Born on a Blue Day-40

Another memoir of a person with asperger's. Still interesting, but I think need a change of pace now.

This book was about Daniel Tammet, who falls a little more towards the deeper end of the asperger's spectrum mentioned in previous books. But he also has landed close enough on the right end of the scale to be independent, and he has, like other asperger cases mild enough to be independent, is a savant.

In this case however, savant may not be a sufficient term to describe Daniel Tammet's abilities. He not only has the savant abilities that asperger's is thought to bring out, but he also has an ability called synesthesia. This syndrome links words and numbers to feelings and colors in his mind. The word Wednesday, for example, is blue to him, as is the number 9. The title of the book is derived from the fact that to Daniel the date January 31st, 1979 is blue, hence "Born on a Blue Day."

Daniel Tammet's synesthesia makes him a mathmatical and a lingual savant. He can solve complex mathmatical equations mentally in a process that he tries to desribe in the book that I couldn't explain very well without quoting the entire section he describes it in. In addition, languages come to him easily, so easily in fact, that he can begin learning a language and have a respectable cnversation with you in that language a week later (this was proven in an experiment where he tried to learn Icelandic in one week while being recorded the whole time, he succeeded).

On the other side of his asperger's syndrome, Daniel Tamet has several quirks that set him apart from normal people. He has a complusive need for routine and order, he eats the same amount of food for breakfast every day, drinks tea at set times during the day, and can't leave the house without counting how many articles of clothing he is wearing. Also the sound of a toothbrush scratching against teeth causes him physical pain, and other noises are simillarly uncomfortable.

Strange as these things are I can kind of relate. I follow a routine each day, and when I'm done with it and something gets added that I had not accounted for in the routine so far I get very annoyed, partially because of the work that I still need to do before relaxing for the rest of the day, but also possibly because it upsets the order of things I'm doing that day. I also do my chores in the same order every day, and often forget to do some of them if circumstances force me to do them out of that order.

As for the sounds, I have found that the sound of something scratching against the material used to make an image appear different from various angles is incredibly uncomfortable to me. I wouldn't call it pain, but I cringe a little whenever I hear that sound. I can't think of any other examples off the top of my head, but I bet there are other sounds that grind my nerves in a simillar way.

I can also understand how the synesthesia works. I would not say I have it myself, or at least not at the level he does, but I find that certain words, or specific sounds in words, seem somehow... better to me than others. I hesitate because I can't really describe it. I also find that when I am trying to solve problems mentally I can often make it easier by picturing shapes that somehow fit together and form the answer in my head. Again I can't really explain how it works, and it doesn't always work.

One example of how the shapes help me process some things appears in my karate class. My current pattern that I need to master consists of 19 movements, normally I would never be able to memorize that many movements in the correct order while memorizing all the little details I need to watch in order to perform each move correctly, at least not without an insane amount of practice. However when I was trying to learn the movements I looked at them in my mind from what is simillar to a bird's eye view, and I saw that I was moving in the shape of an hourglass for all but the last 3 movements. For some people this would have no signifigance, but for me it allowed me to memorize all 19 moves practically on the first try (though the fine details of the moves still needed work, I'm not saying I mastered the pattern instantly, I just memorized it).

I can't provide examples other than that, because it's so spontanious that I can't pin down any other times where I used a simillar technique.

So the book was particularly interesting to me since I could relate in so many ways. Yet another enjoyable read.

A spontanious thought before I post this, I wonder how easily Daniel Tammet would learn a language that has a different aplhabet such as Japanese or Chinese. Since the letters themselves would be different it may have an effect of the synesthesia that enables Daniel to learn other languages so easily. based on how he describes the process it seems that his connections to the letters is a critical part of his learning the language. If the letters are new and unrecognizable I would hypothesize that it would be much harder for Daniel to learn the language.

Now that I have that out of my system I bid you all adieu until next time