finalement

finally finished reading PROUST WAS A NEUROSCIENTIST. immediately wanted to turn to the introduction and start again. i had the privilege of hearing mr. lehrer speak about three years ago. he was inspirational, passionate, genius, and down-to-earth. after reading his book i decided his mind is so well-balanced and his thought process is amazing. oh, and another thing, he is SO young. i can only imagine what he will do in the future. when i saw him speak half the time i was thinking, "who is this kid, and how the hell did he get so smart?" moving on. he divides the book into several chapters, each analyzing a historical figure and his/her early, unproven discovery about the arts: walt whitman,  george eliot, auguste escoffier, marcel proust, paul cezanne, igor stravinsky, gertrude stein, & virginia woolf. I must say that on the second chapter (eliot) i became a bit bored. however, after that, i was enthralled. especially with escoffier, proust, stravinsky, and woolf. lehrer showed how all of these artists made huge discoveries or observations about the mind, body, thought process, soul, etc, and how later (even just in this century), neuroscience proved their theories/observations. to the exact! electrifying to think that each of these avant-garde artists (and so many others) lived on a different plane than their peers. sad that most of them didn't live to see their thoughts proven.  i think i AM going to re-read it immediately. lehrer's words, passion, vocabulary (sometimes complex) and genius both inspire and inform. try him out.  :)