Posted on 03/16/2012 2:18:23 PM PDT by SMGFan
Go up to Scott Shepherd and ask him to begin reciting from, say, the beginning of Chapter Seven of "The Great Gatsby" and he pauses for only a moment.
"'It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night,'" he says in a soft and smooth delivery. Every word is correct. And he keeps going.
This is no mere party trick: Shepherd long ago memorized all 49,000 words of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel as part of a critically acclaimed, word-for-word theatrical adaptation called "Gatz," which has returned this month to The Public Theater.
"It's so ingrained now that once I start, I can't stop," he says.
He's not kidding. In "Gatz," Shepherd reads aloud almost the entire book in an insanely inventive theatrical show that lasts over eight hours, including three breaks. He calls it "a David Blaine-type endurance stunt-event."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/man-recite-49-000-words-great-gatsby-memory-article-1.1040978#ixzz1pJi4C9HO
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
I wonder if he’s seen or read Fahrenheit 457.
Ping!
That was pretty amazing.
This guy though, hands down winner.
Right, good point.
He’d be better served memorizing the Scriptures. That achievement will have eternal rewards.
I’ve heard of people memorizing entire books of the Bible (New Testament, so they weren’t incredibly long.) I had memorized several chapters from Romans, but if you don’t run through them often, you lose them.
I think you mean Fahrenheit 451
A while back there was a kid in Seattle who could recite all the bus schedules.
I was just thinking the same thing with the human 'books' wandering around reciting lines at the end of the movie.
Lots of kids with autism can memorize movies and book chapters, etc.
Someone notify Andy Kaufman...
So can I, just not in the right order.
I’m much more impressed by this guy who memorized most of Beowulf, recites it to a harp (lyre?) that he plays and acts it out - IN OLD ENGLISH!
Harold Bloom, whom I used to know, had an eidetic memory. He could remember word-for-word every book he read.
C. S. Lewis is also said to have had an eidetic memory. When he was a tutor at Oxford in his study, and discussing something with one of his students, he could point the student to the right shelf, book, and page number for any quotation.
I took a course in Old English at Harvard. I also knew Jess Bessinger at NYU. He also memorized Beowulf, and used to recite it while playing a harp which was his best guess as to what the original bards used to play. He made a recording of it, I believe.
I memorized the first lines of Beowulf, the Battle of Brunanburgh, and a few other poems. But not the whole poems.
Get back to me when he can recite all of “Valley of the Dolls.”
He got confused and merged the 57 from Heinz 57 into it.
This guy has waaaaaaay too much time on his hands.
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