A writer/editor gets a part time job teaching creative writing at an art college, and meets a young woman who radiates such joy-- all the time-- that he begins to wonder if she's mentally ill. A scientist whose thirst for knowledge has led him to many ground-breaking discoveries, as well as fame and fortune, seeks the genomic key to mood and attitude. A journalist, whose television career deeply disappoints her highly intellectual parents, amazes the American public with a hip layperson's guide to science in TV form. And a counselor who loves helping people above all else falls in love.
I won't tell you how these threads fit together-- I will tell you it's not in the usual way. There is some metafiction involved (not necessarily a good thing, in my opinion.) According to the Free Online Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com), metafiction is "fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions." In generosity: an enhancement, it's a tool that awakens you to the idea that the book is a philosophical or moral challenge, a thought experiment rather than 'just a story'.
This book is outside of my usual genres: I guess I'd call it contemporary literature, if I had to put it in a box. It's a peculiar book, but it kept me interested all the way through, with some perplexity and plenty of amusement. I'm still thinking about what it would mean to live in a world where it would be possible to predetermine the happiness of your children--if you had enough money. Would it then seem irresponsible to have children if you couldn't afford to change their chromosomes? Would it cheapen the highs if the lows never got very low? Would people seem callous, always happy no matter what the circumstances? Lots of food for thought-- check it out. Click the image above to go to generosity in our catalog.
I won't tell you how these threads fit together-- I will tell you it's not in the usual way. There is some metafiction involved (not necessarily a good thing, in my opinion.) According to the Free Online Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com), metafiction is "fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions." In generosity: an enhancement, it's a tool that awakens you to the idea that the book is a philosophical or moral challenge, a thought experiment rather than 'just a story'.
This book is outside of my usual genres: I guess I'd call it contemporary literature, if I had to put it in a box. It's a peculiar book, but it kept me interested all the way through, with some perplexity and plenty of amusement. I'm still thinking about what it would mean to live in a world where it would be possible to predetermine the happiness of your children--if you had enough money. Would it then seem irresponsible to have children if you couldn't afford to change their chromosomes? Would it cheapen the highs if the lows never got very low? Would people seem callous, always happy no matter what the circumstances? Lots of food for thought-- check it out. Click the image above to go to generosity in our catalog.
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ReplyDeleteThanks, Catherine! I appreciate your reading. It looks like you found it as interesting as I did! I must admit, although I didn't want to give the ending away in the main blog, I was disappointed by Power's decision to imply that Thassadit's happiness, in the end, was entirely corruptible. I wasn't sure if he was trying to skewer American culture or if he was just implying a type of bipolar disorder after all.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that dime/chocolate study, and the one about how losing $20 felt exponentially worse than finding $20 felt good. Nice to keep those little quirks of human nature in mind, to help maintain perspective!