Inspirations

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote here. It's been a long time since I've written generally, and I'm trying not to blame myself too much. I think most people would agree that the finishing of law school and commencement of bar study is sufficient excuse for a lapse. During this summer of bar study, I cannot bear to write much on my computer beyond my class notes and short things like email, livejournal comments, and instant messages. My headaches have been returning in force, so I've been spending a lot more time reading actual books than staring at screens.

I may have posted before, and I've certainly mentioned to people before, that the people in Oliver Sacks's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and their mental states would make fantastic fodder for alien races. I tend to hold in contempt alien races who are clearly just people with some or another exaggerated human trait or clearly based on a certain human civilization. They can be fun, no doubt, but it doesn't strike me as truly alien.

Along that line, I'm reading another Sacks book, "Awakenings," and this line jumped out at as something to file away for when my brain starts functioning again: "The problem of 'side-effects' is not only a physical but a metaphysical problem: a question of how much we can summon one world, without summoning others, and of the strengths and resources which go with different worlds." He's discussing the reactions of patients with Parkisonism to L-Dopa, which doesn't work like the drugs I'm used to: take a little bit for a little effect, take a lot for a stronger effect. It may start out working that way, but it tends to set off a whole chain of reactions, including increased sensitivity (like reverse tolerance).

Anyway, this seems like a wonderful way to think about a system of magic. And I was also wondering if a civilization made up of beings who alternated between states of Parkinsonism and L-Dopa dosing. Fun things to ponder, but now back to bar lecture.