pulls you in, builds the walls up around you and at some point you forget you’re reading. That process between you and the story disappears. You’re there, you went down the rabbit hole. You can’t breath, but you don’t realize you weren’t breathing until you come up for air again.

It hasn’t happened to me since Dark Knight, but I’m sure it will happen again. It’s those artists, those writers, those actors that manage to hide all the strings, that I tend to follow. I seek out their next piece just see if they can do it again. They managed to make the magic trick seem like true magic. I followed them down the rabbit hole and held my breath until I couldn’t stand it, then came rushing up to the surface, confused that my world seemed so different and out of place.

Have you had a “Down the Rabbit Hole” experience? What took you there? And how did it feel coming up for air?