Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension
Mn
Monuments | 8 Oct 2007 | 0 Comments | Share this...
Another book by Kilgore Trout (Vonnegut’s alter ego in many of his books) from Slaughter House Five is called Maniacs in the Fourth Dimension.
“It was about people whose mental diseases couldn’t be treated because the causes of the disease were all in the fourth dimension, and three dimensional Earthling doctors couldn’t see those causes at all, or even imagine them”
Maybe this poor man has a fourth dimensional disease. Okay, this may be a stretch, but it’s too intriguing not to post here as he almost seems like a Vonnegut character. His name even sounds like one - Clive Weary was a concert pianist and conductor until a virus ate away at his hippocampus (the brain structure integral to forming new memories), leaving him with a 7-30 second consciousness. He writes in his journal that he has been asleep or dead until every current moment. He loves his wife and his music (when they’re around), and knows of almost nothing else. Miraculously, he can still flawlessly lead a choir or orchestra. Oliver Sacks focuses on him in his next book.
In what strikes me as an insult to a man like Clive Weary, Douglas Bruce, an ex-stock broker (probably) faked a very rare form of amnesia and made a documentary about it (doubts abound).
