I heard this interesting segment about hypergraphia on NPR several weeks ago, but didn't have the opportunity to post about it until now. I've ordered The Midnight Disease from the library. It certainly sounds good. Has anyone else here read it yet?

From NPR.ORG:
Many authors fear writer's block. But its opposite -- hypergraphia, the driving compulsion to write -- can be equally debilitating. A new book called The Midnight Disease considers the relationship between the wiring of the brain, writing and creativity. NPR's Renee Montagne talks with author and neurologist Alice Flaherty.

To listen to the segment, go to this link:

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1623749

and click on Morning Edition audio

Enjoy!
Dawn

isn't the classical name for this cacoëthes scribendi?

isn't the classical name for this cacoëthes scribendi?

Could be. Isn't it also a poem?...Yes! Here it is:

Cacoëthes Scribendi
By Oliver Wendell Holmes

IF all the trees in all the woods were men;
And each and every blade of grass a pen;
If every leaf on every shrub and tree
Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea
Were changed to ink, and all earth’s living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes,
And for ten thousand ages, day and night,
The human race should write, and write, and write,
Till all the pens and paper were used up,
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup,
Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink
Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.

It's from Juvenal (vii.51, 52): insanabile scribendi cacoëthes usually translated as 'an incurable passion for writing'. kakoethes 'malignant, ill-disposed, thinking evil; wickedness, malice' ( kakos 'bad, evil' + ethos 'custom, habit'. Passion seems a little tepid for cacoëthes, but it's traditional.

Far worse is cacoëthes loquëndi.

Far worse is cacoëthes loquëndi.

Usually just called logorrhea or potty mouth.