Drawing from Memory
Drawing from memory: have you ever tried to draw a map of the United States's frontiers from memory? Few things are more familiar to Americans than the outline of the nation, but reproducing it from memory gives an idea of how different reading and writing are. Forming letters is easier to learn than sketching maps, but to someone who has never tried it before, it's just as staggering to write "cat" as it is to draw the lower forty-eight.
¶ Now consider drawing a portrait of a city that you've seen only once. Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic man from England, is amazingly capable. (Thanks, kottke.org)
