WNYC's Radiolab has an interesting podcast about how a body of words of an author can tell us much about the way the brain works (or fails to work). Agatha Christie was one of the most prolific authors of the 20th Century. By plugging her novels into a computer and turning it into data, researchers were able to understand how she used language and how after her 73rd novel, Elephants Can Remember, she started consistently losing vocabulary and including more words that lacked specificity (thing, something, anything, etc.). It looks as though Christie developed Alzheimer's Disease later in life. Listen to the end of the podcast, it's great how they talk about how Christie must have had an intimation about her memory lost given the title of that novel and it's subject - an aging Ariadne Oliver who is beginning to have trouble remembering things.
Here's a link to the article and podcast if you are interested.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
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This sounds fascinating! I can't wait to listen to the podcast - maybe tomorrow at work if I don't have students coming in for help.
ReplyDeleteHope all is well on your side of the Atlantic!
I just typed my fingers off writing this long response and then Google decided to try and do my thinking for me and logged me in wrong and deleted the comment before it was posted. Grrr...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to your list of SS collections I have to add a few more, but I am not sure you will agree with me:
-Partners in Crime - I like how she parodies famous fictional detectives of her day (including Poirot)
-Parker Pyne - We are introduced to Miss Lemon and Ariadne Oliver and I like the idea of some man who's worked a mundane government job applying his skills to helping tidy up people's messes
-Mr. Quinn - Yes, they are cheesy, but I like that they are very different and the bifurcation of character with Quinn and Satterthwaite is psychologically pleasing.
-Hound of Death - it's just plain odd in the context of the Christie cannon. I like odd.
I'll try and post my review of Pale Horse today, So we can discuss that. Then on to The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side!