Board index › General Discussion › News and Current Events

Oliver Sacks, 1933-2015

Page 1 of 2 [ 21 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Previous topic | Next topic

Kraichgauer
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 47,794
Location: Spokane area, Washington state.

31 Aug 2015, 2:16 pm

cyberdad wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
He was played superbly by the late Robin Williams in 'Awakenings'.


If that portrayal was truthful regarding his social awkwardness and preference for solitude, then I have to think Sacks might have been a fellow Aspie.


It might have had something to do with his being gay and the associated stigma he faced in the early 1950s. Interestingly Sacks was celibate for much of his life.


Well, his being gay was definitely something the movie forgot to mention.


I was listening to his biographer on radio this morning and it was mentioned as a significant factor in his life.


I'm sure it had to have been. Many people are posthumously being let out of the closet, among them Anti-Nazi Lutheran minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer who had been executed for his support of the failed Stauffenberg bomb plot.


Yes quite a few great men out of the closet in recent times if you consider the brilliant author George Orwell, the creator of modern computing Alan Turing and inventor Nikola Tesla.


I certainly knew about Turing, but the revelations about Orwell and Tesla took me by surprise. I had always assumed Tesla was asexual.


_________________
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer


AnonymousAnonymous
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 70,186
Location: Portland, Oregon

31 Aug 2015, 7:47 pm

Turing being homosexual is portrayed in a mildly vague manner in The Imitation Game.

As for Sacks, if he was socially awkward as many said he was, then him being an Aspie is a possibility.


_________________
Silly NTs, I have Aspergers, and having Aspergers is gr-r-reat!


Prof_Pretorius
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,520
Location: Hiding in the attic of the Arkham Library

01 Sep 2015, 6:48 pm

Oliver Sacks was a genius in his own right. His ability to observe people with neurological problems and write about them was ground breaking. I have a couple of his books on my shelf. Always hoped he'd write about Autism.


_________________
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. ~Theodore Roethke


Varelse
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 5 Sep 2015
Age: 59
Posts: 368

08 Sep 2015, 2:15 pm

A true mensch, and one of my favorite people. His writings, and his life, are a gift to humanity.



Prof_Pretorius
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Aug 2006
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,520
Location: Hiding in the attic of the Arkham Library

08 Sep 2015, 10:25 pm

Supposedly his last tweet was about a video of a 'flash mob' playing "Ode to Joy."
I did a search for the video and the music, along with knowing that was something he watched, moved me to tears.


_________________
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go. ~Theodore Roethke


SocOfAutism
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Mar 2015
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,848

14 Sep 2015, 9:59 am

Oh man, I hadn't heard about this.

Did anyone read this book, Hallucinations? It changed the way I saw many things.