I never liked science fiction as a kid or teen. I clearly remember reading To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer in either 9th or 10th grade and just thinking it was weird. Of course, it did make an impact because I remember the premise of the novel to this day.
I think D has had a big impact on my increased interest in science fiction. He is a true sci/fi nut and tends to read it exclusively (along with fantasy). I read most of the Dune series after he and I watched the miniseries in 2000. It is certainly not the primary genre I read, as evidenced by my Goodreads list, but the ones I have read, like Dune, stick with me--- Old Man's War by John Scalzi, Time Machine by H. G. Wells, Children of Men by P.D. James.
Some 15 years ago, a student recommended Ender's Game to me, and I loved the entire series. I have gone on to read and like (as much as you can like) dystopian novels, which are closely aligned with sci/fi.
My latent interest in sci/fi is probably more expressed in terms of the films I love, like Inception and now Interstellar. We watched this last weekend, and I'm still thinking about it. Thinking about time and the various dimensions our brains cannot perceive. Wondering whether in another dimension we can move time so that we don't think of it as chronological. There cannot be a "this happened first" if time can move any which way.
I love thinking about all the questions that we cannot understand, about time, about space, about what our brains perceive that we don't recognize.
Last night I heard an interview with Jason Padgett who suffered a traumatic brain injury which left him able to see the geometry in everything (it also left him with debilitating OCD, which I also found interesting). I have his book, Struck by Genius, on reserve at the local library and almost cannot contain my excitement to read it. Listening to him talk was fascinating.
If I could be anything at all in the world, I would be an astrophysicist. I rarely think of myself as having grand designs for any of my children, but I admit there is a secret part of me that hopes G (the most existential/mathy/geeky of the bunch at this juncture) will go along some kind of physicist route.
I have no natural talent in this regard. I despised geometry in high school and flunked my final, but I wish I did have a better understanding of it. D watched a TED talk recently about black holes, and though I was in the kitchen and attempting to cook dinner (therefore only half listening), I enjoyed what I did hear. I like that fuzzy, kind of exhausted feeling in my brain that happens when I begin thinking about time and space.
Yesterday, as part of some professional development I did for the cottage school, I took a multiple intelligences test for myself. I scored highest in Verbal (shocking!), Intrapersonal (also a bit shocking), and Naturalistic. My lowest scores were Musical, Interpersonal and Visual.
My highest scores put me equally "balanced" in terms of analytic, interactive and introspective (for whatever that's worth). It reaffirmed that I should probably be doing what I'm doing---being a writer and a Language Arts teacher.
But it also made me think of how cool it would be to be something completely different.
I think D has had a big impact on my increased interest in science fiction. He is a true sci/fi nut and tends to read it exclusively (along with fantasy). I read most of the Dune series after he and I watched the miniseries in 2000. It is certainly not the primary genre I read, as evidenced by my Goodreads list, but the ones I have read, like Dune, stick with me--- Old Man's War by John Scalzi, Time Machine by H. G. Wells, Children of Men by P.D. James.
Some 15 years ago, a student recommended Ender's Game to me, and I loved the entire series. I have gone on to read and like (as much as you can like) dystopian novels, which are closely aligned with sci/fi.
My latent interest in sci/fi is probably more expressed in terms of the films I love, like Inception and now Interstellar. We watched this last weekend, and I'm still thinking about it. Thinking about time and the various dimensions our brains cannot perceive. Wondering whether in another dimension we can move time so that we don't think of it as chronological. There cannot be a "this happened first" if time can move any which way.
I love thinking about all the questions that we cannot understand, about time, about space, about what our brains perceive that we don't recognize.
Last night I heard an interview with Jason Padgett who suffered a traumatic brain injury which left him able to see the geometry in everything (it also left him with debilitating OCD, which I also found interesting). I have his book, Struck by Genius, on reserve at the local library and almost cannot contain my excitement to read it. Listening to him talk was fascinating.
If I could be anything at all in the world, I would be an astrophysicist. I rarely think of myself as having grand designs for any of my children, but I admit there is a secret part of me that hopes G (the most existential/mathy/geeky of the bunch at this juncture) will go along some kind of physicist route.
I have no natural talent in this regard. I despised geometry in high school and flunked my final, but I wish I did have a better understanding of it. D watched a TED talk recently about black holes, and though I was in the kitchen and attempting to cook dinner (therefore only half listening), I enjoyed what I did hear. I like that fuzzy, kind of exhausted feeling in my brain that happens when I begin thinking about time and space.
Yesterday, as part of some professional development I did for the cottage school, I took a multiple intelligences test for myself. I scored highest in Verbal (shocking!), Intrapersonal (also a bit shocking), and Naturalistic. My lowest scores were Musical, Interpersonal and Visual.
My highest scores put me equally "balanced" in terms of analytic, interactive and introspective (for whatever that's worth). It reaffirmed that I should probably be doing what I'm doing---being a writer and a Language Arts teacher.
But it also made me think of how cool it would be to be something completely different.
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