An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
This book contains an extended, very sympathetic case-study of Temple Grandin, the world's most famous autistic person. I read it when my older son, Jonathan, was diagnosed autistic at age about 10. Obviously, given that it took so long to figure out why he was odd, he isn't that much like Grandin, but the book did give me some important insights. If you're autistic, your fundamental problem is that you don't naturally understand how other people think and feel. Many women summarize this as "you're like a man, but more so". If you're strongly autistic, you have so little ability to relate to other people that you don't even pick up language skills. People who are mildly autistic learn to speak, but they almost always talk in a more or less unusual way. Their prosody is odd (they speak with flat or unnatural intonation), and they haven't picked up all of the subtle rules that govern correct use of language. As a linguist, I can pinpoint some of the things Jonathan does. For instance, he forms certain WH-questions that aren't permitted in standard English. He'll say, of someone he likes, "What do you think I'm doing to Sarah?", to which the intended answer is "I'm missing her". Try explaining just why this is wrong! More seriously, he has trouble understanding why things are not permitted by the rules of social interaction, which can get him into trouble.What's fascinating about Temple Grandin is that she's shown how an autistic person can to a large extent overcome their problems, consciously learning behaviors which most people acquire without ever even knowing they are doing it. She's become a well-known advocate for autistic people, and argues convincingly that they often have compensating skills which "normal" people lack. I agree with her; I know a lot of mathematicians, and, once you are familiar with the literature on autism, it's obvious that it's not uncommon in the world of mathematics. You see that the ability to shut out the world and focus intensely on an abstract problem can be a huge strength.Jonathan, who's now 23, has an incredibly retentive memory. He can give you minute descriptions of things that happened to him when he was three or four years old. But he hasn't figured out how to get his act together and use his abilities systematically, and it's not clear he ever will.
Confession time ! I must admit - friends, judge not lest ye be judged - that I boohooed my way through the last part of Awakenings The Movie, with all those frozen people coming back to life and catching tennis balls and (spoiler alerts) then living life to the FULL for one brief shining moment, and doing the hoochy coochy, which is the only dance they could remember from the 1920s which is when they all froze up, and then Mr De Niro doing the herky jerk dance which was one of his own invention, and then reverting back to catatonia (the condition not the band) and to cap it all Robin Williams not asking out that hot nurse. I mean, boo hoo hoo! You had to have a heart made of the purest cabbage not to.Anyway, Oliver Sachs makes me queasy with a capital Q. He's peddling a modern freak show, in the politest possible way. As you probably know this book contains seven tales of psychological weirdness and it's all very further reaches of the human brain and yet the indomitable human spirit conquering all and isn't life wonderful. Feel-good autism with haemorrhages. I get the feeling someone calls up Dr Sachs and says "I found a good one for you, over in Montana, twin 70 year old sisters who all talk backwards and live in a house they made out of Herman's Hermits albums" and Dr Sachs is out of the door already, flagging down the nearest taxi, his laptop aquivering.It may be I'm being a trifle unfair here.
What do You think about An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (1995)?
Every time I read Oliver Sacks, I'm struck by how his somewhat folksy tone, with a British sensibility, meshes with his technical/medical sensibility to create his very distinctive voice. Sacks wants us to realize that the neurologically-impaired amongst us have real crosses to bear and yet, often, live lives they themselves feel whole in. One of the people we meet in this book is a surgeon with Tourettes. Another is a painter who obsesses, through his art, over the village in Italy where he was raised. All of the stories shared were intriguing in their own right and gave me pause, to think of my own mind's constructs and challenges. Gripe: hate footnotes of the nature those in this book take; often, it seemed, they could have been woven into the main text easily enough and would have made for a 'fuller' read. Easy to read, overall. Enjoyed it.
—Rhonda
For some reason, the essays of Oliver Sacks don't rock my world. He's got the attention-grabbing title thing down pat, and each case study does have a kernel of interest. But generally, I'd be just as happy if each essay were cut by 50% - most chapters didn't really sustain my interest to the end.Full disclosure: my faint generalized lack of enthusiasm for Dr S may stem from nothing more than guilt by association with Robin Williams. I have never denied being shallow.If you're in the mood for fun medical case studies (yes, I mean *you*, "House" fans), I'd recommend Berton Roueche's "The Medical Detectives", culled from his "Annals of Medicine" pieces in The New Yorker, over this collection.
—David
While reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, I felt as if Sacks wasn't spending enough time with each of his subjects; in this book I felt like he was spending too much time with each one. The details he gave of their lives were often not the details I wanted to know, and I found myself skimming through some of this. However, the people profiled have undeniably fascinating neurological conditions: an artist who suffers sudden-onset colorblindness; a man whose vision is restored after decades of blindness; a young man with a brain tumor which destroyed his ability to form new memories.I was looking forward to the chapter on Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autistic woman who is the subject of an excellent HBO movie, but it was mildly disappointing. I suppose my favorite chapter was the one about the surgeon with Tourette Syndrome.
—Jamie
