The science of last things : essays on deep time and the boundaries of the self /
"This luminous collection of essays explores life's liminal states -- such as losing a parent, birthing another body, experiencing a nervous breakdown -- and faces the unescapable reality of our bodily impermanence"--
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Minneapolis, Minnesota :
Milkweed Editions,
2024.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "This luminous collection of essays explores life's liminal states -- such as losing a parent, birthing another body, experiencing a nervous breakdown -- and faces the unescapable reality of our bodily impermanence"-- "In this luminous collection of essays, Ellen Wayland-Smith probes the raw edges of human existence, those periods of life in which our bodies remind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve. From the Old Testament to Maggie Nelson, these explorations are grounded in a rich network of associations. In an essay on the postpartum body, Wayland-Smith interweaves her experience as a mother with accounts of phantom limbs and Greek mythology to meditate on moments when pieces of our being exist outside our bodies. In order to comprehend diagnoses of depression and breast cancer, she delves into LA hippie culture's love affair with crystals and Emily Dickinson's geological poetry. Her experience with chemotherapy leads to reflection on Western medicine and its intolerance of death and the healing capacity of nature. And throughout, she challenges the false separation between the human and the "primeval, animal mode of being." At once intimate and expansive, The Science of Last Things peels back layers of human thought and behavior, breaking down our modern conceptions of individuality and reframing us as participants in a world of astounding elegance and mystery."-- |
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| Physical Description: | xiv, 187 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |
| ISBN: | 9781639550968 1639550968 |