Melville House Books

Charles Darwin, right about when he was getting good

In a column by Alvaro Fernadez, the website SharpBrains — “The Brain Fitness Authority” — considers how aging effects the evolution of “higher aesthetic tastes” by examining some surprising observations by Charles Darwin in his autobiography (available in its entirety, by the way, here) about his own reading and writing. For example, Darwin notes that up until the age of 30 or so, he loved music and the visual arts and “poetry of many kinds, such as the works of Milton, Gray, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare.” Writing his journal years later, Darwin says, “But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music.” On the other hand, Darwin notes, “books on history, biographies, and travels (independently of any scientific facts which they may contain), and essays on all sorts of subjects interest me as much as ever they did.” What’s more, “novels… have been for years a wonderful relief and pleasure to me, and I often bless all novelists.” Brainiac Fernandez says Darwin’s comments showcase something called “neuroplasticity” — “the power of the brain to rewire itself through experience … during our whole lifetimes — not just when we are youngest.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.