Fun and Recollection

Abstract

As has been illustrated in the previous chapter, there are relationships between the experiences or sensations of having fun in the moment and our retelling or reconstruction of experiences as fun. The example of cycling is, in my experience, illustrative of a reconstructive process. I have often been riding with friends where I have found the ride tough. Struggling up Ditchling Beacon in Sussex, wishing I were anywhere else in the world and feeling as though I want to pass out or throw up or both. However, these moments of discomfort and unhappiness swiftly fade as the summit is crossed and the ride becomes easier. In the pub, sometime after the ride, my friends and I will agree that today’s ride was great fun, the scenery was beautiful and that it is very good to get out on your bike. In fact, I catch myself telling all sorts of people how much fun it is to ride a bike—particularly to those that don’t really like cycling—but when I think about it, whilst I think I like it in the moment, I rarely have fun. I think it is the same with many activities assumed to be fun. That is not to say that people are not enjoying such activities; it’s just that is a post hoc application of the status of fun to certain activities in order to make them explicable in positive terms to others. Fun offers not only positivity but also a lightness to the expression of experiences, and this narrative need not necessarily reflect how the thing being experienced actually felt.