Sunday, August 22, 2010

All in the Mind - A.S Byatt, her passion for brains, & bridging the Two Cultures

I love A.S. Byatt as a novelist and short story writer - I am less sure on some of her ideas about neurocriticism, or whatever it was she called it a while back (see 'Observe the Neurones' - maybe everyone else just started calling it neurocrit). Still, this is an interesting discussion and she is a brilliant person.

Here is this week's blog entry on the show:

A.S Byatt, her passion for brains, & bridging the Two Cultures

A__S__Byatt_2 She's obsessed with the Fibonacci Spiral, snail neurons, and ants....and loves to talk shop with neuroscientists.

Ah, that's my sort of novelist.

The acclaimed writer, A.S Byatt, is my guest on All in the Mind this week.

Dame Antonia Susan Byatt. Have you read her Man Booker Prize winning novel, Possession: A Romance?

Antonia started her studies at Cambridge when the English physicist and novelist, C.P Snow, launched The Two Cultures debate with his now notorious Rede Lecture in 1959.

The Two Cultures. Science. The Humanities.

Never the twain shall meet?

Codswallop. I certainly like to think they do each week on All in the Mind! My great passion, as is Antonio's you'll discover, is to explore how the two are necessarily intertwined in our effort to understand the world. Shakespeare and synesthesia, brain scans and Balzac - we need them all - and both can inform each other in surprising and important ways.

Perhaps we both form part of the 'Third Culture' that Charles Percy Snow heralded the need for in his original lecture. A community of communicators...bridge builders between the disciplines.

A.S Byatt digs deeply into science as part of the research process for her novels, and I must admit, hearing how she goes about that made me want to go and try my hand at writing fiction one day. In my dreams? Perhaps!

Here's some extra audio of a meeting between a great novelist and the great neuroscientist. Have a listen after you've caught the show this week.

A.S Byatt and Giacomo Rizzolatti met on the stage at the EuroScience Open Forum in Italy. Thanks to the ESOF crew for sharing this recording with me.

Novelist A.S Byatt (11:33)

AS_Byatt_Giacomo_Rizzolatti_Part_1

Neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti (13:24)

AS_Byatt_Giacomo_Rizzolatti_Part_2


A.S Byatt and Giacomo Rizzolatti (10:40)

AS_Byatt_Giacomo_Rizzolatti_Part_3


And, here are some further titbits from my interview with A.S Byatt:

Byatt contemplates why she's a little bored with novels focused on feelings.

AS_Byatt_a

More on why the discovery of mirror neurons by Giacomo and colleagues hit her where it matters - in the gut!

AS_Byatt_b


Feel free to share your reflections here on the blog, or over on the All in the Mind website, where I've also included links and references that relate to my conversation with A.S Byatt.

For even more science writing fair, ABC Radio National's The Book Show featured former West Australian premier and psychologist, Carmen Lawrence, with her strong critique of science writing in Australia this week. She described it as "professional and workman like"...and suggests that "scientific writing is not subject to the same scrutiny as even other forms of non-fiction might be".

What do you think?

Any reviews of favourite science writers you'd like to share?

Listen to Carmen's thoughts here. The same edition features Australian science writer, Elizabeth Finkel, discussing her approach to non-fiction science narrative. Elizabeth mainly writes for Cosmos Magazine.

Rees_portrait If you're in the mood for more, catch the recent Reith Lectures by Lord Martin Rees exploring "Scientific Horizons" - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

There's SO much on for you to tap into throughout Australia. We're in the thick of National Science Week (until 22 August), the Ultimo Science Festival (until 29 August), and the ABC's Big Sleep Survey (until 7 September).

I'll be also at the Melbourne Writer's Festival in the coming week, chairing sessions on brains (Drs Norman Doidge and Perminder Sachdev) and a grand story of a vast ocean (Simon Winchester with his new book, The Atlantic).

Gotta get reading.

Enjoy.

And now on with this week's show.

A.S Byatt: Woman of letters and ...science!

Booker prize winning novelist A.S Byatt ()

Booker prize winning novelist A.S Byatt

Booker Prize winning novelist A.S Byatt has a thing for words. But do you know about her passion for science? In neuroscience she's discovered what she's always sensed about the workings of her own head as a writer - and you must hear what's going on in her unique mind! She joins Natasha to discuss snail brains, mirror neurons and more for National Science Week.

Show Transcript | Hide Transcript

Transcripts are published on Wednesdays. Audio on Saturdays after broadcast

Guests

A.S Byatt

http://www.asbyatt.com/

Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti
Director of the Department of Neurosciences
Università degli Studi di Parma
Italy
http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/english/staff/rizzolat.htm

Further Information

All in the Mind blog with Natasha Mitchell
A place to engage, or you can add your comments directly above too (look for Add Your Comment). Features extra audio this week too.

Presenter Natasha Mitchell on Twitter

The novelist and the neuroscientist: Video of dialogue between Dame A.S Byatt and Professor Giacomo Rizzolatti
Recorded by ESOF2010, Torino, Italy. July 2010.

Novel thoughts
Essay by A.S Byatt in the Times Literary Supplement, 2007
"Neuroscience is helping us to understand how art works - and it may offer us a way out of narcissism".

Why is there so much genetic diversity? - Essay by acclaimed geneticist and snail biologist Professor Steve Jones

Writing the Brain: Neuroscience and creativity with novelist Sue Woolfe
Broadcast on All in the Mind, 2007

The Marco Polo of Neuroscience: V.S. Ramachandran
Broadcast on All in the Mind in 2007

A.S. Byatt on 'her writing room' - The Guardian newspaper

Art on the Mind: Neuroesthetics, and the artist as brain scientist!
Broadcast on All in the Mind in 2009

Interview with A.S. Byatt about her 2009 novel, The Children's Book

David Eagleman discusses synesthesia on All in the Mind (2009)

Publications

Title: The Mechanization of the Mind: On the Origins of Cognitive Science
Author: Jean-Pierre Dupuy and M. B. DeBevoise (Translator)
Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 15, 2000)

Title: Cognitive psychology
Author: Ulric Neisser
Publisher: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1996

Title: Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience
Author: Giacomo Rizzolatti and Corrado Sinigaglia. Frances Anderson(Translator)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Title: Origins of the Human Brain
Author: Edited by Jean-Pierre Changeux and Jean Chavaillon
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996
ISBN13: 978-0-19-852390-1 ISBN10: 0-19-852390-4

Presenter

Natasha Mitchell


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