I have now read "The Mind of a Mnemonist". I could identify with S's
description of words as conjuring up images and his descriptions of
certain vowel and consonent sounds. Many words and names are
onamatapaiec. For example, I once met a bloke called Mark and it struck
me immediately that he looked like a Colin. It turned out that several
people that he'd met before, eg at school and university had thought so
too, and he was generally called Colin. So maybe Steven is right to say
that we may all have fleeting shadows of S's ability, but differ in
that we don't remember it. Although I think it is more likely that it
is not a question of memory, but that less attention is paid to it as
the images are a lot less vivid, and actually do not come through at
all unless attention is actively paid to them.
As a matter of interest, on page 104, the question is posed "what is
the weight of a brick which weighs 1kg + the weight of half a brick?
Apparently the answer is not 1.5 kg.
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