Oliver Sacks
Born in London in 1933. Ostracized by his family due to his sexuality. San Francisco, weight-lifting, drugs. IQ near 200, UCLA, neurology, New York. 18 books authored, professor, a genius of case histories. Played by Robin Williams in the movie “Awakenings.” Died of cancer in 2015.
Welcome to our winter of Oliver Sacks:
The Science of Seeing | The Art of Being Seen
“To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need freedom (or, at least, the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves, whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning technology, or in states of mind that allow us to travel to other worlds, to rise above our immediate surroundings.
We may seek, too, a relaxing of inhibitions that makes it easier to bond with each other, or transports that make our consciousness of time and mortality easier to bear. We seek a holiday from our inner and outer restrictions, a more intense sense of the here and now, the beauty and value of the world we live in.”
As always, choose your level of participation:
Below, we have the Essentials level, then there’s the Fullest Experience for the brave souls. We will be gathering in mid-January to discuss the book An Anthropologist on Mars.
-
-
For a more playful deeper dive into all things neurology:
Listen to RadioLab’s podcast episode entitled “Musical Language.”
Watch YouTuber VSauce’s episode “Why are Things Creepy?”
Watch Jill Bolte Talyor’s TED Talk “My Stroke of Insight”