Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

«

»

A real life Reason Cansino

Reason Cansino, the protag of my Magic or Madness trilogy, is somewhat of a mathematical prodigy, but she pales in comparison to Terence Tao:

By age two, he had learned to read. At 9, he attended college math classes. At 20, he finished his Ph.D.

Now 31, he has grown from prodigy to one of the world’s top mathematicians.

. . .

“I always liked numbers,” he said.

A 2-year-old Terry Tao used toy blocks to show older children how to count. He was aquick with language and used the blocks to spell words like “dog” and “cat.”

. . .

At age 5, he was enrolled in a public school, and his parents, adminstrators and teachers set up an individualized program for him. He proceeded through each subject at his own pace, quickly accelerating through several grades in maths and science while remaining closer to his age group in other subjects. In English classes, for instance, he became flustered when he had to write essays.

“I never really got the hang of that,” he said. “These very vague, undefined questions. i always liked situations where there were very clear rules of what to do.”

Assigned to write a story about what was going on at home, Terry went from room to room and made detailed lists of the contents.

I love that last image of the boy writing lists, rather than a story. Though, of course, depending on how he ordered them, they could well wind up being one. Harper’s Index is jampacked with stories. Many of them deeply disturbing.

I can’t imagine Reason making lists in quite that way (though in the early chapters of Magic or Madness she is pretty methodical as she notes the contents of the rooms of her grandmother’s house) but I can totally see her using blocks to teach other kids to count. And if she were to survive the last book of the trilogy1 I see her going on to be a mathematician. Maybe she’d be working on primes just like Mr Tao. They do sing to her.

The Times article on Tao is a lovely portrait of someone who hasn’t been wrecked by being a prodigy. Nice to have a counter to all those stories of prodigies who crash and burn.

  1. Do not ask for I will not tell you. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 15:41, 13 March 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Science, State of the World, Sydney/Australia | 9 Comments »

Comments

  1. Kelly Jones Says:

    Did you hear the article Elizabeth Bear linked to the other week?
    I think Daniel Tammet would call himself another person whose life has not been ruined by the way his mind works.
    (There’s a link to the first chapter of his autobiography, too — fascinating!)
    –Kelly

    March 13th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

  2. Little Willow Says:

    Math rules. Lists rule. I could definitely make a book out of my lists.

    March 13th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

  3. da Says:

    and has been awarded the Field Medal, maths equivalent of Nobel prize

    March 13th, 2007 at 7:52 pm

  4. Steve Says:

    A writer friend of Holly’s… I forget his name but he was at a signing at Books of Wonder, said that so many child prodigies burn out. I’m always fascinated by the survivor tales.

    March 13th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

  5. 5. Justine Says:

    Da: Indeed, he has won the Field. I also totally forgot to mention that he’s an Aussie boy.

    Steve: I suspect that there are heaps of child prodigy who don’t so much as burn out as they stop being prodigies. But yeah it’s very cool that Tao has gone onto be a leader in his field. (And not just because he’s Australian.)

    March 13th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

  6. Dawn Says:

    Dont’ worry, I won’t ask. I hate having a surprise be spoiled. Its horrible!

    March 13th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

  7. scott w Says:

    you also forgot to mention that he works in number patterns, though primes instead of fibs.

    March 14th, 2007 at 5:19 am

  8. Elmo Says:

    And that means, what, exactly?

    March 15th, 2007 at 5:44 am

  9. Tap Says:

    How can Reason narrate in the first person and not survive? Hmm…

    May 19th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

<-- -->