Wouldn't it be true that the more altered states one has experienced life in, the better their map of reality would tend to be? (I am not saying more time in any one altered state, but experiencing a wide variety of the potential altered states available to us.) (That is another reason to experiment with cocaine)
One function of my book and all its unanswerable and rhetorical questions is that I think a lot of people are going through the same things and can relate. (And, a lot of them are worrying about being abnormal to have these questions, or to have these feelings, or to lack social skills, ….) (Maybe it will help others to accept that they aren't as alone as they sometimes feel that they are?)
When I use the word "right", I am referring to myself, at a particular moment in time. (e.g., when I was putting in 60 hours a week in the bars, I think it was right for me; and that now, spending no time there is right for me.) (I think that a lot of life is an evolutionary process, that each phase serves a positive function, and that one must be careful not to get stuck in any of them. (e.g., 60 hours a week in bars was right, when I did it; but if I had continued on and gotten stuck there, I would probably be dead now. (At a minimum, I would have incurred serious damage to my body and mind.)))
Related to the last paragraph would be the question of what is the next evolutionary phase for me to move onto. (Going back to spending a lot of time in bars or trying one nite stands doesn't feel like the right direction.) (Continuing on in this hermit phase indefinitely doesn't feel right either.) (My gut feeling now is that it will be to find a way to spend about 20 hours a week in bars, meet lots of people, and build a few friendships; but I am still uncertain.)
If I ever do publish this, I will need to change all the names. (The people in this book aren't the people who really exist.) (The characters here vary from the real people in that it's my perception of them, I have often attributed actions and words to characters here rather than introduce the person who really did or said it, I have attributed actions and words of characters here to a nameless someone I have talked to in a bar, ….) (How does anyone ever know where fiction begins and ends?)
I suppose I should also look for environments besides bars for meeting new people. (The last time I did the bar scene, a lot of the people who were also doing it on a regular basis, were either addicts, 19-25, or had gotten divorced within the last year or so; and it might be good to meet other types of people.)
I have worried about the lack of sexual scenes in this book being a hindrance to its marketability; but maybe, once again, I am worried about nothing? (e.g., there are a lot of successful tv shows these days where the primary relationships are platonic.)