Jonah Lehrer, editor at large of Seed Magazine, announced today that his book “Proust Was A Neuroscientist” is now shipping. I’m excited about the book and pre-ordered it quite a while ago. I’m a big fan of Proust and have always loved reading interpretations of his dense, hyper-natural understanding of the sensory world. Both Clifford Pickover and Robert Anton Wilson have speculated in the past about his connection to the sciences and consciousness. On top of the book being about an exceptionally interesting subject, Seed Magazine has been such a joy to read since I subscribed last year and there is no doubt in my mind that Jonah is one of the reasons why this is true.
A comment about the book made almost 6 months ago by the man himself:
… my title is quite literal. I argue that Proust (and Whitman, Cezanne, Woolf, etc.) anticipated the facts of modern neuroscience. Their art expresses truths about the human mind - real, tangible, truths - that science is only now rediscovering. As you can probably guess, Proust was very prescient when it came to the neuroscience of memory.
I’ll post a review after I receive and read my copy, but you should all go out and buy the book today:
