Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Prodigy

It all started the day I was abandoned at birth by the library. Almost the minute after I was placed upon the cold stone doorstep I found I could read. Most people can't read until they are older but it came surprisingly easy for me.

I was thrown into some orphanage after a day or two but I was not a very happy child. The people at the "prison", my nickname for it, always sealed the archives and put a keep out sign by the door. I was always frustrated how they fortified the center of learning and after a year of planning I finally broke past the defenses at age 12. There I tucked all of the precious bits of info into the nooks and crannies of my brain. Unfortunately I was intercepted on my way out and was forced to flee the so called "orphanage".

I headed out to sea, and towards the Galapagos islands to learn the secrets of evolution. On the long voyage across the globe I met my mother. Our reunion was very brief -- she had a tragic accident while feeding the Mako sharks and met a very interesting demise. It was funny because she was smiling and laughing the whole time. When I reached the island I discovered the secrets of evolution and extinction. (I guess I'm a little stingy but I want to keep those secrets to myself.)

On the islands I discovered I was addicted to reading. I stole books from the local research facility and became notorious. One dark night, while swimming amongst the dolphins, I saw a strange figure sitting on the shore. At first I tried to flee however I was tired of just escaping my problems and approached the shadowy figure. The person introduced herself as Twyla Lee and said she was my cousin.

Finally, Twyla took me back to Castle Nyx where I could begin my work to write book reviews and thereby satisfy my addiction.

21 comments:

Twyla Lee said...

Welcome dearest Trooper to Castle Nyx and it's always open library.

Your dearest cousin,
Twyla Lee

Medeia said...

Hah, keep out signs amuse me. Don't people realize that they really mean "come right in there's something interesting back here... just don't get caught"?

Gabriel Gethin said...

It is a fact of human nature to want to do what it cannot. For example, when a sign reads "Do Not Touch" our first instinct is to touch it. I really don't see why we feel complelled to disobey. Anyone think they know why?

B. said...

Because our brains see the words "Do" and "Touch" and first puts together that simpler concept, before adding in the negative "Not", which restructures the entire sentence. That's partially right, although actually mostly would be because when we see the word "Touch" our brain thinks of touching (as in doing it, and in fact will probably do it subconsciously).

As for feeling compelled to disobey, it's part of wanting freedom and power over one's life and not following orders blatantly put out by an inanimate object. It may also be part of wanting to be different, in being able to do what others "cannot".

Anonymous said...

Hello.

Plus, it's a fact that all the best stuff is behind those sort of doors. Proven fact.

Twyla Lee said...

Curiosity.

-Twyla

Gabriel Gethin said...

Curiousity is one of the greatest and worst traits that humans possess. It can drive them to discover incredible things. The only problem is, sometimes they are incredibly bad things.

B. said...

Gabriel, explain more. What's a bad discovery?

Gabriel Gethin said...

Example: A guy walks up to a door. He is curious as to what lies on the other side of the door. Her reaches for the doorknob and opens the door. Inside is a very large amount of venomous snakes. The guy is then killed by the snakes because he was curious as to what was on the other side of the door. Now, this may seem like it doesn't apply to B's question because you might think that the contents of a room are not considered a legitimate discovery. So I will provide a second example. A man finds a strange powdery substance that he has never seen before. He doesn't know what to do with it. He tastes it but spits it out because it tastes terrible. Next, he tries to smoke it. When he puts the match on the powder, it explodes. The powder he never saw was actually gunpowder. His curiousity took him to his death but, he did discover the use of the unknown powder. The discovery was incredibly bad for the man because it brought about his death (by explosion of course).

B. said...

Discoveries in themselves are neutral actions, with no good or bad associated. Woo, a room full of snakes. Oh, it's gunpowder. The results of the discoveries, or how they were discovered, are events that can be interpreted as good or bad- darn, sucks that he died.

Medeia said...

On the guy with the gunpowder: that's not so much curiosity being harmful as a certain lack of thought. Now, curiosity cannot (or is less likely to) hurt you as long as you think through what you're going to do before you do it. For example if this guy had found the gunpowder and thought "woah, cool dude. wonder what'd happen if I smoked it..." and then figured out (with a little brain power) that smoking random powders is not a good idea, he'd probably still be alive.

Yours Truly said...

Gabriel, there is no bad discovery. People die while gaining knowledge but that doesn't make it a bad discovery. I think there is no such thing as a bad discovery because at least you get your answer. Also the fact that the man in your second example was killed after discovering the use could be considered a good discovery because in the future people could identify the powder. Basically the other people learned it was deadly at his expense.

Yours truly,
Trooper Cordell

Twyla Lee said...

Good point Trooper.

Your dearest cousin,
Twyla Lee

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...I think that there could be bad discoveries, but mostly in an ignorance-is-bliss sort of way.

Also, all of your examples are inaminate things. What if the the thing behind the closed door is other people? People always talk about eavesdroppers, but that doesn't really stop the curiousity, does it? But I think you definitly do find out a lot of things you'd rather not know that way.
But even if it sucks to know it, it's better than not knowing that it's going on behind your back.
Opinions?

Medeia said...

Mhm... knowledge is preferable to ignorance, in my opinion... even if it's not always something nice and full of butterflies and puppies

Anonymous said...

Exactly...it would really suck to figure out that your boyfriend's cheating on you with your best friend, but it's definitly better than it going on behind your back without you knowing it. At least in my opinion.

Yours Truly said...

I think that ignorance is not bliss but it's obvious that somethings are better left undiscovered. Let's say a man is being tortured. If he doesn't know anything, he won't betray anything.
From, Trooper Cordell

Nelly said...

I agree that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, but I still think that there are bad discoveries. Take the atomic bomb for example. Sure, it helped us end a war and gave us a bunch of leverage at the time, but now just about everyone's got one and not everyone is into the idea of using them wisely. Or even better than that, not using them at all.

It may have been better in the long run if that particular knowledge had been left undiscovered.

Gabriel Gethin said...

Well, I see your point Nelly but keep in mind that the same technology that helped us develop the atomic bomb also helped us develop nuclear power plants. Although they aren't renewable and therefore aren't "green," they do produce power efficiently.

Nelly said...

That's true and maybe that wasn't the best example because we did more than just create giant bombs with the technology. But you (hopefully) get my point.

Abby said...

Hahaha! I love these type of discussions!