Phantoms in the Brain, by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee. 45.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

An extremely readable and fascinating book by a neuroscientist (Ramachandran) and a science writer (Blakeslee), about using case studies of brain-injury patients to examine how the brain works. (Ramachandran was born and raised in India, but now lives in the USA. Blakeslee is a white American.)

Ramachandran’s speculations on the cause of phantom limb pain from amputated limbs produced a cure which works extremely well for some (not all) patients. But considering how intractable the condition usually is, that’s a remarkable achievement. His cure— which succeeded in some cases where medication and surgery failed— consists of a box with a hole cut into it, and a mirror he bought for five dollars…

Even if you’ve read other popular works on the brain and cognition before, this should be of interest to you, as even when it seemed that Ramachandran was going over familiar territory, he went so much more in-depth that even topics I thought I was already well-acquainted with became completely new. A lot of popular science either over-simplifies too much and doesn’t tackle the questions it raises, or else is too technical to be easily followed by a layperson. This book was easy to read but dug into the deeper implications of its topics nearly every time. Ramachandran at times reminded me of This American Life’s Ira Glass in his ability to ask not just the obvious follow-up question, but the much less obvious and more revealing follow-up to the follow-up.

His enthusiasm for his field and the possibility of doing extremely low-tech experiments in it is contagious and charming. (A number of his experiments require nothing more than a human volunteer, a pencil, a table, a box, a mirror, and an undergraduate hiding under the box.) I also enjoyed his sense of humor: he’s evidently friends with Francis Crick of DNA fame, who is apparently a fervent atheist, and uses Crick as an example any time he mentions atheism, as in (from memory), “It would be interesting to see if stimulating the temporal lobe could also cause atheists to experience a sense of oneness with God. Perhaps I should try it on Francis Crick.” I am an atheist myself, and this cracked me up. He also has a hilarious take-down of the more unlikely theories of sociobiologists in the endnotes to one chapter. Don’t neglect to read the endnotes, there’s great stuff in there.

I thought this book was extremely entertaining, thought-provoking, and educational. My one possible warning is his use of the phrase “normal people” (both with and without quotes) to mean people without brain injuries. Given the context, I’m not sure that would be considered pejorative, but I’m mentioning it in case it is. If that’s not a dealbreaker, I highly recommend the book.

View on Amazon: Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

31. Nu Nu Yi, Smile As They Bow

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

31. Nu Nu Yi, Smile As They Bow

This short novel (translated from Burmese by Alfred Birnbaum and Thi Thi Aye) takes place during the week-long Taungbyon nat religious festival, a annual festival located in a small, rural village which swells dramatically with pilgrims and other people who come to attend. The narration skips between different people at the festival, from pilgrims to the spirit mediums and musicians who make their living off such festivals, to pickpockets who take advantage of the crowds. The main character is Daisy Bond, a 50-ish gay/transgender (the Western categories don't really map onto the Burmese characters) well-known spirit medium. Daisy's relationship with Min Min, his 18-year-old servant/factotum/lover is the center of the plot, but the book seems concerned less with a typical straight-forward chain of events than with showing the chaotic feel of the festival, jumping backward and forward in time, constantly introducing new characters and perspectives, making and breaking connections.

The book is very short (about 100 pages), so it's an easy, fun read. As an American reader, I knew very little about the festival, nats, the role of spirit mediums, or gay/transgender people in Myanmar culture, and the book does not take the time to explain any of the connotations of these. Which, of course, it's under no obligation to do, but I feel sure that I was missing a lot of depth from the story. It would have been nice if the translators had included a few pages with cultural information. Despite my own problems, I still recommend this book, even if you (like me) know very little about Myanmar. It was never hard to follow the plot or sympathize with the characters, and I found it to be a very enjoyable read.

(no subject)

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

21)Dhalgren by Samuel Delany

Reviewing Dhalgren seems an impossible challenge. Instead, I'll fling some scattershot critical commentary.

( Scattershot Critical Commentary Follows )