I've just been reliving my childhood reading the Jinny at Finmory books with DD. Now I read it as an adult I sympathise so much with her parents but I'm also wondering if Jinny had ADHD.
She never paid attention in school despite being very intelligent, was highly compulsive, always taking off at inappropriate times without a thought for danger, very creative and imaginative and of course hyper focused on Shantih and her art. She also never seemed to hold down any friendships as she was too busy galloping over the moors, even poor Sue got fed up with her behaviour in the end.
Not that it matters at all, but DD is awaiting ADHD assessment and it is striking a chord, nice for her to have a character to identify with (Although not to emulate please I'd have a fit if she buggered off over the moors all day alone age 12!). I wonder what other children's characters would be officially neurodiverse if they were written about today?
AIBU?
To think Jinny had ADHD
CallMeMousie · 06/10/2022 10:35
Am I being unreasonable?
30 votes. Final results.
POLLshipwreckedonhighseas · 06/10/2022 13:38
Definitely!
Not Anne. She could focus well when she wanted to. I think the extreme day dreaming and talkativeness was a trauma response in the plot, expressing the manic aspect of the author's mental health disorder in rl.
Pumpkinsbeinghitbyfallingapples · 06/10/2022 13:55
I haven't read those books for years! I think I still have a couple somewhere
There is a mother in one of the Georgette Heyer books, not a main character, who is portrayed as lazy but definitely comes across as someone with ME or some other chronic fatigue illness
Also - not entirely related but I had a horrifically bad chest infection last year. Multiple bouts of antibiotics, steroids, chest x rays. It came on really fast so I went from slight cough to not being able to breathe properly over the course of one day because I was coughing up so much fluid I couldn't get the air in. As I was recovering I watched a period drama and in it a woman died with the exact same symptoms as mine. It was sobering to realise how close I came to dying if I had lived in an earlier time or in a country where I was too far from easily accessible/affordable medical treatment.
Handsnotwands · 06/10/2022 13:43
i never knew how to say Shantih, my friend says shanTiTH and it drove me mad but i didn't know what it should be to correct her
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CallMeMousie · 06/10/2022 12:10
Oh @Beowulfa I've just ordered that book thank you!
@ComtesseDeSpair I do see your point but honestly just having some idle fun. I identified strongly with Jinny as a child but am pretty sure I don't have ADHD. At the end of the day we are all human and trying to live our lives as best we can. Equally I think people too often see the 'label' for kids being diagnosed nowadays when 40 years ago they would have just been quirky and free spirited. I'm not sure Pat Leitch was either writing about neurodiversity or an allegory for female societal constraints, she just wrote a very vivd and appealing character who spoke strongly to a lot of young girls. But reading it now it's nice for DD (and me) to see someone with character traits who resonate with her so strongly and I can't feel bad about that!
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