Sunday, October 29, 2006

What you didn't know about my agnosia post...

Over at lint, I just posted a piece which used the rather grand term "software agnosia". I cut out a bit of the definition of agnosia, because it didn't really move things forward. I kind of liked it, so here it is:

If you're interested in "agnosia as bittersweet comedy", check out Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Dr P had visual agnosia due to brain damage. He could see objects but not recognise them. When he wanted to wear his hat, he reached for the thing he thought was most "hat-like". In this case, it was his wife's head.

Or, you could try the the Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form:

He sees things — just what, he can't place.
That's an object
agnosia case.
But with
prosopagnosia,
This person who knows ya
Won't recognize you by your face.
contributed by Virge




3 comments:

Phunicular said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the limerick.

Tom Strobel has indeed contributed a limerick on agnosia, but that isn't it. The one you quoted is by Virge.

I'd appreciate it if you could correct the attribution as soon as possible to avoid having the error propagate to other web sites.

Virgil Keys

Kathryn Greenhill said...

Thanks for the message. It's fixed now. Sorry for the mixup.

I really love the concept of the OED(LF). I think the contributors are lucky to have someone like you looking out for them too.

Can I blame author agnosia??

Phunicular said...

Thanks Kathryn. Much appreciated.