Words are what we have. We cannot have our human thoughts without them. In their meanings, they are ideas, and in their sounds, they are music. Sacks knew this at the depth of his being and this lovely piece of writing plays that back to us. I read it out loud in my silent house and heard the poetry in each note. A lovely tribute to a man of both the meaning and the music of language.
As for Oliver Sacks, the writer Rabindranath Tagore says of an elderly woman who has died, "She is in the pupils of my eyes. She is in my bones and in my soul."
Every loss is all losses: Oliver Sacks, Julian Bond, Leonard Cohen, John McCain, Edward Kennedy.
We continue.
5
Love this dear man. I never enjoyed reading as much as I do by reading Oliver. He opened my mind to so much of his work.
I will always read him over and over.
5
He suffered from logophillia rather than etymohillia, if love of words was his burden, whereas etymophilia is the root of a whole different problem, so to speak. Ah, the joy of both.
9
@MS See, this is where I could have used Oliver's help--he would have set me right about "logophilia"-- Thank you!
5
Thank you for sharing this with me. Oliver Saks gave us so much and his message is still so relevant.
4
A very stimulating story of Sacks logophilia and neologistic tendencies that I wholeheartedly share. Thank you.
3
Bless your heart, Bill Hayes.
5
Also he wrote about rather technical concepts with a simplicity and accessibility that made technical terms almost a-technical.
Much appreciated.
10
Its not just remembering Oliver on his birthday or the day he left us. I believe that such men become part of the fabric of our very being. Loving is like that and he was truly loved and beloved and he will remain a part of me always. Really a great teacher in so many ways and what I learned from him I put into practice. There are some men, while reading them, that can make my body temperature change within seconds. Oliver was such a man. There are so many words to describe Oliver that its impossible to choose just one, but for me, when I think of him, its this; ELATION.
So to celebrate his life, first thing I did this morning was I jumped into the icy lake naked with ELATION. My heart skipped a beat it was so cold but soon after swimming in the words of Oliver, my blood was filled with the heat and heart of his own passion and what it means to be truly alive. His spirit is so powerful that the sky was smiling above, you know, that Oliver kind of smile. I have tears in my eyes writing this. I miss him so much!
14
"...such men", well, just so.
2
@C TWow! Just reading this I feel I HAVE to read Oliver's books!
1
Long unrequited love affair with Oliver Sacks. Often I shared his books with my students and they fell in love as well.
8
In a world beset with huge delights and total horrors Sacks has always been a total treasure. What I dodn't know was that Sacks and I have something of the same fascinations with words and dreams although it is very obvious his penetrations into fantasies and actualities was immensely deeper than I could ever manage.
He was and remains a pinnacle of wonder that is sorely missed in this current world.
13
No question but he was a phenomenally great writer, but this piece also makes it clear that he engaged in an ongoing dialogue - literally, a back and forth - with whatever he was engaged in/with. Presence and genuine engagement...what better way to understand another and their experience(s)? Truly, he offered a very powerful model for being able to understand, really understand with great force and (hopefully) clarity the world and the life of another. Listen and you will learn. (What a lesson for these times, huh?)
13
Thanks. A lovely piece. Pretty swell to remember both Loren Eiseley and Oliver Sacks in the same vignette. A gift to men of such poetic wonder and inquiry.
11
Top of my list of the finest human beings of our time. I planted a fern garden in his honor and think of him every time I pass that shaded space, so soft and green and vital.
11
I started reading "The Island of the Blind" a couple of nights ago and was just looking forward to curling up in bed with it when I saw this. How lovely, thank you. I hadn't realized the date of his death was so near.
And now -- to curl up with a book by Oliver Sacks and get carried away to a different place.
10
Mr. Hayes, singular but my thoughts were with Oliver Sacks earlier this week, and I have yet to read any of his writings. It was the title of 'mistaking his wife for a hat' that popped up out of the blue, probably along the loving tribute you wrote in his remembrance when he died in August of 2015.
While planning to read what commentators have to say, you might enjoy 'The Word Child', by the late author and philosopher, Iris Murdoch. "H", as in Hilary, the narrator of this British novel has a way with words if unfortunate in love.
Sending you and friends of Dr. Sacks on the eve of the third year anniversary of his death, my sympathy and appreciation for sharing this tribute with his readers, and those who care.
9
Thank you for this beautifully composed piece about an extraordinarily amazing human being, Mr. Oliver Sacks...
19
Thank you for sharing this, and thank you for reminding us of the remarkable gift of having Oliver Sacks touch this world. If I remember correctly the Times published a piece from you 2 yrs ago on the anniversary of his death, a tribute to his humanity, witnessed at a bar in the village ... and then of course there were those wonderful reflections he wrote for the Times before his death ...I hope this becomes a tradition! We as humans, have this rare gift to learn words, express words, write words, sing words, as part of our collective humanity. I love writers and people who love words. They can color your day, your life. Words do more than matter, they can elevate or as sadly seen in our national discourse, they can be manipulated and grossly simplified to cause much harm. Words are a touch of grace. Oliver Stone may have been an atheist, but he understood the spiritual nature of humanity through his love of words.
12
@Fromjersey Yes, indeed--"Out Late with Oliver Sacks" (2016) https://nyti.ms/2bMkmL7
3
Thank you for this gift. I am in the midst of writing my third book and could not agree more with Oliver. All we can do is write.
5
Thank you for a wonderful reminder of a man who made so much of his life and gave so much to all of ours.
12
What a lovely piece. Thank you. I am glad you found each other.
12
“The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time.”
*swoon*
9
Several of the last poems written by a friend, who died at 90 a few months ago, were about the singing she heard in her head, of "a monklike chant, in bass voices." ..."Where did my brain come upon a monk's chant that is not familiar to me?" In another poem, "...dreams of soft music/some a sad solo, some choral/some the sound of an orchestra reaching from a distance...So real is this music...I rise up to see/If a radio has been left on." Failing vision made reading difficult for her, but she found an audiobook of Musicophilia, and during a visit I read to her from my copy, chapter 6, musical hallucinations. Oliver Sacks' words seemed to bring her comfort. I'm sorry I wasn't able to thank him for that.
19
@Vennie White I think you just did...!
14
Kudos...
Universal narrative linguistics – what a spiritually uplifting foundation for human conversation...
Universal grammar linguistics - so soul-less and dour and mechanistic, by comparison...
Rules of grammar aren’t “innately human” – any more than those of Python or FORTRAN are...
On the other hand – the rules of Baldwin or Fitzgerald or Hemingway, perhaps uniquely so...
Baldwin or Fitzgerald or Hemingway are like Beatles or Fleetwood Mac or Heart...
Know it when I hear it...
What might we call such rules...
Intelligent design, perhaps...
Just thinking out quiet...
3
I think the word you were looking for was logophilia. You picked the wrong end of the word etymology to create your neologism. I would think etymophilia would mean, more or less, "love of the true sense". However, as you created the word, you have free range to define it...but it probably won't have wings.
4
What a load of sacksophilia.
More please.
9
A very sweet reminiscence. Thank you for sharing it.
7
I admire this great man even more after watching the video clip. My open water ocean swimming and music keep me afloat with joy and pain of life.
7
Thank you for this. I so miss Dr. Sacks’ writing which so enriched and enlightened me. It was wonderful that he embraced his uniqueness and dare I say quirkiness. I look forward to the film. I loved the trailer.
11
The world is far richer and better because of Oliver Sacks. In his life he encountered considerable sadness and hardship. One can guess at that by reading between the lines in his earlier books. In his later ones, he finally spelled it out for us. Was that the source of his remarkable empathy? His decency, humanity, and humility were limitless. Thank you for including this wonderful piece that reminded me of the remarkable man.
16
Words from Oliver, photos from Bill Cunningham! Brings tears tears to my eyes. Thanks for that idea, so true. A gift to me on my birthday, today.
14
I am a nephophilia and musicophilia. After coming to Berkeley from Tokyo, the first book that I fell in love was "An Anthropologist on Mars" whose title captured my wild imagination when I found a copy at Moe's Books on Telegraph Avenue. Oliver Sacks opened a wide door located between science and English literature.
23
Thank you Bill Hayes for this article, your writing and your comment letting us know that we can look forward to more of Oliver Sacks writing in April 2019. His death left me feeling I had lost someone close to me.
26
There are only two people who I truly miss: James Baldwin and Oliver Sacks.
17
As a writer, a lover of words (and languages), and a swimmer, I send my respects.
9
Oliver Sacks saved my life. I have two neurological disorders and one of them is migraine. Really weird migraines. In one book he stated something like this, “I cannot take away your migraines, but I can remove the fear.” It did and just knowing there was someone else who understood weird auras took away the fear. I emailed Oliver Sacks to thank him. And amazingly he responded via his assistant. He was a wonderful and astoundingly creative and intelligent man. Thank you for giving another piece of him in this article.
41
@DE After a neurologist asked me to pick out patient artwork of auras in Dr. Sacks' book that was closest to my own auras I was dumbfounded...and grateful. I immediately found "my aura." I purchased my own copy and sometimes showed that drawing to family and friends. I still don't think anybody who's never had a migraine really gets it, but it did help to explain to them that it wasn't just a headache.
8
@DE This is a lovely tribute. Migraines, complete with 'auras' were passed down in my family, and my elders described them. Thus, I was not as alarmed as I might have been had I no forewarning. Honestly, I cannot imagine how frightening that must have been.
2
@MAS
Many years ago my brain produced a fortification aura which frequently produces a subsequent migraine and I also was grateful for the Sacks investigation in that area. The visual patterns occasionally repeat but thankfully there is no after pain. Sacks introduced me to the odd concept that my brain was not me but I was merely a useful instrument to this central organ which amuses itself by feeding me dreams and poetry and visual creations far beyond my abilities to reproduce.graphically. Sacks was very valuable in my understandings there.
3
“The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time.”
Truly inspirational.
25
Simply do not understand. Writers write. Then they say it’s the most important thing there is
Like many others who read this article, I have had a special place in my heart for Mr. Sacks. Reading Awakenings opened up my curiosity to all things neurological. I used to think how great it would be to shadow him and perhaps learn to see some of life through his eyes. What a fascinating man who is gone too soon.
21
Prosopagnosia! That word, learned from OS has saved me embarrassment more than once. He also taught me to question phrases: the marriage has taken place? What place? Will it return the place? Finding equivalents in other languages was fun.
13
I miss Oliver's words and Bill Cunningham's pictures. Have I outlived my sell-by date?
32
@pollyb1: Not at all! You are in excellent company - and a lot of it!
Mahalo (thank you) for your loving & humorous intimate insight to the fascinating mind of Dr. Sacks. I share his love words & have long been a fan of his, enjoying several of his publications. I was warmed to the core when reading in his memoir the tender, oh-so-grateful admission of find love with you late in life. I sensed that you filled an aching empty space for him. I hope that each of us may find such happiness sometime in our lifetimes as he did with you. Would not the world be a better place to live if that were true?
65
Dear Mr. Hayes:
A year or so ago, I bought four books by Oliver Sacks. I got them through iBooks, and they are on my iPad, along with more books than I’ll ever be able to read, even if I live to be 150.
Your article inspired me to move them to the top of my reading list.
Thank you!
Dean from CT
14
Thank you so much, Mr Hayes, for an account of your life with the beloved Oliver Sacks.
I have been a speech pathologist for many decades, and have rarely encountered a teacher with so great a love of words and communication. Dr. Sacks's level of respect and empathy for those struggling with neurological diseases was unparalleled. He saw through his patients' disabilities into their very hearts.
And he did it with joy. I remember that every morning he would sing "Happy Birthday" to his patients who had aphasia, whether or not it was their birthday. Aphasia is a communication disorder that involves the ability to comprehend and/or produce language. He did this because the song was so easily recognizable and almost everyone could retrieve some of the words. He found a strategy to connect with almot everyone.
His death was an egregious loss for this world. Thank you for reminding us of his brilliance and humanity.
55
Like others who read this, I noticed the name and pounced on the article. A wee bit more from and about Oliver Sacks!
Thank you for sharing his adoration of words. Sometimes I think that the world is going to be split, not only by political rifts, but by the chasm between those who care deeply about words and meanings - and those for whom words are good for nothing more than sales transactions and legal traps.
He placed his readers into the minds of so many unique people: he was like verbal LSD.
60
Bill highlights that Oliver felt the act of writing is a form of thinking.
Writing is one of the most complicated acts a human being can perform. It is the end product of processes. It is an extremely underappreciated ability, highly indicative of other cognitive abilities.
37
"The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time.” Perhaps, if Oliver Sachs had been challenged, or stimulated, by himself or others, to consider adding an additional dimension to this "marker," being reminded of the "quest" inherent in each helpful question which needs to be asked, he might have also included "in menshlich ways with experienced and expressed gratefulness and gratitude for daily gifts of unexpected opportunities."
2
Three years since his passing already? What a beautiful man!
28
Bill, it’s wonderful to hear your writing about Oliver. His love of life was infectious....I miss him.
24
It's wonderful to read about Oliver Sachs and his love of words. In today's Twitter world where thoughts are reduced to 140 characters and often poorly expressed, Sach's devotion to words and their meanings is stirring for any writer. I kept journals as a teenager and young adult when I lived in Europe and am now using them to write novels. And I've been fortunate to reestablish contact with my high school French teacher who pushed me to learn the language and read, read, read. Now in my 70s I am glad to be able to share ideas about history, languages, and travels with my wonderful spouse. She urged me to learn German and we've been speaking it every since. Sachs is an inspiration; I must read more of his work.
11
I'll never forget his words, spoken in a videotaped interview, in which he described how it felt to live in lower Manhattan in the weeks following 9/11.
He described the smell of burnt flesh which lingered in the air, seeming to want to understand something impossible to understand.
“The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time.”
Looking forward to reading "Insomniac City."
22
What a mensch! Such humanity, compassion, joy. I never met Oliver Sacks, but found his books fascinating. On the news of his death I felt bereft.
48
After reading/loving many of the books, visualizing the photographs of that wildly intelligent bear-like man that I (we?) thought of when I heard or read his name, my favorite thing I’ve learned about Mr Sacks was when I saw the picture of him, as a young man, in leather motorcycle gear and big muscles, leaning against his bike.
What can I say? I’m horribly shallow.
20
@Michael c
My favourite picture is of him breaking the California record for a squat lift - 600 lb if memory serves. What a life.
2
Dr. Sacks became one of my favorite authors of all time after I first read the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and then Awakenings. I have (no contractions here!) learned so much, not just about myself but about people and the world around me through his writings. I have long since read all of his books and still find myself frequently saddened that there will be no more.
29
@Barry G. You can look forward to a new Oliver Sacks book, a final volume of his essays and case histories, titled "Everything in Its Place" - April 2019 (Knopf, US)
34
I have several of Mr. Sacks' books and enjoy them very much.
6
@Jennie I have his music book. I love music, so I pick up the book now and then to learn more about the very unusual cases he has studied.
6
Although I never met Oliver Sacks, having read "Musicophilia" twice, I feel as if I knew one dimension of this multi-dimensional person.
Thank You!
17