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September 26, 2005
The genie that couldn't completely emerge from her lamp... (Cheesy, yes)
Perhaps I will start out by referring to my cheesy blog title... Well, Genie in a way, is kind of like a mythical genie, confined and put away, longing to get out, but can only do so when someone from the outside comes along to release her. Genie herself was stored away, in unimaginable confinment. She too, was eventually (after an mind-boggling amount of time) released, exposed to a whole new world. The researchers that found her, although they did care for her greatly, saw her as something that could fulfill some of their dreams - she was infact the "forbidden project", and this opportunity to study her and her situation was incredible exciting for them. Genie did provide lots of fascinating information, but never really enjoyed it as much as those who found her did. Sadly, in the end, she ended up in a similar situation to returning inside the lamp; isolated from the world out and around her.
I'm sure that sounded really corny, but I thought it was an interesting analogy!
Genie really fascinated me. She looked like such a cute, innocent, pretty liitle girl, with such big, expressive eyes that sometimes seemed like a window into her soul. She had endured so much unbearable confinement, and nevertheless, she was never really agressive or violent towards anyone to release any anger. It almost seemed like she did not feel anger, but more fear and frustration.
It is interesting to thing about Genie in terms of brain development, especially after reading Chapter 2 on Brain and Language. Was she in fact mentally retarded from the beginning, which perhaps lead to her being locked away? Or was her confinement, her isolation without conversation, what damaged, or prevented her brain from developing properly? It is difficult to decipher exactly in Genie's case, as there is evidence for her being retarted, like her brain signals when she is dreaming, yet there is also evidence in the theories of brain localization and the critical period that suggest otherwise.
Some think the whole Genie "experiment" was one hundred percent ethically wrong, but I do not agree completely. It was a very difficult, rare, exciting situation, that had an abundance of potential to provide crucial information we cannot get otherwise. Yet, I do wonder, perhaps they should have taken more time to think over what they would do with Genie exactly before actually doing it, without considering alternatives. For example, it was mentioned that if they tried teaching Genie sign language earlier on, not only would they have been more successful, but Genie would have been too.
Posted by lcisthur at September 26, 2005 08:58 PM