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A review by jackgoss
Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer
2.0
A lot of the brain stuff is interesting, but I completely failed to make many of the connections between the brains and the artists. Possibly, this is because I'm not familiar most of the works referenced. But I think that some of my confusion is because Lehrer didn't make convincing arguments or explinations. Some sections are more clearly spelled out than others.
George Eliot changed religions and believed in free will and one of her characters got married. Therefore: Brain plasticity. I can't connect those dots and I don't believe Eliot was the first person to understand free will.
I also don't believe that Gertrude Stein (who happened to be a neuroscience (or equivalent at the time)) discovered grammar. Or that the linguist Noam Chompsky confirmed the existence of grammar. Huh? I'm certain that everyone knew that grammar existed hundreds of years before either was even born. Clearly there was some deeper thing that Lehrer was getting at but whatever that was flew totally over my head.
The best parts were things that I'd already learned about on Radio Lab.
PS. Radio Lab is rad.
George Eliot changed religions and believed in free will and one of her characters got married. Therefore: Brain plasticity. I can't connect those dots and I don't believe Eliot was the first person to understand free will.
I also don't believe that Gertrude Stein (who happened to be a neuroscience (or equivalent at the time)) discovered grammar. Or that the linguist Noam Chompsky confirmed the existence of grammar. Huh? I'm certain that everyone knew that grammar existed hundreds of years before either was even born. Clearly there was some deeper thing that Lehrer was getting at but whatever that was flew totally over my head.
The best parts were things that I'd already learned about on Radio Lab.
PS. Radio Lab is rad.