the Writing Essay: Science October 29, 2005 11:00-12:15 Exercise 2.4.1 Second Fascinating Aspect (Referring to Dr. P's art) "He had indeed moved from realism to nonrepresentation to the abstract, yet this was not the artist, but the pathology, advancing-advancing towards a profound visual agnosia, in which all powers of representation and imagery, all sense of the concrete, all sense of reality, were being destroyed." When Oliver Sacks made this statement, it seemed as if he had finally reached a clear understanding of Dr. P's illness. It seemed as if all the answers that Sacks was looking for was finally there. He saw another part of Dr. P that helped him understand the man more. The art work that was made Dr. P helped Sacks try to determine the illness. Dr. P's illness was clearly illustrated through his works of art. The progression of the deterioration of his brain could be seen through his works over a period of time. Dr. P was expressing his illness through his artwork. As the visual parts of his brain slowly worsened, his works were becoming for abstract and not as concrete as they had used to be. He couldn't provide the details for objects anymore, but he still knew the general idea of the object. He still knew the object in its rawest form, with all its layers finally broken down. This conclusion that Sacks made was unexpected, because he didn't think he could understand why Dr. P was functioning so awkwardly. It was something that Sacks had never seen before, and he didn't have any idea what the problem with Dr. P was, but after seeing Dr. P's work, it helped Sacks get a better idea of the progression of Dr. P
throughout the years. Dr. P's illness was no longer strange to him. It was no longer a mystery, but now it showed that he was slowly becoming less of a detailed, concrete person and more of an abstract artist thinking abstractedly in all the aspects of his life. The question that seemed to have no answer finally had one, what was wrong with Dr. P? Sacks had to look at other parts of Dr. P, not just his visual function to try to solve Dr. P's illness. He had to see Dr. P in his normal everyday life to try to crack at the mystery. What used to be really unclear now was more visible. The reader and Oliver Sacks were both seeing the problem with Dr. P. He wasn't just a man that was crazy and couldn't interpret things right. He was a man who slowly became more conceptual, which made him slowly lose his concrete sense of life. Dr. P functioned off the abstract and his mind was slowly forgetting everything else but the abstract to function. This soon became normal life for Dr. P to see everything in its nonrepresentational form. He didn't need the details of life anymore to function. His brain was slowly throwing it all out and just using what was necessary to get by. It was like a tadpole losing its tail when becoming a frog because the tail was no longer needed. Dr. P was becoming a frog and didn't a tail to help swim anymore. He was a man who thought abstractedly and didn't need to be figurative to get through life. Sacks didn't no longer was perplexed by Dr. P, but he was slowly understand why Dr. P was the way he was. He had finally solved the problem and prescribed to Dr. P more abstraction in his life. He told Dr. P to just live his life the way he did and use music as the helping point in it. Music was what helped him function and Sacks told Dr. P to just have more music in his life. If it was working, then keep doing it.