Saturday, May 17, 2014

blinking

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  I read this book because it was recommended by a colleague who did not know he was recommending it to me.  He mentioned seeing a former colleague out in the world one day, and although he only said hello to her, he returned with all kinds of opinions about how she was doing and what was happening in her life.  I told him he could not possibly know these things, and he told me that according to Blink, he certainly could.  So I read it.  It was interesting, and made some sense of inner feelings that I have thought of as hunches, inexplicable knowings.  There is a science to this stuff, which pleases me, as I like science very much.

Now I am reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is also nonfiction, a genre I have mostly neglected but now read with increasing frequency.  Henrietta Lacks is about genetic coding and DNA and cancer, and the life of a woman who was exploited by the medical system.  Also very interesting, recommended by my mother, who no longer reads books, she says, because she prefers sudoku.

The sudoku thing troubles me, somewhat, because my mother is (was?) a serious reader.  Now she claims she cannot concentrate long enough to read a book, which is bizarre.  What is happening to her?  She has always had a fear of dementia, which she instilled in me, and when I was a child she asked me to promise I would poison her if she ever showed signs of dementia, rather than allowing her to live encapsulated in madness.  "Slip it in the tea", she said.  I would repeat it.  "In the tea."  Sometimes in public places we would see an elderly person mumbling to himself, drooling a bit, looking dishevelled and behaving strangely.  My mother would give me a pointed look, and remind me, "In the tea."  


*





4 comments:

Unknown said...

I am really suspect on science, really, really, suspicious, like it's up to something behind my back. It harps back to a few anthropology lecturers who described it as a 'new religion', and then I realised that Nietzsche thought the same, and now, I see it everywhere, unquestioning souls heralding science as the only way, and then I think of all of the money and weight it has behind it. It can crush. Homeopathy, I believe it, scientists definitely don't.

Secret Agent Woman said...

Give me science any day. Research, evidence, data - I want to know that there is something solid behind a theory, not just wishful thinking. I loved the book Blink. And have you ready Freakonomics? Also very interesting.

My mother has also said I should do away with her if she becomes demented.

Secret Agent Woman said...

Oh, and also "Why People Believe Weird Things" is a wonderful book about logical fallacies.

mischief said...

I definitely see both sides of this argument. And it is, in fact, the way that science can be used to prove that magic really does exist that makes me so excited by it. When I read that time could actually flow in either direction, not only forward, I was completely awestruck. This kind of science is absolutely beautiful. So much better than rabbits-out-of-hats magic. The kind that is beautiful and perfect and spiritual. That's the thing, the spiritual piece. Some of it is so spiritually inspiring.