The character of Petter that Gaarder created was highly innovative and interesting, the plot wasn't much though. But still a very worthy read solely because of its inventiveness. We meet Petter as a highly imaginative young boy who preferred his own company as the worlds he created in his mind were far more interesting. He was able to constantly churn out new ideas for stories, tv shows, radio programs, etc. He very soon used this ability to start an unofficial one-man show organization called "writer's aid". He basically gave his ideas to writers with writers' block for a sum. He had never wanted to be famous nor did he have the tenacity to sit down and write a complete story.
Although he preferred his own company, he was not a loner and was a womanizer until he met Maria, a Swedish art student ten years his senior. He told Maria his stories until it began to frighten her and Maria was also not one who could stay committed to one man. They later had a child but Maria had made Petter promise that he would never make contact with them nor acknowledge the child. Petter never fell in love with anyone again after Maria until he met Beate. Beate was about 20 years his junior and they had a whirlwind romance after meeting in Italy. It was when Petter began to tell her a strange tale of a ringmaster's daughter that Beate realized who he was. He had told her the same story 26 years ago when she was only 3. Petter was naturally devastated. The ending was a bit obscure. We don't really know what would happen to Petter in the end, I guess it's really all left to the readers' imagination.
I like that the book contained small bits of stories from Petter's imagination. Sometimes we all have these ideas or short stories/plots in our minds but we do not have the capacity or ability to fully develop them. And they remain as they are- ideas.
I think this book is less philosophical than the rest of his works but he did briefly mention some philosophical ideas from Descartes, Leibniz, etc when he created a story called "The Souls' Constant". The story went that there is a fixed number of souls allowed on earth, and that magic number was 12 billion. Once that quota was met, a small group of children borned into the world would be soulless. That's actually a very interesting idea. What are we really without souls ? An object, an animal? What are souls really? Consciousness, conscience? Are souls eternal? I remembered during BS a line was drawn between soul and spirit but I can't remember what it was now. Is there really a difference between the two and what is that difference? It says in Petter's story that those without souls were basically just animals, without a conscience, without emotions, etc. They killed without thinking, mated without feelings... But there are human beings who behaved like that too. Are they without souls or are they just psychologically damaged?
After reading the book, felt a little inspired to finish my story.
DR WILLIAMS CURED 7 YEARS AUTISM
ReplyDeleteI am sharing this testimony for my daughter who suffered autism for 7 years. I am doing this, because I was her mother and caregiver during her dark days and am very happy to share it so that others can be helped through DR WILLIAMS HERBAL MEDICINE. It was a tough a battle for her; I was not actually the one who hard autism, but bearing the burden makes me understand what parents whose children and love with autism go through.
Lesia now 19 and was diagnosed with autism at the age of twelve, for seven years, she fought against her diagnosis. I must admit it was never easy for us as a family; we had to constantly watch her, and answer questions that we couldn’t explain. On several occasions, she asked if she will ever stop having speech delay and get well like her school mates and be the best swimmer she dreamt of becoming. She was a very happy child; and had a ‘normal’ childhood and there was no suggestion that she would later on develop autism.
She refused to accept defeat and fought autism. She religiously kept to her medications in spite of their side effects. We all wanted a cure, so that she can chase her dream and live a normal life like every other child. But the more she takes these medications, the more her school grade drop. She couldn’t concentrate and we noticed that her memory was being severely adversely affected. Each time we went back to the hospital, her medicines were changed to a different one. Seems like, each change of drug brings about change in side effects. After about 6 years on Abilify , Geodon , and other medicines, it seemed the autism started to increase in frequency. I had to make effort to reduce her medicines with plans to eventually stop it all. We found an alternative treatment in homeopathy, which was better than her English drugs. Gradually, I reduced her drugs, and her autism were no longer as frequent as it was as when she was on conventional drugs.
With our little breakthrough with homeopathy treatment, we made further search for natural cure. Fortunately we saw testimonies about herbal medicines which cure autism. We saw a lot of claims though, contacted them and didn’t get a useful reply. Lucky for us, we finally got a reply from Doctor Williams, he directed us to his blog where we saw a lot of information about his herbal medicine . Without further delay I made a purchase for her, I switched her over to it. We had great breakthrough, that in 3 weeks, her autism reduced. After 1 months as Doctor Williams promised , all autism symptoms stopped. It was like a miracle for us. since all this days now Lesia became autism free. Her story is quite lengthy, I hope it also help someone out there.for more information you can email Dr Williams on drwilliams098675@gmail.com