Re: NEWS - Terry Pratchett: Alzheimer's disease is now affecting my work
- From: PJ <authoressss@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 07:24:32 -0400
Alan Hope wrote:
PJ goes:Towse wrote:
<http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4019605.ece>
Damn.
Yeah. Damn is right. I found that while researching a book on Alzheimer's that I'm writing now, and it's yet one more heartbreaking story about this ungodly tragic disease.
In one way, Alzheimer's is a disease that writers have already got
beat, because their memories are in fixed and indelible form, and
can't be wiped out by the vagaries of a few rogue neurons.
If only that were true. One of the books I have is called "Alzheimer's from the Inside Out," written by Richard Taylor, who was diagnosed with early-onset AD when he was 58. Once he realized he had the disease, he decided to write the book, which is a series of essays about his descent into Alzheimer's. In one particularly poignant paragraph, he writes:
"Sometimes, when I am alone with my thoughts, I wander aimlessly around the corridors of my mind. I open various doors to see if they are still full of the memories I stored there long ago. To my pleasant surprise, most of them seem to contain all that I remember putting in the room. However, as I move from the past toward the present, I find more and more empty rooms. Not only are they empty, they are dark. They offer no clue, other than the label on the door, as to what they once contained … It is very unnerving to be in the midst of a conversation and all of a sudden need to open the door to a room to access its contents and--the room is dark."
Made me cry, it did.
~ ~ ~
PJ
.
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