this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
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    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's a perspective on Mary Shelley that I hadn't considered. But she was reasonably well-adjusted and popular. And yes I do consider Frankenstein to be the first English science fiction.

[–] __Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand. Which authors are you referring to that created the genre and are neurodivergant?

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Great question. I'm not OP. But a bunch come to mind.

Disclaimer: Even in recent classic eras of science fiction, it wouldn't have been safe for authors (who need publisher trust to buy food) to get diagnosed as neurodivergent, so I feel like we're left with wether neurodivergent individuals embrace their work, rather than if the author ever acknowledged any personal neurodivergence.

Disclaimer: I'm not neurodivergent. I don't feel safe seeking a diagnosis. And things aren't binary, so what the hell. I do acknowledge it's interesting that I relate strongly with a bunch of these characters, and can bring them to memory quickly as some of my favorites...

With that disclaimed:

  • "The November People" by Ray Bradbury comes to mind. It explores how classic Hollywood "monsters" would handle themselves as roommates, mostly through exploring their mental diversity rooted in their physical/cultural differences.
  • Asimov's robot detective stories (start with The Caves of Steel) have protagonists whose planets effectively make them neordivergent anytime they visit another planet than their birth world.
  • "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Heinlein, is about a neurodivergent (for Earth) young man who grew up as the sole human citizen of Mars.
  • Philip K Dick's detective protagonist from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (aka Blade Runner) is clearly neurodivergent, as is his wife.

Edit: As others have mentioned, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, of course!

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social -1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Man, you very clearly don't know what neurodivergent means.

[–] crapwittyname@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This comment is useless. Why don't you start a discussion by giving some reason why you think none of the examples given are neurodivergent?

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 5 months ago

Because commenter thinks neurodivergence is an excuse to be rude.

[–] shoulderoforion@fedia.io 12 points 5 months ago (1 children)

i dunno, ok, but that's like saying the theory of relativity, or the mona lisa, was created by a neurodivergent and co-opted by normies. some of us are artists, and some of us work the fields. without either we all starve.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

It is funny. There are so many things in modern day that would be a dream come true to young me but it all goes dystopia and all the fantasy and scifi is one of those things. I thought I would love so much but so much is not done well. I sorta feel for gay people because being into scifi was a subculture but it going mainstream has greatly diminished the subculture as it sorta becomes unnecessary but I miss that small group feeling.

[–] abbadon420@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's not entirely true. There's still good sci-fi being made. Look at the expanse, dark, altered carbon.

I dont know much about newer books, but I m sure there's good scifi writers out there still. What comes to mind is ready player one, red rising, pines, although these are all 10 years old by now. It illustrates that it's not just the era of Heinlein and Asimov that counts.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah its not so much good sci-fi is not being made as there is such innundation that its more of a diamond in the rough kind of thing and Im talking more media than literature.

[–] Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Greg Egan, Iain Banks and Sam Hughes are good stuff, if you haven't.

Also, there's this amazing new genre, "LitRpg". Basically fantasy where an rpg type videogame became real.

Most of it is the usual dreck but some of it goes hard sf, delving into the existential stuff.

A couple of the rationalists have even taken a swing.

Try

Mother of Learning

Death after death

Friendship is optimal

So ya, real development is still alive.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

LitRpg

I don't think this is new; The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg was published in 1983 where players in a tabletop RPG get whooshed into the game world at the beginning of the book. Fun series.

[–] abbadon420@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

Also, jumanji

[–] rbos@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago

Sounds like isekai.

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Modern sci-fi was created by an extremely depressed widow that only thought about the social and scientific repercussions of bringing her husband back from the dead and put it in the form of literature. And appreciation for Sci Fi has been around for a very long time. Nosferatur, The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill, The Blob, The Day The Earth Stood Still, War Of The World's, etc...

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes an asshole is just an asshole.

[–] Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ah, you've read Heinlein and Lovecraft.

[–] Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 months ago

The worm criticizes the hawk for crawling improperly.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I don't really think so, unless you have a very broad definition of neurodivergence. In which case, yeah sure most all art is made by people who are not balanced happy individuals, now too. If you don't have that black hole of need inside you, you don't need to fill it.

HG Wells

Jules Verne

Mary Shelley

L Frank Baum

Heinlein

They seem like regular minded people just brilliant. I don't think of anyone as a "normie" though, my definition of normal is either it has to be broad enough to encompass a majority of the population, or it's meaningless because nobody is identical to anyone else, all broken in our own way and strong in our own way.

[–] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 1 points 5 months ago

Sure, "neurovanilla" people

[–] Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Black hole of need?

How about just different shapes of people, with differing tastes. Some obsess over money. Others over art.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Sure, but happy satisfied people aren't usually the ones who progress humanity forward in art or sport. I wouldn't describe it as neurodivergence, but do think it's the people who have a need that most of us don't.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Much like all other creative endeavors

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 1 points 5 months ago

being so acoustic about languages you make a book that is a global hit