Synesthesia in fiction

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Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. There are many occurrences of synesthesia in books, television and film.

Uses in television

• In a scene from the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy is in the hospital. Liz Lemon goes up to him, and Donaghy says, "They gave me some drugs. Now my mouth tastes like purple."
• In a scene from the Fox medical drama House, a character played by Essence Atkins is in the hospital asking for House's help and says, "I started to hear through the eyes."
• In a scene from the Futurama episode "Roswell That Ends Well", Fry asks: "What smells like blue?" In another scene, he asks: "Did everything just taste purple for a second?"
• The protagonist Canaan from the TV anime series CANAAN is a Middle Eastern mercenary and assassin who fights with the aid of her heightened senses and her ability to see emotions and intents as colors. It is also detailed that her synesthesia converts sound to smell and color to sound.
• In NBC science fiction series Heroes, the deaf character Emma (played by Deanne Bray) suddenly begins to see sounds as waves of color. Holding the cello in her hands, she senses vibrations as sounds which converts to a synesthetic experience of colors.

Uses in other media

• The plot of the 2007 book The Name of this Book is Secret (by Pseudonymous Bosch) concerned synesthesia in many ways. Many characters had synesthesia: the Bergamo twins who used their ability to perform impressive "mind-reading" magic tricks, and a boy at the protagonists' school, Benjamin Blake, who produced abstract art from his synesthesic experiences. Antagonists Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais also kidnapped children with synesthesia as part of the attempt at immortality.

• In several scenes from the Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille, Remy expresses different flavors with music and visual symbols across the screen.

• In the comic book series Top Ten by Alan Moore, there is a character "Detective Wanda "Synaesthesia" Jackson". Her advanced synaesthesia leads into the realm of clairvoyance. Once upon examining a crime scene, Detective Jackson begins to hum a tune by Beethoven. Later, she realizes she was sensing the criminal's perfume, Ode to Joy. Further, she relates touch to taste; commenting that touching an ex-boyfriend's skin was like tasting ashes.

• In The War of the Worlds, Dr. Forrester theorizes that Martians may have the ability to smell colors. However, he does not expand upon the theory later in the film.

• In the children's novel "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass, the protagonist, Mia, has synesthesia. When she enters the 8th grade, the news is leaked into her school, putting the shy heroine into the spotlight. "A Mango-Shaped Space" was given the Schneider Family Book Award.

• In the "Discworld" series of novels, the werewolf Angua experiences a synesthesia like effect every time she changes from a wolf to a human and recalls various scents.

• In the game Mass Effect, when the main characters attempt to communicate with the Rachni Queen, a highly alien life form, the latter uses metaphors in its speech which highly resemble synesthesia (songs the color of oily shadow).

• In the book 'Mondays are Red' by Nicola Morgan the protagonist Luke wakes up from a coma to find that he has developed synesthesia.

• In 'Black Sun Rising', The character Lady Ciani describes an adept's sight as a maelstrom of colors where a non-adept could see naught but thin air. This may be a strange form of synesthesia.

• Near the conclusion of Alfred Bester's award-winning sci-fi novel The Stars My Destination, the story's protagonist Gully Foyle experiences synaesthesia as a result of a concussion from an explosion. His resulting sensations are represented in the book by distorted type.

• In Sigmund Brouwer's Absolute Pressure, the main character has synesthesia which makes him think that he is 'too weird' to have a girlfriend.

• In the 2009 film The Soloist there is a visual on-screen depiction of the subject of the film experiencing synethesia. This occurs while listening to a rehearsal of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.