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How would I describe my character?
Oliver Sacks
Scientist
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Views | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 341. Correspondence and 2am phone calls with Richard Gregory | 196 | 01:04 | |
| 342. Richard Gregory's Exploratory | 151 | 01:04 | |
| 343. Richard Gregory's illusions | 162 | 01:09 | |
| 344. A tribute to Richard Gregory | 163 | 03:01 | |
| 345. Studs Terkel | 206 | 02:59 | |
| 346. Believing in angels | 1 | 290 | 01:05 |
| 347. How would I describe my character? | 1 | 351 | 01:00 |
| 348. Self-portraiture | 285 | 00:24 | |
| 349. Experiencing my brother's teenage schizophrenia | 888 | 01:21 | |
| 350. My brother's life with schizophrenia and treatment for it | 2187 | 03:53 |
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There is a book called Flaubert's Parrot, which has parallel columns, Flaubert trying to define himself and say who he is, first in the most negative, self-deprecatory mode, then in a rather positive, vainglorious mode, and somewhere in the middle. I... I am shy, I am curious, I am tenacious, I am ravenous sometimes for information, but also, as you saw yesterday, a dangerous eater at the dinner table, things have to be removed from me. I am… no, I... I can’t give a portrait of myself, it’s up to other people to give their portraits.
Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.
Title: How would I describe my character?
Listeners: Kate Edgar
Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.
Tags: Flaubert's Parrot, Julian Barnes
Duration: 1 minute
Date story recorded: September 2011
Date story went live: 02 October 2012
