Oliver Sacks
By KATE
MURPHY
What’s on your mind? The
Sunday Review asked Oliver Sacks, a physician, author and professor of
neurology and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center.
READING I’m rereading Baudelaire’s
“Artificial Paradises,” which I first read — it must have been 50 years ago.
I’m writing about hallucinations, all kinds of hallucinations, and Baudelaire
is wonderful in his descriptions of his experiences with hashish and opium.
I read a lot of biographies, which are like patient case histories,
really. I liked “The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War.” It’s about the
family of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is an icon in the philosophical world and
one of my favorite philosophers. His brother, Paul, was a one-armed pianist who
lost his arm during the First World War and being wealthy, he commissioned
pieces for the left hand. Three other brothers committed suicide. It was a very
interesting book and was written by Alexander Waugh, who was the grandson of
Evelyn Waugh.
WATCHING “Star Trek,” the original
series or “The Next Generation.” It has strong characters that I find
believable. I visited the set of “Star Trek” several years ago and met Brent
Spiner, the actor who played Data. I told him he was the hero of autistic
people everywhere. I don’t think he knew what to make of that.
For laughter, fun and joy, I turn to the Ealing Comedies with Alec
Guinness. One of my favorites is “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” where Alex
Guinness plays eight different characters.
FOLLOWING I don’t know what Facebook and Twitter are since I don’t use a computer.
But a friend gave me a hat with a built-in compass, since I have no sense of
direction. It beeps when you face north and the intensity of the beeps shows
how close you are. I like to think it’s improving my awareness but truthfully,
I don’t think I’m getting any better. And I get a little embarrassed wearing a
hat that beeps.
CONSUMING Herring, especially at this
time of year when the tender new catch comes in from Holland, and Zico coconut
water — I drink a gallon a week.
COLLECTING I buy lumps of metals because I’m a periodic-table freak. I bought
rhenium for my 75th birthday, osmium for my 76th birthday, iridium for my 77th
birthday. But I may not be able to afford more than a tiny pellet of platinum
for my 78th birthday this year.
Kate Murphy is a journalist
in Houston who contributes regularly to The New York Times.
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