O: Good

March 26, 2017 4:18 AM

My life with Oliver Sacks: ‘He was the most unusual person I had ever known’
posted by Joe in Australia (20 comments total)

23 August 2015
“What are your wishes, Dr Sacks?” said the hospice nurse. “How would you like to pass?” “At home,” answered O in a clear, steady voice, “with no pain or discomfort, and with my friends here.”

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posted by Mr. Yuck at 4:53 AM on March 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Why can't we have people like these on our currency and running the country instead of people from that opposite culture?
posted by Obscure Reference at 6:11 AM on March 26, 2017 [28 favorites]

So beautiful.
posted by h00py at 6:20 AM on March 26, 2017

Last year, Bill Hayes wrote Out late with Oliver Sacks, recounting the time when they decided to show up to "Oliver Sacks Night" at their local gay bar.
posted by schmod at 6:31 AM on March 26, 2017 [33 favorites]

Oh thank you so much for posting this. It was really beautiful and reminded me of how I want to be. I better get out of bed and go to the lab, there's science that needs to be done.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 6:36 AM on March 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

This is lovely. Thanks so much.
posted by allthinky at 7:01 AM on March 26, 2017

What a remarkable man. Thank you for posting.
posted by Defying Gravity at 7:03 AM on March 26, 2017

It's somehow really dusty in here. Great post and also thanks schmod for the Out Late story.
posted by mumimor at 7:18 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oliver Sacks' Notebooks is a short article that gives you some small insight into his creative process.

On a plain piece of legal paper, he ponders the mysteries of consciousness. In a lengthy diary entry snaking around the cartoon airplanes on an airline menu, he records with childlike wonder the thrill of being allowed to go inside the cockpit and marvels at the “hundreds! thousands of dials” inside the “tiny cabin.” On the inside of a folder, he contemplates what it means to be alive. On hotel stationery, he contrasts fancy and imagination. On two loose leaves stapled, he distinguishes between the two modes of creativity.

posted by zamboni at 8:15 AM on March 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

What a lovely and heartbreaking piece. I was all excited to read some fun things about Gay Oliver Sacks and his crazy adventures with Björk. But the segue to cancer and death, oh.
posted by Nelson at 9:29 AM on March 26, 2017

Why can't we have people like these on our currency and running the country instead of people from that opposite culture?

I would posit that people like our POTUS have never even heard of Oliver. And IF they have they more than likely think he wastes his time with foolish thoughts.

For 60 years my wife has been jokingly referring to me as an elitist. Since November I realize that I am. At least compared to half the voters in this last election.
posted by notreally at 11:09 AM on March 26, 2017 [14 favorites]

What a beautiful smile. I'm struck by the depths of the love they had for one another. How can you not read this piece and understand that love transcends gender, body, sex, circumstance?

The world is now bereft of Oliver Sacks. We are so lucky to have had him.
posted by BlueHorse at 12:38 PM on March 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

Loved Sacks since The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but Uncle Tungsten really cast a pall over things for me because, all the radioactives he messed around with as a kid, I didn't think there was any way he wouldn't get cancer if he lived long enough -- I was quite surprised he lasted as long as he did, actually.

He was a giant in every sense of the word.
posted by jamjam at 1:04 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

thanks for posting this.
posted by djseafood at 1:19 PM on March 26, 2017

jamjam, Cancer is what gets us if nothing else does. Cancer is an inevitability.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 3:49 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wonderful, thanks for the post. I'm a long-time fan and use his readings in many of my classes. When he died I bought his last book and it sits, unread, on my nightstand.

I didn't know he had a male partner (ahem, "lover") until just now.

In other news, the pollen count here is very high...

.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:33 PM on March 26, 2017

Oliver Sacks always struck me as the model for decency, curiosity and compassion in a human being. I'm glad to see my hypothesis confirmed in Mr. Hayes' diaries.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 7:31 PM on March 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

He was also - I was surprised to learn a few years ago, though surprised for no real reason I can think of - a beast mode powerlifter. And, it transpires as I just now went searching for a good encapsulation of that fact, an absolutely wonderful elocutionist. Just listening to this guy has made me use words like "encapsulation" and "elocutionist". Easily one of the best people to ever have lived in the world.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:04 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Even the New York Times --
"Correction: August 26, 2016
An earlier version of the photograph accompanying this essay misspelled the subject’s name. He is Oliver Sacks (not Saks)."
posted by gingerbeer at 11:01 PM on March 26, 2017

"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" was a peculiar book.
I particularly liked the Grateful Dead Hare Krishna who was stuck in 1969 because of a brain tumour. He didn't like the way the band had changed over the years but rapidly returned back to 1969 after playing more recent records.
posted by Narrative_Historian at 12:39 AM on March 27, 2017 [1 favorite]