By: Jonah Lehrer Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Houghton Mifflin Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 256 Publication Date: November 01, 2007
Amazon.com: Amazon Significant Seven, December 2007: Proust may have been more neurasthenic than neuroscientist, but Jonah Lehrer argues in Proust Was a Neuroscientist that he (and many of his fellow artists) made discoveries about the brain that it took science decades to catch up with (in Proust's case, that memory is a process, not a repository). Lehrer weaves back and forth between art and science in eight graceful portraits of artists (mostly writers, along with a chef, a painter, and a composer) who understood, better at times than atomizing scientists, that truth can begin with "what reality feels like." Sometimes it's the art that's most evocative in his tales, sometimes the science: Lehrer writes about them with equal ease and clarity, and with a youthful confidence that art and science, long divided, may yet be reconciled. --Tom Nissley
Product Description: In this technology-driven age, it's tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery. After all, science has cured countless diseases and even sent humans into space. But as Jonah Lehrer argues in this sparkling debut, science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first. Taking a group of artists — a painter, a poet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists — Lehrer shows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mind that science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered the brain's malleability; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language — a full half-century before the work of Noam Chomsky and other linguists. It's the ultimate tale of art trumping science. More broadly, Lehrer shows that there's a cost to reducing everything to atoms and acronyms and genes. Measurement is not the same as understanding, and art knows this better than science does. An ingenious blend of biography, criticism, and first-rate science writing, Proust Was a Neuroscientist urges science and art to listen more closely to each other, for willing minds can combine the best of both, to brilliant effect.
Wonderful First off, I have not read such elegant prose as this in ages. Jonah Lehrer's style effuses artistry. It was incredibly refreshing, but now I thirst for more. Unfortunately, there is only one Jonah Lehrer and few with his skill, at least within the scientific realm. He is able to set music to neurotransmitters and make them dance.
Secondly, not only is there a wide variety of stories here, each and every one is fascinating by itself. Topics range from visual art to music to poetry to writing, weaved together with science ranging from the molecular level all the way up to the systems level. Some of his ideas are not entirely original, but they certainly have been presented in an entirely original way, and in perhaps the most captivating and convincing manner yet.
Truly an excellent book.
Dumb Inane, anachronistic title aside, books like this go to show the desperate lengths people will go to make money off insubstantial, pseudo-intellectual fodder--as if the insights of Proust, couched as they are in his rich prose, could be reduced to the idioms of a dismal science in its infancy. America is a great country, but by providing a leisurely environment for so many uninspired individuals, academia has become so competitive that students and graduates are reduced to drawing ridiculous theses if they are to take an original stance on a given subject. If you really want to understand humanity, read Proust. If you want to read a book that tries to capitalize off remarkable achievements in the study of humanity (like Proust's novel) without making an original or insightful contribution, read this. There's so many books to be read in one's life and such little time... choose wisely.
A Buffet of Insight A buffet of insight, May 11, 2008 By T. Veneruso "film director" (los angeles, ca) - See all my reviews Delicious, mouth-watering, hysterical, smart, and scientific this book is directly in sync with my idea of a great book. I laughed, I cried, and I learned A LOT!!! Thanks so much to Jonah for putting these ideas together for me. I loved the book and am gushing too much about it. I'd love to tell you things I hate about it (since it is always nice to know the reviewer was being at least somewhat critical) but honestly I learned so much that I can't think of a negative thing to write. Thanks Jonah! I don't know you but wish I did for a nice cup of tea and a tasty biscuit. -Tara
Marvelous This is a wonderful, incredibly thought-provoking work. It will change the way you think about Proust and Cezanne and great art in general. And it will also change the way you think about your brain. He's also a great speaker!
fabulous read This is an imaginative, interesting read and it's worth a try if you have any interest in the link between neurology and everyday experiences of the highly creative people written about.
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