How come none of the great writers developed Alzheimer? You'd think at least one would have gotten senile in his old age.
Alzheimer's has only been a thing for about a century and has only been commonly diagnosed for half the time. For most of human history it was just accepted that losing your mind was part of life, most people just died before it advanced to the point it had any real effect on their life.
In general it doesn't seem to be the case that writers experience age-related mental decline. Gene Wolfe was churning out good books well into his 70s. I think it's got to have something to do with brain chemistry; if you've got the kind of brain that makes you a good writer you also seem to have the kind of brain that doesn't experience that sort of thing.
>>24741345pic unrel?
Wasn’t alcoholism and general substance abuse a stereotype with all “great” writers? That stuff probably exacerbates the likelihood of mental decline
>>24741519You think Kant was an alcoholic?
>>24741577What do you think a stereotype is? And we both know you haven’t read Kant, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
>>24741311>I LEAVE IT in writing for those who will come after me that I do not believe in anything and that forgetfulness is the only salvation. I would like to forget everything, to forget myself and to forget the world. True confessions are written with tears only. But my tears would drown the world, as my inner fire would reduce it to ashes.>dies of Alzheimer's
>>24741311Last year Márquez had a posthumous book published that he wrote while his brain was slowly turning into jelly.
>>24741577Kant did suffer from cognitive decline though, having a "second childhood" in his 70s, probably thanks to years of overwork.
>>24741311Iris MurdochEmil Cioran
>>24741311because the great writers weren't exposed to microplastics or aluminum poisoning
Uh, hello? Terry Pratchett?
>>24741311Jonathan Swift, almost certainly. Famously in his later years he took down from the shelf a book he had written decades before, looked in it, put it back and sighed because he couldn't understand it. Flowers For Algernon vibes.Robert Graves (or something very like it). His memory went almost completely in his last 5-10 years.Iris Murdoch.Gabriel Garcia Marquez, probably. (His vocabulary shrunk pretty markedly in his last books.)Terry Pratchett, famously, although you might not call him "great".
It's very unfortunate that Proust didn't live long enough to become senile.
>>24741311Does doing intellectually challenging activity prevent Alzheimer? What does the soince(tm) say?
>>24742071The only empirically supported prophylactics against senile dementia are good diet, regular exercise and moderation in, rather than abstinence from, the consumption of alcohol.
