Short Stories: Brainworms

I took so long getting this posted today because I 1) have a migraine that's going to kill me and 2) wanted to give you a little more than just more Oliver Sacks. First I'll start with the Sacks because it's actually interesting

This comes from Chapter 5 of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes. Maybe I should explain what Sacks means about Brainworms before I lose everyone! Here's the sentence that explains it best:

Many people are set off by the theme of music of a film or television show or an advertisement. This is not coincidental, for such music is designed, in the terms of the music industry, to "hook" the listener, to be "catchy" or "sticky," to bore its way, like an earwig, into the ear or mind; hence the term "earworms" - though one might be inclined to call them "brianworms" instead.

This one was fun to read because who hasn't had this happen? We have all at one point be driven insane by some snippet of music stuck in our heads, whether we even liked the song or not. But I'll bet you've never had it happen for 43 years straight and felt locked inside yourself by it. This is what happened to one of Sacks Parkinson's patients described in his more well known book Awakenings. He says, "seven pairs of notes (the fourteen notes of Povero Rigoletto)...would repeat themselves irresistibly in her mind. She also spoke of these forming "a musical quadrangle" who four sides she would have to perambulate, mentally, endlessly. This might go on for hours on end, and did so at intervals throughout the entire 43 years of her illness, prior to being "awakened" by L-dopa."

Sacks talks of some ways people have found for getting rid of this problem, such as singing the song to it's actual conclusion (which I've heard of but never seems to work for me, I just get another part of the same song stuck in my head) or singing another song purposefully (of course then THIS may become stuck too!).

He gives an interesting theory, which I'll leave you to ponder, of the possible evolutionary reason for this phenomenon.

It may be that brainworms, even if maladaptive in our own music-saturated culture, stem from an adaptation that was crucial in earlier hunter-gatherer days: replaying the sounds of animals moving or other significant sounds again and again, until their recognition was assured.

The next short story is a real short story. I'll leave Sacks where he belongs for now, in my head! hahaha. It comes from Orson Scott Card's Keeper of Dreams, which I bought a year ago at his book signing. Yes, it's signed! It says, "To Tonya, A fellow dreamer," probably a common statement but one I enjoyed nonetheless. This story The Elephants of Poznan.

It is set in the future, as most of his books and stories are. It is in Poland after a devastating plague has not only killed most of the human population but also left them sterile. I'll start with the opening paragraph because I think it conveys so much:

In the heart of old Poznan, the capital of Great Poland since ancient times, there is a public square called Rynek Glowny. The houses around it aren't as lovely as those of Krakow, but they have been charming painted and there is a faded graciousness that wins the heart. The plaza came through World War II more or less intact, but the Communist governement apparently could not bear the thought of so much wasted space. What use did it have? Public squares were for public demonstrations, and once the Communists had seized control on behalf of the people, people, public demonstrations would never be needed again. So out in the middle of the square they built a squat, ugly building in a brutally modern style. It sucked the life out of the place. You had to stand with your back to it in order to truly enjoy the square.

Now I'm not sure if he is exaggerating or if the pictures I found simply didn't show the building he's talking about, but I thought it was beautiful!
This is an interesting story. After the plague, the elephants come to Poznan. The have journeyed from Africa and everyone is a little confused as to what they are doing here. Shortly afterward, a family comes to Poznan. The mother, father, and daughter came through the plague together, though they lost their two sons. Miraculously, the daughter is fully healthy and the parents believe she may be able to conceive. Since she is the only hope of the human race to survive, she agrees to an experiment of sleeping with one man every three months (in order to know which man is fertile). The narrator of the story turns out to be that man. Shortly after his son is born, he begins focusing on the elephants and why they seem to be watching the people, almost as if they are conducting an experiment...

I would love to tell the whole story but it would be the same! Please read this wonderful story!

Short Stories: More from Sacks

This Saturday I am continuing with Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. I'm doing chapters since they are arranged in short story like manner. Here's the first post if you want more info.

Chapters 2 and 3 both deal with music in relation to epilepsy. Chapter 2 titled A Strangley Familiar Feeling: Musical Seizures, relates how some people have musical auras, that is, they hear a certain type of music before going into a seizure. They get recognize that if they hear this piece of music, they are most likely only hearing in their heads and are going to have a seizure soon. Some people with this type of aura feel that the music is very familiar but can never quite place it. Others recognize immediately the song they are hearing. The most interesting of these stories was of a mother who diagnosed her son with seizures before the doctors. She heard him humming Pop Goes The Weasel one morning, the same tune she hears just before she has a seizure.

Chapter 3 is titled Fear of Music: Musicogenic Epilepsy. I found this one terribly sad. It tells of people who's seizures are brought on by music. Sometimes any kind of music and sometimes one particular style or piece of music. It seems to be related to the emotions; the more emotional the type of music the more likely it is to cause a seizure. The saddest case was of the 19th music critic Nokonov. At first it was itermitent but gradually any type of music would bring on a seizure. He had to give up his career and actually began to fear all types of music.

Short Story Saturdays: First Post

I'm beginning this Short Story Saturdays for me to share short stories and chapters of books that are like short stories. I decided to do this when I picked up Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia this afternoon and noticed that it was written in a sort of short story format. I like the idea of sharing so much more of this book than I would in a normal review but over a longer period of time. Many of you may not know that I am a music therapist. I've been meaning to read this book for a long time and finally, while at the bookstore today, said to myself "What are you waiting for? Buy it already!"

If anyone would like to join me in sharing some of their favorite short stories, feel free to do so here or on your blog but there are so many daily memes out there already that I'm not really expecting it. I have been so happy (and surprised!) that so many people are participating in my Friday 56 that I couldn't imagine being greedy and starting another one! I simply want to do this to make myself read those books of short stories I have sitting around my house looking at me and to share this wonderful book by Oliver Sacks.


Oliver Sacks is the famous neurologist who wrote the book Awakenings which the movie of the same name was based on (Robin Williams played him). Sacks is also a huge advocate for music therapy. Often when you hear him speak, he spends most of his time talking about the profound affect music can have on the brain. I was very excited when this book came out. So now I will stop blabbering and tell you about the first chapter.

A Bolt From The Blue: Sudden Musicophilia
This chapter is mainly about Tony Cicoria, a surgeon who is one day hit by a bolt of lightning. After a brief two week recovery period in which he has a few memory problems, everything seems to go back to normal. Then he suddenly is struck by the profound need to listen to piano music, specifically Chopin. He then feels the need to learn to play the piano and while he is learning Chopin, he begins to hear his own music. It becomes almost a compulsion for him to learn how to write down this music he hears. He does not stop being a surgeon but all his free time is now consumed by playing and writing his own music. Before the lightning strike he did not know how to play and was never interested in learning, much less composing his own music.

Image by Cool Text: Logo and Button Generator - Create Your Own