[stylist] writing outside our experience

[Christine Malec]

It's all pretty abstract unless you're trying to write about it.
Consciousness can be really loosely defined as being able to think about
thinking, reflect on reflecting, observe about observing: something distinct
from cognition, intelligence or conscience. He believed that the hemispheres
of our brains didn't connect as fully as they do today, so when confronted
by a new situation, people would hear a voice that they couldn't distinguish
as their own, so called divine. He begins by sighting the Iliad in which
characters commonly claim to have been told by the gods to do things, and
other characters accept this explanation as unremarkable. I'm only a quarter
of the way through the book and I'm not convinced, but it is slightly
informing me in my attempt to write about people whose world is very small
in a way I can't really imagine. It's hard to imagine innovation without
consciousness, because innovation seems to be a lot about if/then statements
and projecting into a hypothetical future. My protagonist must go on a
journey in which she'll encounter many new ideas and choices, so I may find
a way to integrate some of Jaynes's ideas. 

Cheers,
Chris.