Can you BELIEVE this?!!!

[Helyna]

I'm reading the book Xenocide by Orson Scott Card, sequel to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Basically, humans have spread over the galaxy to planets semi-connected through lightspeed communication but slow travel. One of the planets has a Chinese-influenced culture, and there are people called "The Godspoken" who, obvious from the name, are priest-like and honored. Well, I learned that in the first chapter, but in the first paragraph of the third chapter I realized suddenly that the Godspoken have OCD.

It's not just that it's more common for them to have it or something. That's what makes them Godspoken. Parents look for excessive concern with cleanliness in their children. Bleeding hands from washing is a cause for excitement. The messages from the gods are the feelings of filthiness and the intrusive thoughts, and rituals are the mark of this happening. I haven't decided what I think of this yet (whether it's good or bad). Right now, I'm just amazed!!!!! What a way to look at the world!

P.S. Don't get confused: I don't have OCD, but we're all part of the same thing.

 

[JonnyD]

it actually remembered me of a article i read in a science magazine a while ago. they explained how smeagol, from the lord of the rings, was diagnosed with a series of disorders and compulsion.

looking up a litte i found this , telling that , among others , smeagol has schizoid personality disorder and multiple personality disorder

i think there's many cases like those, primarelly in fiction media quite interesting

ps: this book looks cool

 

[subvertedkhaos]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 21 22 24 25 654 84 4448526 57426 62248 254



________
| |
| |
| |
|_______|

 

[worrywort]

WOW! I LOVE that! I think that is DEFINITELY a good thing!.....I love this idea that the things society considers weaknesses god considers strengths. Maybe there are great benefits to be found in SA. Maybe the isolation and non conformity can shape us to be especially adapted to certain tasks.

 

[getbornagain]

sorry to burst your bubble but that means absolutely nothing. it's a fictional book....

 

[Helyna]

sorry to burst your bubble but that means absolutely nothing. it's a fictional book....

Sooo??? My point was that OCD was portrayed in that manner. People read this, you know. It's a sequel to Ender's Game.

JonnyD: I read the link you posted, and it was hilarious! To hear a fantasy character treated like a serious psychological case to be diagnosed!

 

[Hoth]

The messages from the gods are the feelings of filthiness and the intrusive thoughts, and rituals are the mark of this happening.

Sounds like OSC was making commentary on the tendency of popular religions to say that people are impure and unclean. Original sin, for the Christian example. If the gods really are disgusted by us, then the OCD need to be clean would be a natural response. Though I'm not sure how that would fit into a Chinese influence, I don't know enough about Chinese culture.

(Haven't read the book, so I'm taking a wild guess. Oddly enough, the only Orson Scott Card book I've read was a book on how to write books.)

There are always people who will think you're special for being weird. In school there were people who thought I must be a superhuman genius just because I didn't talk (and others who thought I was retarded for the same reason). Oddness attracts extreme evaluations, because people want to create a reason or story behind it.

 

[Neph]

i love orson scott card's books!

i only got as far as Speaker for the dead

but my library card ran out + fines :S

good books even if they are kinda sci fi which i dont really read as much of

 

[durda_dan]

Strange, i was out at a bar last night me my girlfriend and my good friend (with depression) and we were talking and my depressive friend had a break down and it made us all kinda sad. well at the end of teh night i went home with my girlfriend and she was crying in the taxi and asked why good people like me her and callum(the depressed man) have problems with our heads, But assholes all around the world have no mental problems it seems

and i wasn't too drunk but a little, and i ended up telling her that is Gods way of telling us he loves us.
Because he gives us this he beleives we have what it takes to overcome this, and that people who don't have problems are the ones who God thinks would fail under the pressure of these problems.

right now i read the Godsend thing and i'm all deja vuing

 

[Helyna]

Oddly enough, the only Orson Scott Card book I've read was a book on how to write books.

:lol:
I read one of those, too.

Well, I said I wasn't sure whether it was good yet because I hadn't read the whole book. And, naturally, it's more complicated than it first appeared. Also, it wasn't entirely realistic as I understand OCD, but maybe he didn't want to get too deep into it.
1. It's not quite the same as OCD. It turns out these people know about OCD (they consider it "people inadvertently acting like godspoken"), but a few hundred years ago, these people appeared who had all the symptoms but couldn't be helped with the normal medicine. It was a slightly different gene.
2. All of the godspoken are highly intelligent. That's connected to the not-quite-OCD gene.
3. They all seem to have only two rituals: handwashing and a more unique one.
4. There seems to be only one intrusive thought: "I am filthy beyond comprehension."
I won't tell you more. You can read the book yourself.