Have you ever wondered why you enjoy reading stories about worlds or situations that you positively know are absurd and impossible? One might think that stories so remote from real life should have no appeal to the reader because what they tell us is ridiculously irrelevant to us. One would be dead wrong!

Unrealistic setups and stories that bear no relation to our world have a certain allure, a charm that draws us in. This is partly due to what I like to call the "absurdity advantage." Let's explore this concept.

When we read a story set in our real world, past, present, or future, part of our brain is always on the lookout for incongruities. We register contradictions: a wrong detail of a reported event, a description of a garment that does not fit the era, and a myriad of other small details that our brain keeps checking as we read are processed in the back of our minds without us realizing it. At times, this may be pretty exhausting. So, while we enjoy reading complex, realistic literature, we may find it hard to turn it into a uniformly relaxing read.

Once we realize what goes on behind our brain's curtains, so to speak, it is easy to understand why reading an admittedly silly story is so pleasurable. Take, for example, the alien beverage-dispensing machine featured in The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. Nobody would ever dream of questioning the accuracy of its description. Instead, our whole brain is engaged only in enjoying the absurdity of the situation, happily relieved of the burden of reality-checking what the story says.

If a book is both absurd and funny, it has the added advantage of making us laugh, but even if it doesn't, it allows our brain to "enjoy without analyzing." That's why we can delight in a good horror story about a mutant fog like in James Herbert's aptly titled book The Fog. We know that mutant fogs don't exist and that there is no point in fact-checking what happens to those who get trapped in it, so we can relax and enjoy the bloodshed.

The absurdity advantage works both ways and writing absurd stories is also rewarding. To be happy, our lives must be well-balanced, so I make sure to read and write a bit of absurdity in addition to all the serious stuff. I hope that works for you, too.