INFJish book I read..

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acd

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I really wasn't sure where to put this.. Has anyone else ever read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler? Well, it's a really interesting book. The main character reminded me of mbti infj typology. The main character has this disorder called, "hyper-empathy disorder" in which if she sees the injuries of another, she will feel the other's pain and what's more, she'll actually bleed if they are bleeding. When she witnesses a person die, she goes unconscious.

In order for her to survive, it's kill or be killed (basically, society is chaos and crumbling) But every time she has to kill some one in order to escape, she feels the pain-- so she has to continually hurt herself by hurting others to survive. I hope someone else has read this book, or I hope someone will be interested in picking it up.
 
Can't INFJ's emphasize with others happinesses and joys instead of killing them and feeling bad about killing them? < If not, I am kinda sticking with the INFP thing. Buddhas Galore and Rainbows and Flowers for me. :smile:
 
It sounds interesting, merrytrees!

I'm going to move this over to the literature section, so others can find it easily.
 
mayflow said:
Can't INFJ's emphasize with others happinesses and joys instead of killing them and feeling bad about killing them? < If not, I am kinda sticking with the INFP thing. Buddhas Galore and Rainbows and Flowers for me. :smile:
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Well......without the rainstorms preceeding them....there wouldn't be any rainbows....and flowers are rooted in the remains of other plant's deaths....



:)
 
alcyone said:
Well......without the rainstorms preceeding them....there wouldn't be any rainbows....and flowers are rooted in the remains of other plant's deaths....



:)
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Hmmm. Interesting premises. Are you insinuating that rainbows and rainstorms are actually part and parcel of us all? But what if we think this is innappropriate for the young folks to hear? Maybe we should speak of this in shushed words over "adult" coffeetables, so they can't hear our "more mature" discussions?
 
mayflow said:
Hmmm. Interesting premises. Are you insinuating that rainbows and rainstorms are actually part and parcel of us all? But what if we think this is innappropriate for the young folks to hear? Maybe we should speak of this in shushed words over "adult" coffeetables, so they can't hear our "more mature" discussions?
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:(
 
mayflow said:
Hmmm. Interesting premises. Are you insinuating that rainbows and rainstorms are actually part and parcel of us all? But what if we think this is innappropriate for the young folks to hear? Maybe we should speak of this in shushed words over "adult" coffeetables, so they can't hear our "more mature" discussions?
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Nothing here that a kid can't know.

On the contrary, I've addressed the dark sides of our personalities before. I think they are as important as the light sides of our personalities.

Without the dark, one cannot value the light. And without the light, the dark has no purpose.
 
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alcyone said:
Nothing here that a kid can't know.

On the contrary, I've addressed the dark sides of our personalities before. I think they are as important as the light sides of our personalities.

Without the dark, one cannot value the light. And without the light, the dark has no purpose.
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Are you a fan of the Tao te Ching? I also agree. I have said nothing on this forum, nor do I intend to say anything that I don't think it appropriate for a child to know and or to question. Doesn't that seem reasonable to do? Now, light and dark are of course two aspects of the same thing, aren't they? But. Who is that person there that realizes this?
 
The people who realize this are:

1) the people who have actually thought about it

2) the ones who have experienced the extreme life lows
 
That sounds simply facenating to read, and one scary idea.

I don't think I could read it though, it would be too taxing for me.
 
OH MAN. I read this book in 9th grade. I loved it so much! No wonder I felt for her. It is such an INFJ book!
 
mayflow said:
Are you a fan of the Tao te Ching?
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Actually until you mentioned it and I googled it to read the synopsis in the wikipedia...I had no clue what the Tao Te Ching was.

I evolved my opinions on that sort of stuff myself. But I'm glad I'm not the only one!
 
mayflow said:
Can't INFJ's emphasize with others happinesses and joys instead of killing them and feeling bad about killing them? < If not, I am kinda sticking with the INFP thing. Buddhas Galore and Rainbows and Flowers for me. :smile:
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Well, um.. yes...
But that's not what the book is about. The book is about a girl living in a time period (the future) in which all of the problems our society is facing now go unchecked and are allowed to progress into the crumbling of civilization and basically utter disorder and lawlessness. So, people are basically killing each other at random (just because there's no law) and also to steal from them in order to survive. The idea is that in order for the main character and the people she is protecting to survive, she has to kill people who come after them.. but not without consequences that she can literally feel.

I thought it was extremely interesting because like you, I'm a peace-nik. I abhorr violence (even in movies!) and conflict.. but if it were necessary in order to survive, how would I deal with it? An infj, as an empathetic person, would probably internalize the pain if they chose to fight to survive.

ZEN- Thanks for moving the thread.. I really wasn't sure where to put it, and I figured it'd get moved anyways. Octavia Butler is an amazing sci-fi author, so I hope you will check her out!
 
THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE HERE WHO LOVES OCTAVIA BUTLER?!?! :: falls in love kidnaps merrytrees::

I went to a reading of hers when I was fifteen and she was SOOO nice to me and told me to be a writer! Unfortunately, I took her advice. HEE. She died not all that long ago strangely. Fell on some ice and broke her neck poor thing. Sci fi, is such a white male dominated world, that she brought realistic color and texture to her stories. It really is a loss.
 
I loved Octavia Butler, too. I just finished "Fledgling" a few months back, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed that one. Butler's style can be difficult to get into but once you do you're hooked.

She had a fantastic grasp on her characters...and the woman herself was either an INFP or INFJ, from what I could tell. You should really read her interviews; she was a fascinating woman.
 
JustNickey said:
THERE IS SOMEONE ELSE HERE WHO LOVES OCTAVIA BUTLER?!?! :: falls in love kidnaps merrytrees::

I went to a reading of hers when I was fifteen and she was SOOO nice to me and told me to be a writer! Unfortunately, I took her advice. HEE. She died not all that long ago strangely. Fell on some ice and broke her neck poor thing. Sci fi, is such a white male dominated world, that she brought realistic color and texture to her stories. It really is a loss.
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HAHA! Yay!! Someone else who adores her! And you got to meet her! I got into her when my friend took a Women's Studies course down at Purdue LaFayette and had to read Parable of the Sower. Being jealous that I didn't get to take such a class, she gave me all her notes and that book. Butler was explained to me as a black feminist sci-fi writer and I was intrigued because you're right, it doesn't seem there's much diversity in that area. You rock.
 
merrytrees said:
I really wasn't sure where to put this.. Has anyone else ever read The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler? Well, it's a really interesting book. The main character reminded me of mbti infj typology. The main character has this disorder called, "hyper-empathy disorder" in which if she sees the injuries of another, she will feel the other's pain and what's more, she'll actually bleed if they are bleeding. When she witnesses a person die, she goes unconscious.

In order for her to survive, it's kill or be killed (basically, society is chaos and crumbling) But every time she has to kill some one in order to escape, she feels the pain-- so she has to continually hurt herself by hurting others to survive. I hope someone else has read this book, or I hope someone will be interested in picking it up.
Click to expand...

Sounds like one of my friends who is an idealist.
 
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