Proust Was a Neuroscientist
by Jonah Lehrer (Goodreads author!)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 243)
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
oliver sacks fans, artists, alicias
Proust Was a Neuroscientist turned out to be the book I'd been looking to read for a long time. Apparently there have been quite a few books prior to this one about the "third culture," the bridge between art and science (and unfortunately I've not read any of them) —Lehrer mentions E.O. Wilson's Consilience and Ian McEwan's Saturday (a...more
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Read in April, 2008
As the title suggests, this is a book that probes on this theme that artists and writers are the ones who have had all the answers to the various neuro questions we all had. All the mysteries and alchemy of neuroscience have been answered by unscientific methods. this is what exactly is being suggested. It may all seem like a chimera, totally wild, absurd and unscientific thought. However, this book probes us to hazard that guess and goes on to prove his point. In fact when one thinks deeper int...more
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Read in June, 2008
"the most interesting places are the empty spaces, for they are what will change."
"the remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were."
"it is ironic but true: the one reality science csannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. this is why we need art. by expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousnes...more
"the remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were."
"it is ironic but true: the one reality science csannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. this is why we need art. by expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousnes...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Denis by:
Britannie
This is a really fantastic look at how different artists working in different mediums (literature, painting, music, and even cuisine) were able to achieve insights into the way the human mind works that flew in the face of the science of the day, only to be confirmed by more recent discoveries in neuroscience. The central thesis of the book is that our knowledge about what it is to be human is impoverished when science and art are set at odd with each other, and the author makes his point extrem...more
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This book rocked! Art and science really should hold hands more often. It was well written and well researched. I liked that when he was writing about scientific research, he didn't use a lot of technical jargon, but kept it simple with layman's terms. I wasn't all that hip on his personal tack that appeared in the book, but you really almost can't get rid of that in any book. He came at each subject/chapter with his personal belief that we are magnificent machines that can think and feel. ...more
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Read in December, 2007
A quick and fascinating read, but also a bit fad-ish. As he pushes his interesting and innovative line of reasoning, Lehrer's examples seem to lose some of their argumentative force as the book progreses.
Take for instance the way he goes about using his subjects as parallels for recent neuroscientific discoveries: as his argument continues into the second half of the book, his points grow more and more analogical and abstract.
For example, the chapters on Whitman and Proust are concise...more
Take for instance the way he goes about using his subjects as parallels for recent neuroscientific discoveries: as his argument continues into the second half of the book, his points grow more and more analogical and abstract.
For example, the chapters on Whitman and Proust are concise...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
those interested in Modernism and/or Neuroscience
In Proust was a Neuroscientist, Lehrer examines the art of eight Modernist figureheads and the connections between their artistic endeavors and what neuroscientists are now learning about the human brain. While it is evident that the connections between Proust and neuroscience were foremost in Lehrer's conception of this book, the connections between neuroscience and each of the other featured artists is clear and - while not groundbreaking - very interesting and insightful.
The importance ...more
The importance ...more
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Read in November, 2007
Not exactly pop science; not hard science. But the newest research in memory is my current research interest. Jonathan Lehrer's keen portraits make for a winning read. Using Woolf, Stravinsky, Cézanne, Whitman, and a handful of others, he shows how art has given us as much insight into the human mind as science has. He argues in this original book that science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, where the brain is concerned, art got there first.
I had read numerous reviews of this...more
I had read numerous reviews of this...more
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what a fascinating book! his premise is that artists, writers, chefs--creative types--understand the way the mind/body work before the scientists get there, and even in the face of ridicule by scientists. so proust with his little cookie enters memory, and writes how memory is altered by remembering it, that it is not a static storage bin. and cezanne eliminates the describing paint to the point where the viewer uses her eyes and mind to fill in the missing parts, becz that is how our mind wor...more
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Read in June, 2008
This is one of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time. A great read for right and left brain thinkers. Initially I was not sure where it was going but once I gave into the process of integrating science and the arts and their relationship to each other set in an unusual context and with an unusual but excited writer who is passionate about his beliefs and observations of writers and scientists. Proust,Thoreau,virginia Wolf, Escoffier are just a few of the artists that reveal ...more
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This book would have made a fun college class. I loved the Virginia Woolf chapter about the multiplicity of the brain, especially the experiment with the split-brain patient who tried to read a book with his left hemisphere while the right hemisphere, bored by the book (because the right hemisphere is illiterate), got his left hand to throw the book away. I love the idea that Woolf's explanation of this is that we invent the "self" (a false whole that encompasses many divergent parts) ...more
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Read in February, 2008
A fun and quick read that attempts to show how late-19th and early-20th Century artists presaged modern neuroscience. Each artist gets his or her own chapter and is paired with a scientific correlate. Here is the order of the pairings:
1) Walt Whitman - Feeling
2) George Eliot - Freedom
3) Auguste Escoffier - Taste
4) Marcel Proust - Memory
5) Paul Cezanne - Sight
6) Igor Stravinsky - Music
7) Gertrude Stein - Language
8) Virginia Woolf - Self
My only major problem with the book i...more
1) Walt Whitman - Feeling
2) George Eliot - Freedom
3) Auguste Escoffier - Taste
4) Marcel Proust - Memory
5) Paul Cezanne - Sight
6) Igor Stravinsky - Music
7) Gertrude Stein - Language
8) Virginia Woolf - Self
My only major problem with the book i...more
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The reason I enjoyed this book is that it allowed someone with more of an English/Arts background to be introduced into the world of neuroscience. It gave the science a sense of beauty and art.
Where I think the book fell short, was it's insistence that the artists were the ones that knew the truths behind neuroscience while the scientists spent years to catch up with the artists. I grew frustrated with that intent and wished instead he just allowed the work of artists to stand as an express...more
Where I think the book fell short, was it's insistence that the artists were the ones that knew the truths behind neuroscience while the scientists spent years to catch up with the artists. I grew frustrated with that intent and wished instead he just allowed the work of artists to stand as an express...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone with an interest in the humanities or the philosophy of science
Proust was a Neuroscientist explores the sometimes curious relationship between art and science. In each chapter, author Jonah Lehrer reveals how a particular artist—Walt Whitman, George Eliot, Auguste Escoffier, Marcel Proust, Paul Cézanne, Igor Stravinsky, Gertrude Stein, and Virginia Woolf—anticipated later discoveries by neuroscientists. Simultaneou...more
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Read in January, 2008
The premise of this book is great, but the author fails to make good enough connections half the time. A few of the chapters are fabulous and he should have quit while he was ahead, but I suppose that would have left a short book. My advice is to only read these chapters: 3 - Auguste Escoffier and The Essence of Taste (best chapter); 4 - Marcel Proust and The Method of Memory; and Igor Stravinsky and The Source of Music (2nd best chapter). Chapters 5 & 7 are also okay if you have more ti...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Makani
What an interesting insight into how we think. The author profiles eight artists whose art demonstrates an aspect of how our minds work. Lehrer discusses their art from the point of view of their artistic and intellectual influences, the science of their times, and the scientific knowledge of today. All of this in an eminently readable form. It made me want to go and look at (or look at again) the highlighted artists after each chapter. I ran to the museum and looked at the various paintings by ...more
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An interesting thesis about how artists pre-figure the great discoveries of modern science, from proust to cezanne. Though I find the dualism of science and art a bit annoying at times, the case studies are still quite fascinating and a great lens to discuss current scientific discoveries. This is an excellent pop-science book.
As one who doesn't consider myself an artist or a scientist, but am passionate about both, I have always found common threads going through both fields, especially i...more
As one who doesn't consider myself an artist or a scientist, but am passionate about both, I have always found common threads going through both fields, especially i...more
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Read in June, 2008
Let me just say this: I always enjoy reading books by people who quite plainly have a good deal more intellectual curiosity than I'll ever be blessed with, and yet manage to provoke me instead of making me feel bad about the fact that I will never in a million years be that clever.
A wonderful balance between art and science, written in such a way that even chumps like me can enjoy it. Even after discovering that the reason I had to take such a long pause in reading was because it was bur...more
A wonderful balance between art and science, written in such a way that even chumps like me can enjoy it. Even after discovering that the reason I had to take such a long pause in reading was because it was bur...more
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Read in February, 2008
Lehrer writes enthusiastically and persuasivly as he argues (with a degree of empiricism)examples of artistic developments preempting revelations in neuroscience. While his thesis is not groundbreaking, his choice of modernist (and Eliot and Escoffier) subjects proved to be unique and engaging. The depth of scientific and artistic scholarship was underwhelming, but entertaining enough. It's a quick, pop-science read; I don't imagine that there are too many other books on Proust (et alii) and neu...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
those interested in the connection between creativity and cognition
The premise of this book is very interesting: artists intuit through their work things that science later discovers. The author gives a variety of examples, including writers, artists, and chefs. Each chapter is dedicated to the work of a different author and its associated element of neuroscience; not all of the chapters are equally strong. My favorites were those focused on Escoffier, Cezanne and Proust. My least favorite was the discussion around Gertrude Stein, whose work remains flat out bo...more
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