"We had called him Uncle Tungsten for as long as I could remember, because he manufactured light bulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire. His firm was called Tungstalite. Uncle's hands were seamed with the black powder, beyond the power of any washing to get out. "Feel it Oliver," he would say, thrusting a bar at me. "Nothing in the world feels like sintered tungsten"" (Pg. 9).
Oliver W. Sacks was a young, curious boy who grew up just before the Second World War. He was brought up in a scientific world, for science, was most common profession in his entire family, up to three generations before him (and he had a lot of relatives). The book Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks is an autobiography about his own chemical childhood. It explains all of his different scientific obsessions he had as a boy, and how he came about finding all the information he did on them. He has done everything from his own chemical testing (which he did in his own personal lab), to hands on marine biology at Millport in high school. Oliver Sacks uses setting, character, and conflict to support the theme that you must do what you love to do, to live life to the fullest, and without practicing what intrigues or interests you, you will lead a dull and almost meaningless life.
Oliver Sacks uses setting to show how one thrives when his interests are fully accessible, and dies when recourses are cut off.
"I grew up. in a huge, rambling Edwardian house in northwest London. Certain rooms in the house had a magical or sacred quality, perhaps my parents" surgery.with its bottles of medicine.Another sacred room was the library, which, in the evenings at least, was especially my father's domain. I especially liked crawling into the triangular cupboard under the stairs.[and] A forbidden area was the attic, which was gigantic. We had meals in the breakfast room next to the kitchen." (Pg. 11-14).
This section definitely shows that Oliver Sacks enjoyed living in this mansion of a house.
