I was thinking about this issue in the context of fiction readership which skews heavily towards women — i.e. most men don't read fiction, apparently. Why might that be? And one of the answers I've been pondering is if it's because a lot of men want to shut off an "emotional" (for want of a better word) understanding of the world. And, if that's right, does it help explain why life can start to feel a bit transactional and meaningless...