Gracie Loo Book Review
To be completely honest, I had a bit of a hard time getting into this one. However, my current self is thankful that my past self persevered! The author, Mr. Sacks, is supposed to be the tip top dude when it comes to gifting readers with intriguing stories from his experience with neurologically unique patients. My hopes were high and I can confidently say that this book met, nay, exceeded my expectations! I should probably mention that Mr. S should formally be addressed as Dr. S. A professor of medicine, a neurologist, and a writer, Dr. Sacks possesses a talent for telling stories of complex neurological anomalies to readers in a heartfelt and engaging way.
Two more notes before I get to the nitty gritty (said in Nacho Libre voice):
Gen Z’ers, beware. Dr. S uses language that I would consider “old timey”
Gen Y’s, X’s, and Boomer’s, don’t come at me for thinking his writing is “old timey”
All in all, I understood An Anthropologist on Mars to be a collection of stories that implore the reader to acknowledge value in “abnormality.” It goes a step further by illustrating that normality is not always superior to abnormality. Every culture has a “recipe” for the ideal life:
Simply add the ingredients to a bowl
Give it a good mixey-mix
Pop it in the oven (aka education and social systems) for a while
And pull out the ideal life!
An ‘ideal life grocery list’ could include ingredients such as level of education, physical appearance, social life, relationship status, job security, and so on. Every culture has a standard for normal. But what if we replaced the word “normal” with “common”? It’s common to get married in your 20’s. It’s common to retire in your 60’s. It’s common to spend 4 hours a day on your phone… yikes on that last one. Am I right?
What if we adopted this mindset when it came to neurotypical and neurodivergent brains? If I call a neurotypical brain common as opposed to normal, it offers more space for curiosity and acceptance of neurodiversity. Maybe I’m the only one who feels that way? Anyway…
Dr. Sacks uses his book as a vessel to tell the stories of 7 spectacularly divergent humans. Some divergence was caused by brain trauma while others were born with their unique abilities. And, FYI, I wholeheartedly believe that for every ailment, handicap, or divergence, there is an opportunity for new ability.
The Color Blind Artist:
The first story covers the experience of a man suffering from a rare type of colorblindness. Have you ever heard of achromatopsia!? That’s a spelling bee word if I’ve ever heard one! Long story short, homeboy was an artist who got in a car crash, bonked his noggin, and completely, lost his colored vision. Not only did he lose his colored vision, but this new, colorless, gray world shifted between pallets of gray based on wavelength, aka, light. The man suffering from this anomaly “commented that he now found himself in an inconstant world, a world whose lights and darks fluctuated with the wavelength of illumination, in striking contrast to the relative stability, the constancy, of the color world he had previously known.” Imagine if at one point in the day, a tomato on your counter is bright red, later it’s neon pink, and in the evening it looks a deep red-orange color. That would be WILD! Right? This simple example is as close as I can get to imagining the ever changing visual reality of this man. In one test run by Dr. Sacks, the patient would observe colored images as they were exposed to different wavelengths of light. With each change of wavelength, he described how the “pallets” of gray transformed completely. Most interestingly: when given the choice to try and gain back his colored sight, the artist declined. He chose not to go back to normal, to common. Why? I think it’s because he developed a pretty sick superpower.
An Anthropologist on Mars:
I won’t go through all the stories but I do want to tell you about Temple Grandin. She is the final patient in Dr. Sacks’ lineup of stories. I think he was saving the best for last. The interaction between Dr. S and Temple was, in a word: heartwarming. A pure and curious meeting, Ms. Grandin allows Dr. Sacks to observe her truly extraordinary life. She is an author, advocate, professor, PhD, animal behaviorist, inventor, and industrial designer. She is also on the autism spectrum. Notice how that was last on the list and separated by a period. This fact is of the utmost importance and requires special attention. Not because it is associated with an overgeneralized stigma or because people associate autism with “abnormality,” but because Temple credits her success to her autism. She has had to overcome obstacles in life that others couldn’t dream of. Things such as lacking verbal communication until late in life, being publicly labeled as abnormal, and possessing an emotional disconnection that challenges the development of interpersonal relationships . Of course, these few examples are only a microscopic sampling of life on the spectrum. These challenging symptoms of Temple’s neurodivergence are also accompanied by, you guessed it, some pretty sick superpowers! Her powers manifest as being a superior visual thinker, someone who can hyper-focus on detailed tasks, one who possesses a deeply rooted moral compass, someone uninterested in the social nuances of drama, and a mind specially attuned to the experience of animals. Some of these abilities are ones the rest of us long for. Although Temple describes herself as sometimes feeling like “an anthropologist on Mars” when interacting in social situations, she credits her success to her neurodivergent abilities.
The Nitty Gritty:
Would I recommend this book? Yes, yes I would. !BUT! I will also offer a word of caution to the half hearted reader. It can be a tad cryptic at times. If you aren’t in it for the long haul, maybe reading a detailed summary would be more up your alley? That being said, Oliver Sacks’ Book, An Anthropologist on Mars, receives a solid 3.75 stars from the Gracie Loo Book Review! (thank you, Aunt Becky for that nickname).
xoxo,
g
