I started listening to this audiobook just as I got my diagnosis for ADHD ("you have ADHD more than you do not" - I guess that counts, right?) and a fI started listening to this audiobook just as I got my diagnosis for ADHD ("you have ADHD more than you do not" - I guess that counts, right?) and a few days before I started getting medicated for it with methylphenidate. Concerta, to be exact.
All in all, I enjoyed the audiobook. I personally much preferred the journalistic parts that went over the occassionally shocking facts than the overly long stories about the writer's own experience of having ADHD. Yes, Matilda, I know what it's like to be a walking disaster, we really don't have to go through this.
Actually, much of the book felt like the author was trying to elicit a kind of sympathy through self-humiliation rather than inspire identification. I have to admit that felt oddly familiar, and it's only as I'm writing these lines that I realize that I, too, would overemphasize my clumsiness or forgetfulness when I was a kid as a way to make myself stand out. That's the way I thought back then I'd get people to like me.
25 years later, this coping strategy seems quite alien. It could be that I'm now a financially comfortable adult white man - which makes for a quantifiably different experience than, say, a poor black woman with ADHD. Or it could very well be that I'm one of the lucky cases who ended up sureptitiously developing their own mechanisms to cope with ADHD along the way and in so doing may no longer fully qualify as ADHDers - its the severity of symptoms, not the actual neurodivergence, that makes all the difference when it comes to diagnosis.
So I could just keep being my absent-minded, disorganized, messy me and no problem, right?
This journey of self-discovery of mine started when I realized that a momentary lapse of attention could be fatal - not only to me, but to my family as well, not to mention the innocent people who just happened to drive past me and who I didn't notice in the rear-view mirror as I was switching lanes on Syggrou Ave. It was one of many instances where I felt that being a father with treatable ADHD was a problem I had the responsibility to address.
As I mentioned, the parts of the book that highlighted the dangers of ADHD were the most interesting to me: stats about ADHDers being more prone to early deaths, prison populations comprising 25% ADHDers versus the 2.5% across the general public, ADHDers having comorbidities across the board, including a big penchant for addictive behavior... Suddenly, whether one should treat or somehow even address their ADHD seems like a more urgent question.
That said, I recall thinking that one part in particular was confusing, where a psychiatrist mentioned that ADHD meds are not addictive, which goes against everything I've learned about how ADHD medication works. So I got this feeling of distrust that arises when a source you want to lean into gets something wrong, thus they might have gotten more wrong.
Still, there are plenty of things that Matilda got right with this one, and that includes the philosophical discussion about what one does with the knowledge that one is now neurodivergent - or what even neurodivergence means, when being neurodivergent is the new normal. "Unique, just like everybody else." What it means for one's identity, how one copes with a neurological hormonal imbalance that might be part of their core identity, how one navigates around the "personality change" listed in the possible side effects of my Concerta.
I support the motion and discussion that conditions like ADHD should get some better PR and find their place outside the realm of psychiatric diagnosis and the DSM-5. Only then can we look at not only the problems of having ADHD (or being an ADHDer - something one is, not has) but a more holistic view that brings forward and takes advantage of our immense creativity, unquenchable thirst for exploration and inner resilience, harnesses our hyperfocus and highlights our playfulness and adaptability.
Matilda borrows the term "pelagic" as a different way to talk about ADHDers. It's a Greek word. I like it. I'll try to use it from now on. If I don't forget as soon as I post this review....more
I'll obviously be pretty biased when it comes to anything related to Steven Wilson, my favorite musician bar none.
In a way, Steven Wilson is like MariI'll obviously be pretty biased when it comes to anything related to Steven Wilson, my favorite musician bar none.
In a way, Steven Wilson is like Marina Satti. Their use of their art as a proof of continuously mutating self and self-expression has made them dismissive of older iterations of themselves, the ones that rightfully earned them their fame. In this process, they keep banging on about how "pop" they are now - "look at us, we're really not these 'highbrow' artists, we want to live with common people!"' Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't really.
Although these journeys of artistic self-discovery are definitely revealing about their inner motivations, drives and desire for acceptance, on their own terms, for their "whole" creative selves (as an Enneagram 4, I can definitely relate), what's most interesting about these transformations is not always the end result, but the process these artists keep going through.
In the end, through constantly surprising their fans, they themselves become the ever-changing work of art.
This book is another such surprise. It takes us through the mind of Steven Wilson as a "work of art". Even its format, the way it's written, the things Steven chooses to share with us ("everything in this book is a lie. Including this sentence") ends up being another medium he's utilized to express himself alongside his music, trying to take advantage of the written word in some unexpected ways.
By that, of course I mean the part around the middle of the book where he draws back the curtain on the process behind the real creation of this book, the obligatory postmodern wink and breaking of the fourth wall in book form. But what he writes about is also interesting in itself - the lists (his favorite movies, his top 100 songs "he would give his right hand to have written himself"), his life story told in 10-year intervals, Porcupine Tree's semi-rise, fall, and relegation to cult legend status...
The man is not only a treasure trove of knowledge about music - his taste is truly what you'd call eclectic - the book is full of insight about the state of the music industry, about art, about self-expression, about finding the balance between creating for an audience of fans and the value of never stopping to discover and reinvent one's self through one's creative output. It makes one wonder what it means when an artist makes something they love, feel proud of and feel has hit the sweet spot regarding self-expression but which the fans don't know what to do with (looking at you, The Future Bites).
I would have liked more info about some specific parts of his prolific work rather than this feeling of indifference I got about, for instance, Fear of a Blank Planet. I thought it was interesting there are many songs he's forgotten he's even written (probably some of my favorites...) and I have to admit I felt uneasy when he said that he almost wishes he'd never made The Raven That Refused to Sing because it further pigeonholed him into the prog rock niche he's been trying so hard to claw his way out of. I believe it's one of his best records.
That said, I have to admit, there are worse things in life than making a true masterpiece and having it be what most people know or remember you by. Again, like with Marina Satti, I think this dynamic interplay between fame (or the thirst thereof), creativity, approachability, legacy and self-expression is what really makes these artists worth examining more closely.
However, unlike Satti, Steven Wilson never went to Eurovision. His life is the story of a man who was always one step away from achieving mainstream success but whose failure to attain his desired Bowie-level pop-star-meets-visionary status gave birth to a whole different kind of breathtaking, creative beast - one given the freedom to never stop exploring in whichever direction he chose. We wouldn't have had a Hand. Cannot. Erase if In Absentia had broken through to the masses as it almost did. Maybe Porcupine Tree walked so that Steven could fly.
To end this long review, I feel privileged to have followed Steven through this whole process in the past 20 or so years and I'm eager to see where he'll be going next. Thank you!...more
Βιβλίο που δανείστηκα από την Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη και τελείωσα ευτυχώς μέσα στο χρονικό περιθώριο των 3 εβδομάδων.
To «Ένα μικρό βιβλίο για γλώσσα» προωθΒιβλίο που δανείστηκα από την Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη και τελείωσα ευτυχώς μέσα στο χρονικό περιθώριο των 3 εβδομάδων.
To «Ένα μικρό βιβλίο για γλώσσα» προωθήθηκε ως το «Μικρή ιστορία του κόσμου» του Γκόμπριχ, αλλά για γλώσσα. Στα ελληνικά τουλάχιστον - δεν ξέρω αν αυτός ήταν ο σκοπός του συγγραφέα του, David Crystal, αλλά οι παραλληλισμοί στον τίτλο και στο εξώφυλλο της έκδοσης από τις Εκδόσεις Πατάκης ολοφάνεροι.
Αλλά κι εγώ, επηρεασμένος, από αυτόν τον παραλληλισμό, τελικά έμεινα με τη γεύση που είχα διαβάζοντας το προαναφερθέν best seller του Γκόμπριχ - ήταν ένα ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα, αλλά δεν ένιωσα ότι έμαθα κάτι που μου άλλαξε το πώς αντιλαμβάνομαι τη γλώσσα γενικότερα, όπως συνέβη με το Βαβέλ, για παράδειγμα.
Μου φάνηκε πιο ενδιαφέρον το πρώτο μέρος του βιβλίου που μιλάει για το πώς η γλώσσα αναπτύσσεται στα πολύ μικρά παιδιά και στα μωρά, κάτι το οποίο βρίσκω συναρπαστικό γιατί έχω την τύχη να το παρατηρώ να εκτυλίσσεται ζωντανά μπροστά μου κάθε μέρα.
Περίμενα περισσότερες σελίδες αφιερωμένες στην εκμάθηση γλωσσών αργότερα στη ζωή ενός ατόμου, αλλά το βιβλίο δεν είχε και τόσα πολλά να πει για αυτό το θέμα.
Γενικά δεν νομίζω ότι θα θυμάμαι πολλά από το «Ένα μικρό βιβλίο για τη γλώσσα»....more
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