In “The Landscape of His Dream” Sacks introduces us to a guy name Franco who misses his hometown Pontito and became over obsessed. “Every night, he dreamed of Pontito, not of his family, not of activities or events, but of the streets, the houses, the masonry, the stones—dreams with the most microscopic, veridical detail, a detail beyond anything he could consciously remember” (159). Everyone do misses their homeland but Franco is remembering details that I can’t remember about my hometown. His brain is like a computer program. “He wasn’t obsesses—he was normal. But when I saw him in ’87 he seemed possessed.” (161). Franco couldn’t wrap his mind of anything but Pontito, he couldn’t have a normal conservation.
When Sacks visited Pontito, he noticed that Franco drawings of Pontito was a bit different. He drew narrower streets, irregular houses, and the church tower was shorter. “There are many reasons for this, one of which is that Franco paints what he saw with a child’s eye, and to a child everything is taller and more spacious” (170-171). Could this be possible? Franco definitely love his hometown. I honestly felt a sense of remorse for Franco. After a few years, our memory is not the same but Franco memory is just amazing. He is gifted. My grandmother has Alzheimer and cannot remember anything about her home country. She can’t even recognize her own home.
It’s interesting that you think Franco’s brain is like a computer program.Reminds me of Grandin’s brain. To answer you question on Franco’s painting, I believe it is possible. I mean, there’s a reason why we say “It was bigger before when I was a kid” or something along those lines. This quote shows the passage of time in a more effective manner. When our environment changes because we’ve grown up and things look different than before, then the effect of time is greater on our brains than a number. We’re thrown off and it feels like a different place. I have remorse for Franco not because he is missing his hometown but because he doesn’t know how different it can be.
I’m really glad you brought this up. We hear a lot of about Magnani’s “eidetic” memory, and the easy conclusion to draw is that his memories are perfectly accurate. His memories are prolific, but they also distort (as all memories do).