Proust was a Neuroscientist, by Jonah Lehrer is an insightful read for both, the left and the right brain. The book commemorates famous artists such as Virginia Woolf, Paul Ceźanne and Auguste Escoffier by highlighting how their work exposed a unique underlying brain mechanism. Lehrer narrative romanticizes the brain through art.
Among other things, Lehrer highlights how the brain processes sights, sounds and memories differently than we perceive them. He explains through science and depicts through art how a recollection is not the same as the event being recollected; how the verve of a scene is likely borrowed from our past instead of the sight itself; how any sound which teases us with the promise of pattern becomes melodious to us. In essence, Lehrer reminds us that our mind reflects us in the experiences around us. Every mind has its own reality.
Another common thread running through the book is plasticity. The idea that we are constantly changing and adapting to different situations. The you now is different than the you yesterday. The fact that change is so deeply coded into our being, is reassuring in a constantly changing world.
The book builds on itself. In that the more I read, the more I understood the theme of the book, the more I was hooked. This also meant that the beginning of the book was a bit slow even though my interest level picked up speed soon enough.
Overall, Lehrer has created an eye-opening and thought-provoking piece of work. One which leaves the reader with a sense of wonder and awe at the unlikely amalgamation of science and art both, within the reader's mind and reflected in the world around.
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