Daniel Tammet: Difference between revisions
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''Thinking in Numbers'', a collection of essays, was first published in 2012 and serialised as [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''Book of the Week'' in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Thinking in Numbers">{{cite web|url=http://www.danieltammet.net/numbers.php|title=Thinking in Numbers|publisher=Daniel Tammet|year=2012|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref> |
''Thinking in Numbers'', a collection of essays, was first published in 2012 and serialised as [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''Book of the Week'' in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Thinking in Numbers">{{cite web|url=http://www.danieltammet.net/numbers.php|title=Thinking in Numbers|publisher=Daniel Tammet|year=2012|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref> |
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His translation into French of a selection of poetry by [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] was published by L'Iconoclaste in France in 2014.<ref name="Editions-Iconoclaste.fr">{{cite web|url=http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1971|title=C'est une chose serieuse que d'etre parmi les hommes|publisher=L'Iconoclaste|date=24 September 2014|accessdate=1 November 2015}}</ref> |
His translation into French of a selection of poetry by [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] was published by L'Iconoclaste in France in 2014.<ref name="Editions-Iconoclaste.fr">{{cite web|url=http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1971|title=C'est une chose serieuse que d'etre parmi les hommes|publisher=L'Iconoclaste|date=24 September 2014|accessdate=1 November 2015|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923233610/http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1971|archivedate=23 September 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref> |
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Tammet's first novel, ''Mishenka'', came out in France and Quebec in 2016.<ref name="Mishenka">{{cite web|url=http://ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/samedi_dimanche/2009-2010/chronique.asp?idChronique=404005|title=Daniel Tammet : un regard poétique sur les nombres et les échecs|publisher=RadioCanada|date=16 April 2016|accessdate=13 June 2016}}</ref> |
Tammet's first novel, ''Mishenka'', came out in France and Quebec in 2016.<ref name="Mishenka">{{cite web|url=http://ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/samedi_dimanche/2009-2010/chronique.asp?idChronique=404005|title=Daniel Tammet : un regard poétique sur les nombres et les échecs|publisher=RadioCanada|date=16 April 2016|accessdate=13 June 2016}}</ref> |
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*[http://www.jkp.com/usa/islands-of-genius.html ''Islands of Genius''] (2010), Tammet wrote the foreword to the book, by Darold A. Treffert, M.D. |
*[http://www.jkp.com/usa/islands-of-genius.html ''Islands of Genius''] (2010), Tammet wrote the foreword to the book, by Darold A. Treffert, M.D. |
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*[https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781444737400 ''Thinking in Numbers''] (2012) |
*[https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781444737400 ''Thinking in Numbers''] (2012) |
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*[http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1971 ''C'est une chose sérieuse que d'être parmi les hommes''] (2014), a book of poems by [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] translated by Tammet into French |
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150923233610/http://www.editions-iconoclaste.fr/spip.php?article1971 ''C'est une chose sérieuse que d'être parmi les hommes''] (2014), a book of poems by [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] translated by Tammet into French |
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*[https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781473646605 ''Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing''] (2017) |
*[https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781473646605 ''Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing''] (2017) |
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Revision as of 09:42, 1 January 2018
Daniel Tammet | |
---|---|
essays | |
Notable works | Born On A Blue Day (2006) Thinking in Numbers (2012) |
Spouse | Jérôme Tabet |
Website | |
www.danieltammet.net |
Daniel Tammet
Personal life
Tammet was born Daniel Paul Corney
He participated twice in the World Memory Championships in London under his birth name, placing 11th in 1999 and 4th in 2000.[5][6]
He changed his birth name by deed poll because "it didn't fit with the way he saw himself." He took the word Tammet from the Estonian for 'oak tree'.[7]
At age twenty-five, he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome by Simon Baron-Cohen of the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre.[8] He is one of fewer than a hundred "prodigious savants" according to Darold Treffert, the world's leading researcher in the study of savant syndrome.[9]
He was the subject of a documentary film entitled Extraordinary People: The Boy with the Incredible Brain, first broadcast on the British television station Channel 4 on 23 May 2005.[10]
He met software engineer Neil Mitchell in 2000. They lived in
Tammet now lives in Paris (France)[12] with his husband Jérôme Tabet, a photographer whom he met while promoting his autobiography.
Tammet is a graduate of the Open University with a Bachelor of Arts degree (First class honours) in the Humanities.[13]
Career
In 2002, Tammet launched the website, Optimnem.[14] The site offers language courses (currently French and Spanish) and has been an approved member of the UK National Grid for Learning since 2006.[8]
Born on a Blue Day received international media attention and critical praise. Booklist magazine contributing reviewer Ray Olson stated that Tammet's autobiography was "as fascinating as Benjamin Franklin's and John Stuart Mill's" and that Tammet wrote "some of the clearest prose this side of Hemingway". Kirkus Reviews stated that the book "transcends the disability memoir genre".
For his US book tour, Tammet appeared on several television and radio talk shows and specials, including 60 Minutes and Late Show with David Letterman.[8][15] In February 2007 Born on a Blue Day was serialised as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in the United Kingdom.
His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was published in 2009.
Thinking in Numbers, a collection of essays, was first published in 2012 and serialised as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in the United Kingdom.[19]
His translation into French of a selection of poetry by Les Murray was published by L'Iconoclaste in France in 2014.[20]
Tammet's first novel, Mishenka, came out in France and Quebec in 2016.[21]
Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing, a collection of essays on language, was published in the UK, US, and France in 2017.[22] In a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal, Brad Leithauser noted that "in terms of literary genres, something new and enthralling is going on inside his books" and that the author showed "a grasp of language and a sweep of vocabulary that any poet would envy".[23]
Scientific study
After the World Memory Championships, Tammet participated in a group study, later published in the New Year 2003 edition of Nature Neuroscience.[24] The researchers investigated the reasons for the memory champions' superior performance. They reported that they used "strategies for encoding information with the sole purpose of making it more memorable", and concluded that superior memory was not driven by exceptional intellectual ability or differences in brain structure.[25]
In another study, Baron-Cohen and others at the Autism Research Centre tested Tammet's abilities in around 2005.
Baron-Cohen, Bor and Billington investigated whether Tammet's synaesthesia and Asperger syndrome explained his savant memory abilities in a further study published in Neurocase in 2008. They concluded that his abilities might be explained by hyperactivity in one brain region (the left
In his book Moonwalking with Einstein (2011), science journalist and former US Memory Champion Joshua Foer speculates that study of conventional mnemonic approaches has played a role in Tammet's feats of memory. While accepting that Tammet meets the standard definition of a prodigious savant, Foer suggests that his abilities may simply reflect intensive training using standard memory techniques, rather than any abnormal psychology or neurology per se. In a review of his book for The New York Times, psychologist Alexandra Horowitz described Foer's speculation as among the book's few "missteps", questioning whether it would matter if Tammet had used such strategies or not.[30]
Savantism
Tammet has been studied repeatedly
In his mind, Tammet says, each
He holds the European record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits in five hours and nine minutes on 14 March 2004.[32][33][34][35][36][37][38] He revealed in a French talk show on Radio Classique on 29 April 2016, that this event was the inspiration behind Kate Bush's song 'Pi' from her album Aerial.
He is a
Works
Non-fiction
- Born on a Blue Day (2006)
- Embracing the Wide Sky (2009)
- Islands of Genius (2010), Tammet wrote the foreword to the book, by Darold A. Treffert, M.D.
- Thinking in Numbers (2012)
- C'est une chose sérieuse que d'être parmi les hommes (2014), a book of poems by Les Murray translated by Tammet into French
- Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)
Novels
- Mishenka (2016), in French
Essays
- "What It Feels Like To Be A Savant" in Esquire (August 2005)
- "Open Letter to Barack Obama" in The Advocate (December 2008)
- "Olympics: Are the fastest and strongest reaching their mathematical limits?" in The Guardian (August 2012)[40]
- "What I'm thinking about … Tolstoy and maths" in The Guardian (August 2012)[41]
- "The Sultan's Sudoku" in Aeon digital magazine (December 2012)[42]
- "Languages revealing worlds and selves" in The Times Literary Supplement (September 2017)[43]
Songs
- 647 co-writer of the song with musician Florent Marchet on his Bamby Galaxy album (January 2014)[44]
Short Films
- The Universe and Me (2017) Collaboration with French film maker Thibaut Buccellato
Mänti
Mänti is a constructed language that Tammet published in 2006.[45] The word 'Mänti' comes from the Finnish word for 'pine tree' (mänty). Mänti uses vocabulary and grammar from the Finnic languages. Some sample words include:
Mänti | English | Estonian | Finnish | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
buss | bus | buss | bussi | |
kuppi | cup | kruus,kapp | kuppi | |
kellokült | lateness, tardiness | viitsimatus, hilinemine | myöhästyneisyys | Literally "clock-debt". In Finnish kello=a clock / a bell |
puhukello | telephone | telefon | puhelin | Literally "speak-bell". In Finnish puhua=to speak |
tontöö | music | muusika | musiikki | Literally "tone-art". In Estonian töö=work |
nööt | night | öö | yö | |
koet saapat | footwear | jalanõud | jalkineet | In Finnish saappaat=boots. In Estonian saapad=boots. |
hamma | tooth | hammas | hammas | |
rât | wire | traat | johto | |
râatio | radio | raadio | radio |
Awards
- American Library Association Booklist magazine "Editors' Choice Adult Books" (2007)[46]
- The Sunday Times "Top Choice of Books"[8]
- American Library Association Young Adult Library Services magazine "Best Books for Young Adults" (2008)[1]
- Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads "Selection for 2012" (2011)[47]
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2012)[4]
See also
- Tito Mukhopadhyay
- Derek Paravicini
- Stephen Wiltshire
References
- ^ a b "ALA 2008 Best Books for Young Adults". American Library Association. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Emmanuel Hecht; Marianne Payot; Jérôme Dupuis; Liger Baptiste; Delphine Peras (23 March 2010). "Livres: Les best-sellers de l'année 2009 réunis au Fouquet's". L'Express. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Andrew Lownie Literary Agency". Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ a b Daniel Tammet (19 December 2012). "Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts". Thinking in Numbers: The Blog of Daniel Tammet. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0141952277.
- ^ "Contestant 'Daniel Corney'". Michael Gloschewski. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ a b Johnson, Richard (12 February 2005). "A genius explains". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0340899755.
- ^ a b Lyall, Sarah (15 February 2007). "Brainman at Rest in His Oasis". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Extraordinary People: The Boy with the Incredible Brain (Video). United Kingdom: Martin Weitz. 23 May 2005. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Caroline Scott (13 August 2006). "Daniel Tammet". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Lucia Sillig et Peter Greenwood (3 April 2016). "Mise au Point". Radio Télévision Suisse. Genève. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
- ^ "About the author". Daniel Tammet. 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ "Optimnem: Foreign Language Courses". Daniel Tammet. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "A Look at an Autistic Savant's Brilliant Mind". NPR Talk of the Nation. Washington, D.C. 15 January 2007. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ ISBN 0-340-96132-5.
- ^ The Hour (Television). Ottawa: CBC Television. 2 February 2009. Archived from the original on 20 January 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
{{cite AV media}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
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suggested) (help) - ^ a b Peter Wilson (31 January 2009). "A Savvy Savant finds his voice". The Australian. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Thinking in Numbers". Daniel Tammet. 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "C'est une chose serieuse que d'etre parmi les hommes". L'Iconoclaste. 24 September 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Daniel Tammet : un regard poétique sur les nombres et les échecs". RadioCanada. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
- ^ "Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing". Daniel Tammet. 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- ^ Brad Leithauser (6 October 2017). "Words in Flight". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
- ^ Darold Treffert, M.D. "Daniel Tammet -- Brainman: 'Numbers are my friends'". Wisconsin Medical Society. Archived from the original on 15 November 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - PMID 12483214. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Baron-Cohen, Simon; Bor, Daniel; Billington, Jac; Asher, Julien; Wheelwright, Sally; Ashwin, Chris (2007). "Savant Memory in a Man with Colour Form-Number Synaesthesia and Asperger". Journal of Consciousness Studies. 14 (9–10). Imprint Academic: 237–251. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ . Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- . Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- . Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Alexandra Horowitz (11 March 2011). "How To Memorize Everything". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Morley Safer (26 January 2007). "Brain Man". CBS News. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Big slice of pi sets new record". BBC News. 15 March 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Pi memory feat". Oxford University. 15 March 2004. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "'Rain Man' finds numbers easy as Pi". The Scotsman. 15 March 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Pi recital enters record books". The Guardian. 16 March 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Pi-man sets record". Melbourne: The Age. 16 March 2004. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Brainman (Television). Silver Spring, Maryland: Science. 9 November 2005. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Extraordinary People: Daniel Paul Tammet -- Boy with an Incredible Brain". Extraordinary People. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Bethge, Philip (3 May 2009). "Who Needs Berlitz?". Der Spiegel. Germany. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Tammet, Daniel (11 August 2012). "Olympics: Are the fastest and strongest reaching their mathematical limits?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Tammet, Daniel (23 August 2012). "Olympics: What I'm thinking about … Tolstoy and maths". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Daniel Tammet (10 December 2012). "The Sultan's sudoku". Aeon. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Daniel Tammet (5 September 2017). "Languages revealing worlds and selves". TLS. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
- ^ Burgel, Thomas (12 December 2013). "Florent Marchet: Il y a un cosmos intérieur encore inexploré". Les InRocks. Paris. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ Daniel Tammet (13 July 2006). "Mänti". Optimnem. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Booklist Editors' Choice Adult Books (2007)". 1 January 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads Announces Selection for 2012". 27 October 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
External links
- Official website
- "Optimnem". Foreign language courses.
- Daniel Tammet at TED : Different ways of knowing (June 2011)