Interesting book...

A while ago, I posted about this very interesting book. Two people recommended it to me; my Latin teacher (who has excellent literary taste) and my old therapist. The book takes on the nature of a kind of Sherlock Holmes murder mystery. If you can mind the swearing and the blasphemy (the author is unfortunately an atheist) it is rather edifying. I can't say that I entirely identify with the boy, since he likes Science and Maths (two subjects for which at school I had a heartfelt loathing), is an atheist, for so-called ''logical'' and ''reasonable'' reasons, and has some strange ideas about colours and days of the week. I suppose that with books, memoirs, diaries etc, written by people with mental illnesses (such as Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen - a very bright lady who has Borderline Personality Disorder, or The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, a woman who suffered Clinical Depression), one is to expect something untoward somewhere, but they explore regions of the mind which are altogether dark or full of nightmares. I have found that reading some of my own stuff back to myself, often it is very ''bitter'' sounding. You'll often find that some of the most brilliant persons ever to have contributed to the vast tapestry of human genius have had something ''wrong'' with them. Mozart and Einstein (arguably) had Asperger Syndrome; John Nash (the brilliant Mathematician) has Schizophrenia; Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci,Tchaikovsky and Oscar Wilde were homosexual. I wonder whether something being wrong somewhere is integral to genius? Therefore, is it a ''sin'' to try and cure the defect? Is it a defect? I ask because one of the qualities of having Asperger Syndrome is being a natural expert in a particular area of interest. Would I be interesting at all if I were not a Tolkienist? What does cure entail? Were I to change anything, I would that I were not more or less ''shunned'' by people for whom I have cordial love and respect.

I heartily recommend that book though!