Getting Into A Role

     Part of the attraction of fiction (whether in book or visual mediums) is that the reader/viewer is transported away from her day-to-day life into someone else's world. During the early part of the 19th century ministers and physicians were critical of the popularity of novels because of the perception that people were avoiding their own lives to live in the worlds of people who were not real. That came to be known by the middle of the last century as the Walter Mitty syndromee.
     Regardless of Walter's flights of fantasy to escape a hum-drum existence, people can succumb to thinking they someone else, even to the exclusion of the real world in which they are supposed to function. A similar unhealthy attachment to characters portrayed by actors is another sinister side effect of fiction.
     Having read about actors like Hal Holbrook (who has done Mark Twain for decades) and how they can sometimes have difficulty separating their own identity from that of their character's, I was still not prepared for how attached I have become to Silas Wright Terry. He is the Civil War naval officer I portray in a one-man show. Researching his life and that of his family is taking over all my spare time (and some that is not so spare). It is quite astounding how obsessed one can become.
     Having just purchased on-line an original document with his authenticated signature on it may qualify as obsessed--at least according to Boss Cook.
     While I do not think I shall ever need mental health care for this, I am starting to be cautious with the time I devote to my new alter ego.
     I supposed that one has to sacrifice for his art. Alas!