tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post1379840053923357168..comments2023-11-05T04:09:53.857-05:00Comments on Something Short and Snappy: Cat's Cradle Chapters 5-8Erika The Over Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03649072707709302370noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-19729269566803609262013-05-19T07:15:19.391-04:002013-05-19T07:15:19.391-04:00I liked these chapters. I like Felix. I like playi...I liked these chapters. I like Felix. I like playing with string too. The slapping didn't bother me. It's what siblings do. *shrugs*Anonymusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2946534773407276339.post-80503839378132613852013-05-12T09:22:13.497-04:002013-05-12T09:22:13.497-04:00Felix is an interesting character, though we only ...Felix is an interesting character, though we only know of him through what other characters tell Jonah. I'm not sure I would say he's "innocent," exactly. He's more like a Sherlock Holmes, paying no attention to anything that doesn't strike him as important for his work (remember in A Study in Scarlet where Holmes tells Watson he doesn't care if the earth goes around the sun or vice versa because it has nothing to do with his work?). Felix probably doesn't have the same notion of the mind being like a closet which only holds so much stuff, but the principle is the same. <br /><br />When I first read this book as a teenager, I thought Felix was a little over the top, but having married into a family of scientists, I see him as a somewhat realistic, if also a bit exaggerated, version of a particular type of scientist. There are people out there who are so focused on their work (not just scientists, of course) that the rest of the world simply doesn't exist, or if it does, exists as a momentary distraction, to be dealt with and then ignored. Some people would see this as sociopathy, some would see it as a version of autism, but I'm not sure it's really either. <br /><br /><br /><br />One of the things I see in this book is a kind of pervasive sadness. None of these people is happy; no one has a good life, and even things that seem to alleviate the misery of their lives turn out to be illusory (don't want to give spoilers, but poor Newt!).Noranoreply@blogger.com