The Island Of The Colorblind (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
I've loved Oliver Sacks for a long time, but up until now I'd only read and re-read The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. The Island of the Colorblind seemed like a natural next choice for me, because it combines my interest in neuropsychology with my interest in island biogeography (the study of the way species on islands evolve to become very specialized, to the point where an extremely high percentage of the species on any given island may be endemic to that particular island). The Island of the Colorblind actually contains two separate but closely related books of about 100 pages each, the first being the titular story, and a second called "Cycad Island." (The book also contains nearly another 100 pages of endnotes.) As Sacks says in the opening line of the Preface, "This book is really two books, independent narratives of two parallel but independent journeys to Micronesia." In "The Island of the Colorblind," he visits Pingelap and Pohnpei, two neighboring islands, to study the unusually high incidence of achromatopsia, or total colorblindness. As one comes to expect from Sacks, the text not only explores the condition and its effects on individuals and society, but also revels in the botany, zoology, and history of the islands themselves. Sacks is openly fascinated with so many facets of the world that it's hard not to share his excitement, and "The Island of the Colorblind" is a delight to read.The first half of "Cycad Island" picks up where "The Island of the Colorblind" left off - this time Sacks is visiting Guam to study a mysterious disease known as lytico-bodig. While this disease shows similarities to a number of other diseases, including Parkinson's, it appears to be a separate condition which exists only on Guam and some of its surrounding islands (and its cause and treatment, at least to the time of Sacks's writing, remain unknown). However, mid-way through "Cycad Island", the focus of the text shifts abruptly from his previous admixture of medicine, biology, and history to a strict discussion of cycads (a kind of primitive plant resembling ferns and palm trees). While cycads are closely related to his discussion of lytico-bodig (it has been suggested that the disease could be caused by toxins in the plants, since cycads are favored foods of the Chamorros people of Guam), the change in focus is abrupt, and the singlemindedness of his discussion does not reflect the charm of Sacks's usual diversity of interests, and for the most part becomes quite dry.I love Oliver Sacks and I'd heartily recommend reading anything of his. However, the sudden change in focus three-quarters of the way through The Island of the Colorblind kills the momentum of what is otherwise a delightful book. Also, the extensive use of notes in this text make it hard to follow the story well - either you ignore them (which I appear to be unable to do), or you stop every few paragraphs to read a full-page digression at the back of the book. It seems that Sacks was allowed to wax somewhat overindulgent in this book, and for this reason I wouldn't suggest it as the first place to visit Sacks's writing, although it's well worth a read if you already know and enjoy his other works.
“The Island of the Colorblind” by Oliver Sacks (1996)Oliver Sacks takes the reader along with him on a journey to the Micronesian island of Pingelap to research congenital achromatopsia, a genetic disorder that causes complete colorblindness. What was supposed to be a scientific novel turned out to be an elongated story about Sacks' vacation. The actual worth while scientific information is buried between unnecessary descriptions of the scenery and random scientific facts that had no correlation to the main purpose of the book. However, some of the discoveries about congenital achromatopsia on the island were quite intriguing as I have never heard of this disorder or its side effects before, thus making this information quite unique.Congenital achromatopsia is “hereditary total colorblindness” according to Oliver Sacks, and is the main focal point of this novel. Sacks does an excellent job writing and describing the world that these inflicted people live through every day. It is quite a beautiful way of thinking and seeing the world, given that it has no color, but rather just light and dark. He describes this colorblind culture as, “ a culture where the sensorium, the imagination, took quite different forms from our own, and where 'color' was so totally devoid of referents or meaning that there were no color names, no color metaphors, no language to express it; but (perhaps) a heightened language for the subtlest variations of texture and tone, all that the rest of us dismiss as 'grey'.” It is quite intriguing to think about not having color, something that we have grown up with and are so used to. Sacks allows us to ponder about this idea and try to see and understand more about these people and their condition. For this I commend Oliver Sacks.Although the information on congential achromatopsia was quite interesting and new, the rest of the book, to me, was the longest and hardest book I have ever had to read. For example, Sacks takes nearly three pages to try and explain how coral reefs were formed and the theories that scientists had created about this topic. The only correlation (or coral-ation if you will) that coral reefs had to this novel was that there was one near Pingelap, the island they were investigating. The entire time I was reading this section of this book all I could think was, “Alright, I understand there is a coral reef. That is great. Can we please get on with the investigation?” This was just one example of the redundancy this book exhibited. There were many other moments in this novel that were very similar, or even identical to this example of Sacks' unnecessary information and long winded descriptions.Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless you are prepared to power through the lengthy descriptions. Those who choose to read “The Island of the Colorblind” and are able to get to the main factual information will be filled with very interesting information. Not many people and books talk of congenital achromatopsia, making this knowledge unique and new to the public. It will be up to you whether you want to push through this book to gain this illusive knowledge.
What do You think about The Island Of The Colorblind (1998)?
Fairly different from other books by Sacks that I have read; it contains (in addition to the medical studies and mysteries that you would expect) island travelogue, botany, and a touch of autobiography, all written in Sacks' familiar warm, literate style. It is split into two main sections (plus a brief epilogue) both involving islands - the first half covers the titular Island of the Colorblind, Pingelap, while the second half discusses the mysterious lytico-bodig disease found among natives of Guam. As always, Sacks' writing is excellent, and I found the book interesting and readable (only occasional sloggy bits, usually found in the copious footnote entries) but ultimately I felt like it was a little bit padded and indulgent (despite the short length), and that more trim, tightly-edited versions of these stories belonged as part of a longer book like Sacks' "Anthropologist on Mars".
—Joe Silber
As an admirer of Oliver Sacks’s clear, inquisitive articles on neurobiology, I was saddened to discover that his travelogue of Micronesia is both patronizing and exoticizing. Throughout this book, Sacks employs the same tone he uses when discussing patients with debilitating medical ailments, a kind of sympathetic wonderment at the bizarre feats performed damaged brains. Here, this tone is applied to entire populations and cultures, as when he describes the ponderously fat islanders whose diets include vast quantities of Spam. He casually remarks that the Micronesians might have practiced cannibalism, and that Spam’s popularity might therefore be attributed its similarity in flavor to the taste of human flesh.Needless to say, this is a preposterous and racist supposition. In the Pacific islands (where I grew up), communities and economies were devastated by both World War II and decades of colonial occupation. People became dependent on Spam and other high-sodium, high-fat, high-sugar tinned products imported and distributed by the United States military. Obesity and diabetes are the natural consequences of replacing a native, lean, seafood diet with one manufactured by ConAgra. But Sacks is delighted by the possibility of remote island peoples retaining their primitive (and putative) taste for human flesh, and so fails to explore the more prosaic, less sensational truth.Elsewhere, he is paternalistic in a reflexive, unthinking way. He described seeing beautiful children running in packs, as wild animals, and his urge to pluck them up and keep them. It is an offhand remark, but one that stings. This kind of thoughtless condescension, wherein he treats islanders as exotic foreign specimens rather than people, crops up repeatedly.Still, Sacks is a terrific writer with an unrivaled instinct for describing the indescribable. He writes stunningly of the out-of-body disorientation caused by kava-kava, and imagines the experience of a color-blind person seeing the world through textures. He describes the experience of aging into a state of neurodegenerative paralysis, and shows remarkable breadth of knowledge over the disease’s possible botanical causes. The neurological disorders at the heart of the book are legitimately unique and fascinating – if only Sacks didn’t see fit to treat the people like the disease.
—Rebecca
2009 #42: This book is by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist who also wrote the non-fiction book Awakenings that the Robert DeNiro & Robbin Williams book is based on. The first half of the book is a study of a group of natives to islands in the Pacific where around 10% of the population is colorblind. It is more than just a neurological picture of them, it is also a cultural picture of how these people cope with their sight issues. Sacks does a great job of drawing you into the story of this group of people. The second half of the book is also about a population of people living on a couple of islands in the Pacific. This group of people have a neurological disorder similar to those in Awakenings. This part of the book is more technical, and not as easy to read for a lay-person, but still interesting.
—Holly
