Ah, Felix's madness (both from his p.o.v. and Mildmay's dealing w/it) was what really made the book for me. Part of why it worked from my take is that the way he related to both people and the atmosphere around him is quite akin to how a certain cringing part of my brain works when I'm either deeply depressed or in the grip of a really bad migraine, sans hallucinations. Which could be an argument in your favor, I guess (I don't *think* I'm clinically insane), but I always thought that particular part of my thinking is usually a little off, and if that was the only part of my brain working in those episodes, I'd class myself as well and truly nuts.
This would be further backed by my experiences around people who occasionally do lose the more step-back-and-observe portion of their heads when the mood swings swamp them. I can't tell you how much I also identified w/Mildmay taking care of the crazy person and sort of angrily/humorously/desperately dealing w/keeping them from hurting themselves while waiting/hoping/praying for things to return to normal before it gets beyond workability . . .
The other, not-so-related-to-RL part of F's madness that I thought worked perfectly was how his crazy!perception was oftimes spot-on and more accurate in its assessment of people's character than our normal visuals would be, and the loosening of filters that let him see ghosts and atmospheric things that I assumed were really there, etc. Which I've always wondered about w/regards to some hallucinagenic experiences people have recounted -- how much is just distortion, and how much is seeing things in a completely valid way that normally isn't avaible. Heh, I could write an essay on this stuff and the book, so I'll stop myself now. (could possibly go on as well w/Snitter, tho it's been so many years since i've read that . . . in both cases, I really loved how well the author put us inside their heads and how well it worked for me, at least)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 06:18 pm (UTC)This would be further backed by my experiences around people who occasionally do lose the more step-back-and-observe portion of their heads when the mood swings swamp them. I can't tell you how much I also identified w/Mildmay taking care of the crazy person and sort of angrily/humorously/desperately dealing w/keeping them from hurting themselves while waiting/hoping/praying for things to return to normal before it gets beyond workability . . .
The other, not-so-related-to-RL part of F's madness that I thought worked perfectly was how his crazy!perception was oftimes spot-on and more accurate in its assessment of people's character than our normal visuals would be, and the loosening of filters that let him see ghosts and atmospheric things that I assumed were really there, etc. Which I've always wondered about w/regards to some hallucinagenic experiences people have recounted -- how much is just distortion, and how much is seeing things in a completely valid way that normally isn't avaible. Heh, I could write an essay on this stuff and the book, so I'll stop myself now. (could possibly go on as well w/Snitter, tho it's been so many years since i've read that . . . in both cases, I really loved how well the author put us inside their heads and how well it worked for me, at least)