Was my first fiction read in a while. Where do i even begin?

I think the premise of the novel is unique and is clearly what draws people in to read the book (at least that’s what drew me in). What I didn’t expect was just how much of an emotional (and depressing) ride the book was going to be!

For instance, I found that while the love subplot was a bit simplistic it really added to the drama of the story and (as someone who did not read too much about the book’s premise other than the IQ part) I did not expect this much drama interwoven with the book’s central theme. It definitely had me super engrossed and help contribute to me getting through this fairly quick!

WRT to the central theme, I think with my X/Twitter timeline being chalk-full of HBD preachers and IQ obsessives, this book helped to recalibrate the dehumanized perspective on IQ that I’ve come to adopt through some process of enculturation. By this I mean I’m so used to seeing people cite Richard Lynn and off-handedly use IQ as a prime quantifier of human worth that I’ve subconsciously begun to do the same.

IQ is very controversial topic and the book does well to address that at the beginning when the main character Charlie asks what IQ is to the staff and students at the university administering the experiment on him. He’s given many different answers and concludes that no one really agrees on what IQ is, reflecting the real life consensus.

I think that IQ as a subject is uncomfortable as it is (in the opinion of some) something that’s largely determined by genetics and is hard to alter past a certain point in development. Especially for those who like to think of themselves as smart (e.g. me) it’s tough to think about intelligence being this thing that’s as simply quantifiable as percentiles in a normal distribution. I at least don’t like the idea of having a specific number tied to my level of intelligence and having that aspect of myself taken out of my control. This is probably due to my ability in school being tied to my identity and with the odd chance that I’m simply ordinary, I feel it would be hard to cope with.

Before I continue to digress, I think the key message the book seeks to get across is that people with intellectual disabilities are people too, and in general, intelligence shouldn’t determine how you treat someone else. While clearly this is not too profound of a message I think in general it’s easy to “know” that say, being generous is good but, many people that “know” this are still not very generous. But, given a good demonstration of generosity in action, along with the benefits to the giver and the receiver, I believe that would be very convincing to make at least a few more people practice what they “know” a bit more.

That same logic applies here, I think it’s easy for me at least, to get on my high horse and hate on people for being dumb. Whether it is me yelling at another driver while I drive, or someone cutting me off at the grocery store, I tend to let my temper get the better of me and (privately) insult the person acting unintelligently.

With my recent effort at improving my morals (see the book I read right before this) I think this is probably the thing that I need to work on the most (i.e. I need to stop being so judgemental). Not just for me to become a better person overall, but I think that people who are harsh on themselves tend to apply the same criteria to those around them. I for one, am very insecure about my intelligence. I constantly second-guess myself and place such large importance on this aspect of myself. What if I learned to be more compassionate with myself wrt to my intelligence? Would this flow into my exchanges with others around me? Perhaps I need to think of Socrates’ line more…

"I neither know nor think I know”

Anyways, I suppose this served more as a diary entry than a book review but I guess that’s what good fiction does!