One of the authors on my massive lifelong booklist is Mervyn Peake, and in particular, his Titus novels, more oftenly known as Gormenghast, although that is only the title for the second book.

I’m absolutely amazed that I made it to nearly 37 years old and never knew about these books. I’m an avid fantasy fiction/horror/sci-fi reader and have read all the greats, or so I thought. Wow. I’m only a few chapters into the first book and I’m blown away by the characters, the quirkiness of the story, the strange darkness that permeates the pages, the castle which seems alive and above all, the talent that Peake had in putting all this down on the page. Wow.

The story isn’t really fantasy as there are no magical elements but it is strange and dark…almost edging on gothic or pre-steampunk. It’s a story that is just plain different. It’s strange, fantastical, unexpected, beautiful, cold and warm at the same time and I find myself anxious to read a lot more this weekend.

This morning I came across a post from John Eaton on the wonderful Reverse Thinking blog, about getting back the sense of playing infinite rather than finite games, a theory posited by philosopher James P. Carse in his book, Finite and Infinite Games. Essentially the theory is that “a Finite game is played with the purpose of winning (thus ending the game), while an infinite game is played with the purpose of continuing the play.” Adults play finite games…with a real beginning and end and particular rules for a particular purpose, while children play infinite, make-believe, never-ending games just for the fun of it.

I immediately thought of Gormenghast and my penchant for reading extremely long, rich, character-driven books (did I mention I bought War & Peace over the holidays so I can tackle that as well?). As an adult living in the finite world, these escapes into another world are my way of touching upon that infinite game, or the hope of playing the infinite game. I disappear into the make-believe, seemingly never-ending book, just for the fun of it. In doing so, I feel wonder, excitement, contentment, desire, interest and an incredible sense of the creative spirit.

I love the idea of finding a way to move beyond just diving into big books (and writing them!) and to change my overall thinking toward the world around me from finite to the infinite. For being a creative soul, I’m terribly rules based. I have parameters and I get nutty when people step outside those boundaries (it’s ok if I do, but when others break the rules it makes me anxious and frustrated). I need to think more about the world around me as a game, rather than a duty, a chore, a habit. I need to follow some of Eaton’s advice:

In finite games, people pretend the rules were fixed by Society, God or Evolution and cannot be questioned. It is only ‘unreasonable’ people – rebels, spiritual giants, geniuses – who rebel against the rules and create new ways of life. Beliefs are just implied agreements not to question the rules any further.

Here’s what to do if you want to start playing infinite games:

• Become child-like (or ’silly’) again
• Be guided by what your intuition tells you, not by what other people think
• Question the rules for everything
• Break up routines
• Assume that the reverse could be true for anything you are told
• Break away from the frustrating games played on you by others
• Do the opposite of what people expect
• Laugh more and speak less
• Live in the moment
• Dance
• Make more time for ‘aimless’ play
• Reduce by at least 25% the time you spend on chores
• Do things that are enjoyable for their own sake, not for reward
• Ask ‘What if…..’ more and more

This advice drives to the core of what a good creative and critical thinker should already know but may need a bit of nudging to completely implement, especially if it is in the realm of the greater paths of one’s life. How many times have I advocated these particular bits of advice when it comes to a writing exercise or finding a way to think out of the box about a particular topic or idea? And yet, it comes to me now at a good time, when I find that parts of my life are rote, frustrating or ridiculous. Time to take this advice and slap it right back at me. How can I better look at the world as a game, a game that will, as Carse advocates, free me from the worries that often plague me when it comes to finite outlooks, actions and situations?

I’ll be picking up the Carse book soon, but this .pdf outlines the finer points of his theory.

What about you? How often do you take an infinite approach to the world around you?