Susan Cain: Quiet

Susan Cain's best seller Quiet (2012) is a book that examines the differences between introverts and extroverts and how they communicate between themselves and with each other. It is easily the best psychology book I have read in the past ten years because it has helped me to better understand myself and the world around me.

Susan Cain is a Princeton and Harvard lawyer who gave up her profession in 2005 to research and write this book. Beyond examining the most important books and research papers available, she has also talked to hundreds, if not thousands, of pertinent people about the subject. She starts by explaining how Carl Jung's Psychological Types (1921) first popularized the terms introvert and extrovert and proceeds to a short test of twenty questions to help you determine what you are. Although no all-purpose definition is available, introverts generally feel right with less outside stimulation, they would rather sip wine with a close friend, solve a crossword puzzle or read a book as opposed to getting a bang from meeting new people, skiing slippery slopes and cranking up the stereo. They work slowly and deliberately, they focus on one task at the time, they dislike conflict and are relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame. Note here that introvert is not a synonym for hermit, shyness or misanthrope. Extroverts tend to prefer talking to listening, add life to a party, become assertive and dominant and prefer conflict to solitude. I had bypassed many a dinner invitation (in fact dinner itself) for a good book so I knew I was an introvert although the extent surprised me: I scored 95%. It turns out that a third to a half of the human population is made of introverts, so we are hardly a minority!

An Eye for an Eye?

Fantasy Land is my novel of revenge, or more precisely, of a revenge that is planned but not carried out. And this seems to be the chief objection of some of my readers, as expressed to me in person or by mail. They claim that they were not emotionally justified by the result. Reader I know that when someone slaps you in the face you want to slap them right back. But let me explain to you why this is not the wisest course to follow.

Revenge or retaliation is the infliction of deliberate harm on somebody in response to a harm they have done to you. Revenge is basically an emotional response to being hurt, and being an emotional response, it goes way back to primitive man. It was, and is, common to most societies emerging from savagery and tribalism toward some sort of civilization.

Two important documents of the ancient world (both about 700 BC) show us that retaliation was a justifiable as well as an advisable course of action back then. In the Hebrew Book of Exodus, (21:23-25) we read that “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” This line, often quoted, in essence justifies revenge.