I mentioned that in the fall of 2007, I took my first class, American Lit 2, with Dr. Sexson. It was the first class I took within the English department, and probably the one that led me to declare an English Literature major that same semester. I remained relatively disengaged with the material (as I was accustomed to being in class at MSU, having only enrolled in CORE classes up until that point). Until: Lolita. From the first words of the first chapter "Lolita, light of my life, fired of my loins. My sin. My soul", I started engaging. We could probably say that my decision to devote the rest of my education to studying literature was spawned in that moment: before Lolita, I don't remember much about American Lit 2.
As if the sensous writing of Nabokov were a mystery to be solved, I felt like I had cracked the case when Sexson mentioned in class that Vladimir Nabokov was a synesthesiac. When I looked up "synaesthesia" on google later (i believe Sexson told us to look it up on wikipedia with that mention), I had a defining "ah-ha" moment. Of course! It makes so much sense that a person who "suffers" a disorder like this would write as Nabokov does. I felt envy for him, for all synaeshesiacs. Look up the terms of this illness and I think you'll understand what I mean:
http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/synesthesia/main.html
What I would give to experience the world for a day (no, a week, at least) as Nabokov or other synaesthesiacs do. I would spend the entire week writing I think! Or painting, or widdling, or something! I found an interesting website that states that all art is a manifestation of synaesthesia, a "blurring of the senses". In this way, all art has a "synaesthetic origin". It makes sense to me, check out more about this theory at the following site:
http://www.doctorhugo.org/synaesthesia/art2/index.html
Well, the reason why I am bringing up synesthesia again, 3 years down the line in Oral Traditions, is because this book I borrowed from Dr. Sexson, "Why Life Speeds up As You Get Older" by Douwe Draaisma, mentions a case study of a man with extraordinary memory who was also "synasthetic in the extreme". "The impressions of his various senses ran together" he writes of the man, who was a mathematical genius with almost absolute memory. It brought my mind back to American Lit and I wondered, how do synasthesiacs remember?
As if the sensous writing of Nabokov were a mystery to be solved, I felt like I had cracked the case when Sexson mentioned in class that Vladimir Nabokov was a synesthesiac. When I looked up "synaesthesia" on google later (i believe Sexson told us to look it up on wikipedia with that mention), I had a defining "ah-ha" moment. Of course! It makes so much sense that a person who "suffers" a disorder like this would write as Nabokov does. I felt envy for him, for all synaeshesiacs. Look up the terms of this illness and I think you'll understand what I mean:
http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/synesthesia/main.html
What I would give to experience the world for a day (no, a week, at least) as Nabokov or other synaesthesiacs do. I would spend the entire week writing I think! Or painting, or widdling, or something! I found an interesting website that states that all art is a manifestation of synaesthesia, a "blurring of the senses". In this way, all art has a "synaesthetic origin". It makes sense to me, check out more about this theory at the following site:
http://www.doctorhugo.org/synaesthesia/art2/index.html
Well, the reason why I am bringing up synesthesia again, 3 years down the line in Oral Traditions, is because this book I borrowed from Dr. Sexson, "Why Life Speeds up As You Get Older" by Douwe Draaisma, mentions a case study of a man with extraordinary memory who was also "synasthetic in the extreme". "The impressions of his various senses ran together" he writes of the man, who was a mathematical genius with almost absolute memory. It brought my mind back to American Lit and I wondered, how do synasthesiacs remember?
In my memory theatre, I have associated the names of the gods with visual pictures of objects in the coffee shop. If I were a synasthesiac, I would have associated the names not only with visual pictures, but also with sounds, smells, or tastes. That would give me a whole extra set of associations. Imagine the capacity for memory, then, that these people have. The man in this book, when trying to recall mathematical calculations from 10 or 15 years earlier, could reproduce the equations in moments because he recalled the "sensory impression of the original test"; the "taste" of the occasion.
Think of how powerful of a memory aid smell is to us. How sometimes a certain smell brings you back to an experience you had at, say, the beach when you were a child. Well, what if you could recall math equations by the stimulus of a smell. Or poetry. These people have 5 different overlapping storage units of memory. I wish I could experience that!
When you think about it, memory happens by sensory associations: by synasthetics. We all have the ability to remember, so we all have something of a synasthetic in us. To be a person who experiences life in a constant state of synasthesia, memory is all the more powerful. For as strong as our memories are, there are humans with almost absolute memories as a result of psychiatric disorders (that makes it sound like a bad thing!). But it's interesting to think that in all human beings there is something of a synasthesiac, in the "blurring of the senses" that memory is.
When you think about it, memory happens by sensory associations: by synasthetics. We all have the ability to remember, so we all have something of a synasthetic in us. To be a person who experiences life in a constant state of synasthesia, memory is all the more powerful. For as strong as our memories are, there are humans with almost absolute memories as a result of psychiatric disorders (that makes it sound like a bad thing!). But it's interesting to think that in all human beings there is something of a synasthesiac, in the "blurring of the senses" that memory is.
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