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A review by aish_dols
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
4.0
We seek pleasure in extreme ways that need questioning; in ways to forget pain, ways that do lead to pain and a baseless feeling of emptiness when the pleasure seeking methods we rely on fail us, harm us. That's what I have drawn, amongst other things from Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi.
Yaa, with T.K. dives in an emotion summoning manner, into religion and science. The two are like contrasting directions that sometimes meet, directions that Gifty, a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Standford School of Medicine, is struggling to follow. Her research revolves around studying addiction in mice and how to find a solution to this problem that ruined her family through Nana, her brother who was a star athlete. Gifty had said: "Nana's addiction had become the sun in which all of our lives revolved. I didn't want to stare directly at it." // Even with all her 'hardness' in coming to terms with the fact that her family of four, was now of two and the relationship with her and her mother who now suffered from Anhedonia was suffocating, she wanted to find solace in her faith which used to be firmer when she was younger. How do you mix science with religion? How do you battle with the darkness in your soul when what you do is study the brain and this needs more logic than emotions? Why do we seek pleasure in ways that displease God? How can we come to terms with our sinful nature? Why do we always want to escape this world? Is it the pain? Why can't we give in to Him without slipping? Is it because of our nature? Can science really give us all these answers? I don't think so. T.K. will mess with your feelings and make you ask yourself a lot of questions.
Yaa, with T.K. dives in an emotion summoning manner, into religion and science. The two are like contrasting directions that sometimes meet, directions that Gifty, a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Standford School of Medicine, is struggling to follow. Her research revolves around studying addiction in mice and how to find a solution to this problem that ruined her family through Nana, her brother who was a star athlete. Gifty had said: "Nana's addiction had become the sun in which all of our lives revolved. I didn't want to stare directly at it." // Even with all her 'hardness' in coming to terms with the fact that her family of four, was now of two and the relationship with her and her mother who now suffered from Anhedonia was suffocating, she wanted to find solace in her faith which used to be firmer when she was younger. How do you mix science with religion? How do you battle with the darkness in your soul when what you do is study the brain and this needs more logic than emotions? Why do we seek pleasure in ways that displease God? How can we come to terms with our sinful nature? Why do we always want to escape this world? Is it the pain? Why can't we give in to Him without slipping? Is it because of our nature? Can science really give us all these answers? I don't think so. T.K. will mess with your feelings and make you ask yourself a lot of questions.