Customer Reviews

The Cerebral Symphony: Seashore Reflections on the Structure of Consciousness

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Too wordy and disjointed. Too complicated. That's complicated, not complex. I can handle complex. Douglas Hofstadter talks about complex things, but I can understand him. I can remember what he wrote. And if I can understand Hofstadter, I must have SOME reading abilities. But this book of Calvin's I found forgettable, because his sentences and paragraphs and topics wander too much. And I like this stuff, the topic, that is. I eat this stuff up, books about consciousness and neuropsychology and psychology in general. But this... I read a few years ago, found it slippery at the time, and can barely remember what I got out of it. Here's a sample: "Consciousness is a very overused word, the same string of syllables being used to designate a multitide of meanings. It's much worse than the multiple meanings of brain, which, besides denoting the three pounds of nerve cells inside our heads, is also used as a verb (to club, aiming at a head), as the opposite of brawn, as a surname in England, as a term for a studious student or the chief planner of an enterprise, and more recently to designate something as inanimate as a computer. Being a neurophsyiologist, I tend to avoid the nonneurological uses of the word [WHICH ONE?], but I doubt that I'll convert the rest of the Englsih-speaking world to my more restrictive usage" (p.75).

And trust me, it gets worse in the next few sentences. Redundant. 90% of that first sentence above is tangent. By the time I get to the end I don't remember what the subject was. This guy likes to hear himself talk. I don't mean that personally, maybe he's a great guy, I don't know, but I think he needs some help with the writing style. And it wouldn't be so bad if he eventually got to some point about consciousness or psychology, but sometimes I can't find why all that tangent was there.

I can't (or won't) critique what the book is about; I think the writing style overrides it. (The type it's set in didn't help, either. Sounds like quibbling but it's true. Somehow it added to the muddiness. Too squished, maybe. I think the quoted sentence reads more clearly as I've typed it here than when one reads it on paper in the book.)

I read Calvin's Cerebral Symphony some years ago and found it a refreshing and accessible look at a topic with which I had some passing familiarity and interest. As a sociology and anthropology instructor I could only have tangential knowledge in the neurosciences. I'm not suggesting that reading Calvin made me an expert in the field, but his writing technique and approach opened a new dimension of exploration for me and "connected" with a growing anthropological and archaeological literature on the nature of thought, language and the relationship of brain development and speech. His subsequent work has been even more relevant to my corner or academia.
Another Amazon reviewer has soundly panned Cerebral Symphony and I think, unfairly. Granted, there are books more stylistically compelling. For instance, Robert Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is much more carefully crafted than Cerebral Symphony, but I was left with the same sense after reading both of these books that I had read books that addressed in a highly engaging way topics that will prove to be pivotal in the history of scholarship.

I acquired this recently and find it valuable still, after 23 years. Calvin's writing is lively and attractive, sometimes prolix as one critic says, but loaded with keen observation, reflection and diverse, interesting quotes. Calvin writes with poetic sensitivity, knowledge broad and deep, and a historic/philosophic bent . Neuroscience has gone far in these decades but this book is still worth reading and keeping.

At the Symphony there are some violin musicians who go to the hospitals to soothe the psyches of damaged children. The music gives them a sense of well-being, the opposite of Teresa Patterson's playing at the Magazine Club did. Zach once wanted to take lessons. Is this the stuff we hear that dreams are made of? The chimpanzees responded in like manner as the hospitalized children. There is biological evolution which seldom progressed to a pure clone. If it had gotten to that point, I know one whom I won't name as two readers object vociferously to constant tidbits about him. Mark is learning to play musical instruments to be in a band someday. Song is the noblest, most intimate, most complete manner of self-expression known to manking. We all have music in us in varying and different ways. Sometimes, however, song becomes only a source of forgetfulness of material things and a solace, but also an inspiration.

The Gregorian chants of the medieval Catholic Church celebrate the ancient ritual of music in concert, especially when the acoustics are excellent. Chords are simultaneous notes just as phonemes are; tunes are chains of chords just as words and sentences are chains of such. Brad McCuen gave away sixty years of music to MTSU in 1997 -- 30,000 record collections are said to be valued at more than $300,000. The University paid a pittance of only $50,000 to defray the moving and charting. The mental attitudes controling cooperation, conflict resolution and family size (all likely to be strongly shared with our primate cousins) would rank high. William Calvin is the author of The River That Flows Uphill.