Posted by Terry on March 23, 1998 at 08:30:45:
In Reply to: More Vance in real life, was A Real-life Lutwen Atoll posted by Rodger Whitlock on March 20, 1998 at 14:54:17:
: : I'm reading Oliver Sacks' "The Island of the Colorblind"...
: I know it's not usually done to follow oneself up, but further on in Sacks' book he mentions the totally colour-blind sister of one of his colleagues. She accomplished the remarkable feat of knitting a sweater with patterns in 16 different colours of yarns...and, in a truly Vancean turn of phrase, these are described as "dim browns and purples."
: For me, one of the great joys in Jack Vance's writing is the incredible descriptions of sensory phenomena: subtle nuances of odor, taste, texture, colour, shape, pattern, sound, atmospheric distortion, silence. I know of no other writer so attuned to these things.
To second Roger's observations: Reading Oliver Sacks' books (he' s written 7 I think) is an enormous joy. Beautiful humanisitic expressions from the medical profession and Sacks' rare curiousity into nearly everything, and his fine prose describe things of science: the deaf, the color blind, those with neurological deficits, his own experience as a patient, etc.
You will remember _Awakenings_ the (IMO) mediocre Robin Williams flic a few years ago. Pick up a copy of _The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat_ and see glimses into the human mind and spirit told with warmth and love. Fine reading.
I had never thought Sacks to be Vancian in any way - one writer is warm and cuddly and the other is most distinctly not. I remember the color blind weaver however and you are right, Roger. Descriptively Sacks ranks with Vance, but from a non-fiction p.o.v.
Terry