argene

Edward Albee had to canceled but the guy who wrote Awakenings and the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Dr. Oliver Sacks,read instead..actually he just gave a long speech, without reading from any of his books, but it was still interesting. He's neurologist, about 70. He showed slides from this guy whom everyone thought was mentally retarded and autistic-when the guy was six he was drawing like a professional architect, although he is considered "deeply" autistic he went to art school and learned how to paint and sculpt-to add to his drawing. The author was kind of all over the place, but I think the gist of what he was trying to describe was the variations in creativity. He talked about how Mendleson took 20 years to come up with the modern periodic table, although some think he just jotted it down, and comparted it with the autistic guy, who seemed to have professional artistic qualities when he was six (the Dr. described the guy as seemingly not having any start up-jumping, in one aspect to really advanced ideas and techniques). I went to the reception, which was in the event hall below the dorms, and ate too many sweets.