Left handed vs right handed

Question: why do right handed people always assume everyone else is right handed?! (As you can probably tell, I'm a lefter!) But seriously, what is wrong with being left handed, its not like we -yes, I am speaking for every single left handed person in the world- chose to write with our left hand, although to be honest that is probably getting into a bit of a nature/nurture debate! But anyway, my point being, I don't think we should be judged based on how our brains developed....ok before I start ranting (ok, before I continue ranting...) let us look at the science of it all!


So studies suggest that 70%-90% of the worlds population is right handed, surely that makes left handed people more unique, that is a good thing right? So while researching possible reasons for the development of left handedness, so many theories were presented. For example, a slightly scary -in my opinion- theory is the of the 'vanishing-twin'. The thought that there was the left handed person was originally part of an identical twin pair but the right handed fetus failed to develop. Although this theory was 'disbunked' by scientists, it makes me feel a little uneasy! Perhaps more scientifically accurate research discovered specific alleles of at 'least one of the three single-nucleotide polymorphisms ....' was linked to left handedness. Although I didn't understood part of this -the end part to be exact- it shows that there are biological reasons for someone's preferred orientation! 


Like it or not though, left handed people are severely discriminated against in society, perhaps not on purpose but still! Think of all the products designed that  pose problems for left handed people to overcome: a computer mouse, a kitchen knife, a watch, a smudgy pen (when writing a left handed person will more than likely smudge the word they have just written as their hand moves across the page), cameras, then there are sports like baseball, pool, the list goes on and on. 


In a book entitled 'Right hand-Left Hand' by Chris Mcmanus of the University College London, it is explained that the number of left handed people is increasing and also that left handers as a group produce an above average level of high achievers. McManus explains that the brain of a left handed person is structured differently in a way that increases the range of abilities possible.  Along these lines, in 2006 a U.S study by Lafayette College and John Hopkins University concluded that for college educated people, left handers earned 10-15% more than their right handed counterparts. (A result in my opinion!).


So they say 1 in 10  people is left handed, should we penalise this 1 person for being different? Personally since I occasionally am that person, I think not. In my immediate family, it is 1 in 2 people that are left handed, sure it is strange odds, but why is that a bad thing? So many amazing people in history have been left handed: Albert Einstein, Bruce Willis, Leonardo Da Vinci, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama...the list goes on and on.  Sure it wasn't being left handed that made these people what they are today, but you have to ask yourself, does it really have that much of an impact considering how big a deal some people make of it?

reading the book vs watching the film...

If it’s a choice between watching a movie or reading a book, most of my friends would choose the movie, no question. In fact, they literally scoff at the idea of reading for pleasure. I’m the opposite.  As a past time or to round off a busy day, I find it relaxing and I love the feeling of losing myself in the story, of not knowing what time it is and not thinking about what else I have to do. Some things can be said in a book that in real life just seems cringey or soppy to a ridiculous degree, in a book it is ok! As I said though, in a technology obsessed day and age, I seem to be in a minority.

More often than people realise, movies are developed and based upon books. Obviously there are the more famous book series that lead to film series; Harry Potter is one example, the Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons another. I find it really interesting seeing the movie, but only after I have read the book. In my opinion, the quality of the book depends on the writer’s ability to make the reader imagine, by describing the characters and the story. The reader then has their own opinions and own perceptions of each character and the whole situation. By seeing the film afterwards you can then compare your preconceived thoughts to that of the screen writer/costume designer/director/actors and all the other people whose own perceptions of the book had a hand in creating the movie. The problem with seeing the movie before reading the book is you know have someone else’s perception of how the characters should look, how they should talk, how the story should progress, as opposed to your own. In the past few years it has felt like Hollywood has been making movies from my bookshelf; ‘My sister’s Keeper’ , ‘The Time travellers Wife’ and ‘The lovely Bones’, I read before the movies were released, it had been years since reading the former so in order to familiarise myself with my thoughts on the story again, I re-read it. A waste of time some may say, I completely couldn’t disagree more!

My issue with just seeing the movie/watching the tv series is the leniency the screen writer can have in terms with sticking with the book(s). For example, the tv series ‘True Blood’ doesn’t truly reflect the book series by Charlaine Harris upon which it is based.  My only issue with this is people judging the books based on the tv series, this may be extremely pedantic of me, it wasn’t me that wrote it, why should I care? I’m not going to lie, I don’t have an answer to that. It’s just one of those little pet hates I have regarding books/tv.

While we’re on the subject of frustrating things tv does regarding books, advertising for books. What I mean isn’t the WHSmith advert saying what books are on sale etc etc, it is the adverts that have characters and a deep voice reading snippets of the blurb. Again, I hear you ask what on earth my problem is? As stated, reading is all about the imagination, I don’t want to be reading a book and instead of my voice, I hear a booming deep middle aged American man voice. I also don’t want any inkling of what the setting is supposed to look like or the characters, I want to picture it myself, based on what the writer tells me. James Paterson and Andrew Gross are major culprits of this!

Ok, so I think my thoughts on this are quite clear, I like to read and I like to see the movie, I know that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, sometimes I just wish they’d understand where I am coming from as well!