Oliver Sacks Brainworms Analysis

Brainworms Oftentimes, people can recall at least one song they know that is undoubtedly catchy because of its repetitive nature. That song can become a nuisance, when it will not leave your mind. When a melody gets stuck in your head, sometimes it could take a whole day to forget the tune. A certain tune can be stuck in your brain for many years! In Oliver Sacks’ passage, “Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes”, he talks about “earworms”, or a pathological repetition. Sacks uses patterns of development to inform the modern reader about the dark side of music. Sacks’ strong application of definition shows the readers just what he means by “brainworms”. He explains the connotation of the so-called, “neurological condition”, and how it

Whether she compares it to illnesses, or images, the earworm is an annoying result of music. “The phenomenon of brainworms seem similar, too, to the way in which people with autism of Tourette’s syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder may become hooked by a sound or a word or a noise and repeat it, or echo it, aloud to themselves, for weeks at a time.”(9) Sacks compares the pathological repetition to different illnesses. By doing so, he draws out the idea that a brainworm, or musical image, is a neurological condition. “Some of my correspondents compare brainworms to visual afterimages, and as someone who is prone to both, I feel their similarity too. . .After reading EEGS intently for several hours, I may have to stop because I start seeing EEGS squiggles all over the walls and ceiling. . .And astronauts, returning from a week spent in a near-zero gravity conditions of space, need several days to regain their ‘earth legs’ once again.”(13) Sacks compares the brainworm to repetitive images that stick in your head or even space travel jet lag. He shows contrast by explaining the difference between repetitive music, and an earworm. “Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.”(15) Many of our greatest singers, composers, and poets exert repetition in their

He applies definition, compare and contrast, and description all throughout his writing to fully develop his explanations for these so-called earworms. Most readers can look at this passage and think of at least one brainworm they have experienced in their mind. Maybe it is a commercial, or maybe it is a movie’s theme song. Today, people can be especially tricky, and succeed in brainwashing someone to think one way or another, simply by repetition in the mind. Brainwashing and mind control techniques are used often today in schools, hospitals, army, television, with mentally insane, and with other psychiatric and neurological issues. Earworms from music may be negative to a lot of people, but can also be helpful in numerous ways