Welcome to the Ark and Flight of the Raven by Stephanie Tolan -
Just finished them both. They are YA (young adult) books, and well written, interesting. Explore the idea of extremely gifted kids that can use telepathy to connect; this helps to fight feelings of isolation and also as a way to counter the evil that is growing in the world. Explores the ideas around how DO you fight evil if the violence in resisting evil breeds more violence?
The Circle by David Eggers
Scary "near futuristic" novel that explore the natural conclusion to the path the world is currently on, with regards to technology and social media; where privacy no longer exists and an event isn't worthwhile unless it is recorded and shared with the world; where constant polling of opinions and extreme transparency threaten our humanity and ability to truly connect with others. I found it a bit like reading 1984 in December of 1983 - it was hard to separate the fact and fiction. Yikes!
"Mellow Out", They Say. If Only I Could
(Intensities and Sensitivities of the Bright and Young)
By Michael M. Piechowski.
So far, interesting, talking about the "over-excitabilities" of gifted individuals. Examples in fiction include Anne of Green Gables, Heidi...characters with emotional aliveness. Piechowski talks about the work of Dabrowski and his theory of emotional development called positive disintegration. MP talks about 5 areas of excitability: Psychomotor, Sensual, Intellectual, Imaginational and Emotional. I may do a review when I am done.
I'm also starting a list of Fiction Writers who incorporate/depict giftedness: If you have any to add, please let me know!
- Stephanie S. Tolan, Pride of the Peacock (The Deep End is her Blog)
- Stephanie S. Tolan Flight of the Raven and Welcome to the Ark
- Madeline L'Engle, AWrinkle in Time
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (short story)
- Gordon Korman Ungifted
Carmen: Blurb
Well, hmm...passions. I have (and have had) so many different interests...art, new ideas of any kind, natural building, how people work, why they are the way they are; how to make things better (pretty much anything), international development, neuro-plasticity, giftedness, teaching, leadership; health, faith, the mysteries the spiritual realms...etc.etc.
For your list of giftedness in fiction writing, if I understand what you're getting at, I would recommend checking out my favourite short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's one of my favourite pieces of fiction for numerous reasons, but one interesting thing it does is contrast the character's mental illness with her giftedness in writing. The story gets a lot of hype about it's implications in feminism, but I can't stand most feminists, so I try to avoid such commentary...
ReplyDeleteCool. I'll add it in. Thanks Robyn!
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