"Commenting on the power of mimetic representation
in his Anthropologist on Mars,
neurologist Oliver Sacks

writes of Stephen ~ an autistic boy
whose capacity for abstract and symbolic thought
and communication are severely impaired ~

that he comes fully to life through artistic expression,
through his "genius for concrete
or mimetic representations,

whether drawing a cathedral, a canyon, a flower,
or enacting a scene, a drama, a song."

Mimesis, in Sacks's view,
is "itself a power of mind, a way of representing reality
with one's body and senses,

a uniquely human capacity
no less important than symbol or language."

~ Michelle Marder Kamhi,
From "Art and Cognition: Mimesis vs. the Avant Garde"
From "Arisotos"

[January 2003]