Adventures in the latest studies on consciousness, from bestselling non-fiction writer Tim Parks
Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan. He is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, In Extremis, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still and Italian Ways. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Betty Trask Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the John Florio Prize and the Italo Calvino Prize.
With wit, humanity and insight... [Parks] tackles a question that
the greatest philosophical and scientific minds have struggled with
for centuries: what is consciousness?... Parks is an entertaining
companion throughout * Mail on Sunday *
Parks, who is best-known for his Toujours Provence-like memoirs of
life in Italy, succeeds admirably in bringing difficult ideas
down a level. Eleanora Gallitelli, his Italian partner, who
accompanies him to a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg for
research purposes, also helps. Gallitelli recently told me that she
is deaf in one ear. The story of her sudden irreparable deafness -
how her brain began to develop a mind of its own, playing tricks
with spatial awareness and balance - is quite brilliantly
told here. Parks writes well enough to appeal to the layman and
the mind boffin alike. Out of My Head is pleasurably nutty,
self-regarding and at times quite hilarious. * Evening Standard
*
[A] fantastic journey into the human brain...Parks makes an
excellent point about what he calls the "internalist" position
(that our picture of reality is just that: a subjective one,
concocted by our brains), which is that it flatters our sense of
our own importance, making of us creators of our own effectively
unique worlds. -- Will Self * New Statesman *
By describing his efforts to understand the phenomenon of
consciousness in the form of a candid and entertaining
journal-cum-memoir, Tim Parks has made a difficult subject
interesting and accessible. He is an amateur in this crowded field
but he presents professional neuroscientists with some challenging
questions. -- David Lodge
An exceptionally witty and compelling look at the nature of
consciousness... In tackling consciousness, the full frontal
assault, as often practised by philosophers and, in a different
way, by neuroscientists, can only get us so far. Tim Parks' new
book is a refreshing attempt to creep up on the hard question
obliquely; and to take the argument deeper into the very realm of
our embodied experience than it usually goes. The result is
lucid, witty and engaging: a deft philosophical juggling act
providing, in an honourable tradition, more questions than
answers... A confessed outsider to both academic philosophy and
neuroscience, Parks demonstrates the truth that sometimes the
outsider sees most of the game. And he has done his homework...
Parks is not only excellent company, but a worthy debating partner.
He is a delight to read. -- Ian McGilchrist * The Tablet
*
Tim Parks considers midlife crisis, a Pixar cartoon and 'spread
mind' theory in his thoughtful quest to understand
consciousness....Consciousness is weighty philosophical and
scientific ground, yet Parks plots a chatty, accessible path
through impenetrable academic papers and conferences on his quest
to understand more about being human * Observer *
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