Philip C. Tharp 2008-10-21
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Overview and Overall Opinion
This review will inform potential readers of the topics covered in The Man Who Tasted Shapes, while providing a critique and personal opinion regarding the efficacy and general style of writing exhibited by the author, Richard E. Cytowic. Although the book presents interesting ideas and awakens great interest in the subject of synesthesia, Cytowic's pretentious prose and somewhat contrived recollections often overshadow his apparent fascination with the topic.
Introduction, Style, and Structure
In The Man Who Tasted Shapes, neurologist Richard E. Cytowic presents the reader with an in depth report of his quest to solve the mystery of synesthesia and provide the medical underpinnings that might explain the underlying rationale behind the rare phenomenon. Cytowic accomplishes this through a conversational style and a chapter structure that clearly identifies important points for the reader to understand.
Overview and Critique of Part One
The novel is divided into two parts, with the first section being the most pertinent to the subject of the book, synesthesia, and also comprising the majority of the text. Synesthesia, literally "feeling together," is confusion between senses, in which perception through a particular sensation leads to an associated response in another sense. It is in Part One of the book, which Cytowic gleefully dubs his "medical mystery tale," where the reader is plunged into the realm of science and medicine as it pertains to synesthesia. After introducing the experiences of synesthete Michael Watson, the instigating factor behind the author's obsession, Cytowic explores his personal background and his experiences as a medical student. These chapters introduce the reader to Cytowic's distaste for technology and the method in which medical doctors are taught to diagnose and treat in today's society. For example, he states that "patients have been reduced to objects, and physicians to dispassionate feeders of the machines" (p. 38). He continually revisits these thoughts throughout the novel to the point at which I felt as though he was forcing his ideas upon me. In the middle of this extensive and unnecessary digression, Cytowic provides a succinct description of the outdated "standard view" of the brain as linearly functioning mental processes that are localized in various regions and supremely governed by the cortex. I felt relieved when Cytowic took a hiatus from this more technical writing and provided an in depth history of synesthesia, citing famous writers, such as Vladimir Nabokov, composers, and other artists who experienced the phenomenon.
Despite Cytowic's somewhat wooden writing style, in the middle and latter portion of Part One he is able to engagingly convey his experimental process and study of synesthesia. Cytowic pinpoints the source of synesthetic experiences as occurring at a "low to intermediate [mental] level" within brain processes, indicating that sensational associations in synesthetes are without meaning and "the link [between them] is mostly invariant" (p. 108). In perhaps his most intriguing chapter, Cytowic compares synesthesia to certain altered mental states, including LSD induced synesthesia and temporal lobe epilepsy. He then uses this information to hypothesize that the limbic system within the brain, specifically the hypothalamus, is the location responsible for synesthesia. He further purports that the limbic system is the highest processing center within the brain, as it is responsible for emotion, and insists that "it is emotion, much more than reason, that makes us human" (p. 156).
Throughout this first section Cytowic also provides anecdotal stories to connect his philosophical and medical proposals to more immediately relatable concepts. He provides firsthand accounts of two synesthetes, Michael and Victoria, who also happen to be the subjects in his experiment to identify the diagnostic criteria for and types of synesthesia. In depth descriptions of Michael, who experiences sensations of touch when he tastes food, are particularly captivating and draw the reader further into the novel. I felt that if Cytowic had included additional case studies like that of Michael, the novel would have been more successful in both conveying different aspects of synesthesia and maintaining my interest throughout its entirety. However, periodically, dialogue spoken by other people in the novel seemed to be spoken in the same style as if it was Cytowic himself. This leads me to seriously doubt either the accuracy with which he recalled his conversations or his journalistic integrity.
The most obvious problem within this first section of the book was Cytowic's repetition of facts and information. At times it seemed as though he forgot what he had previously stated in other chapters, and, using almost the exact same wording, replicated definitions of concepts. In effect, Cytowic either intentionally or unintentionally made me feel as though I were not smart enough to grasp what he was explaining. Furthermore, his constant separation of key words into their Greek or Latin roots became tiresome and overused as the novel progressed.
Overview and Critique of Part Two
The final section of the book, Part Two, is composed of a short collection of essays written by Cytowic in which he applies his conclusion regarding synesthesia, the limbic system, and emotion to opinionated philosophical thoughts on human consciousness and artificial intelligence. I felt as though this section was entirely unnecessary and distinctly off topic from the major focus of the novel. These brief chapters only brought to mind Cytowic's previous divergence into his disapproval of technology (which he returns to here), and again I found myself wanting to read something other than his musings and opinions, which seemed trite and somewhat obvious.
Summary
In summary, I felt as though The Man Who Tasted Shapes effectively covered the interesting subject of synesthesia and provided a fascinating study of the medical explanation behind the phenomenon. However, the author's writing style tended to detract from the overall impact of the book, and several of his chosen topics of discussion seemed out of place and forcefully opinionated. I recommend this novel to readers who are particularly interested in synesthesia or those who are looking to discover a unique neurological occurrence.
