| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Oliver Sacks | ||||
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Oliver Sacks, author of Musicophilia, appears on The Daily Show. I don't know about you, but after seeing this segment, the book has shot to the top of my reading list. It's almost like Sacks had taken a look at The Shanty Blog and then wrote Musicophilia because we inspired him. At least a few Shanty pieces came to mind after watching the clip. Sacks' most obvious debt to The Shanty was reflected by his reference to the resilience of musical capacities over linguistic capacities.
I was a little wary when he made the claim that dancing is a purely human characteristic (fuckin' a, we got ourselves another specist here). His comments about the fundamental nature of our sense of rhythm forced me to adjust my views on non-human dancing. Snowball may not have been "dancing," in Sacks' view. But the clip left open the possibility that while dancing is an exclusively human achievement, rhythm may be a more widespread animal characteristic. Snowball has undeniable rhythm. Suck it, Sacks. May be time to revise the first edition.
Regardless, the way I'm seeing it, Musicophilia draws attention to and neurologically demonstrates our collective capacity and appreciation of music. Our hunger for the stuff extends beyond language and culture. One world.
Pat yourselves on the back, Shanty writers.
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