In search of new writers
Archive for February, 2010
Bodies by Susie Orbach
Feb 2nd
It’s very true that men as well as women nowadays feel pressured to attain the ‘perfect’ body, doubtlessly egged on by countless airbrushed images of models. Indeed, I have sometimes perhaps overdone it in the gym in my desire to improve my physical well being. However, there is a health aspect to gym going which Susie Orbach seems to rather overlook in Bodies, since a ‘healthy body makes a healthy mind’ doesn’t seem to be one of her mantras. As a psychotherapist, Susan Orbach is more interested in the ‘talking cure’, and would appear to think it is the norm for the humanity to be quite inactive. While it may be part the culture of the day for people to be physically unfit, this wasn’t so in the past, when there was a preponderance of manual labour. In some ways, I think Bodies could be quite a dangerous book, in that it downplays the fears of a developing ‘obesity epidemic’. While the levels of obesity may not reach the levels predicted in this current moral panic, there surely can’t be any harm in ensuring that the youth of today are more active. Indeed, it’s only by having informed discussions about nutrition that we may finally be able to escape the vicious circle of a daughter being overly influenced in her eating by a mother’s constant dieting. Susie Orbach does provide some fascinating case studies of individuals who have taken to sculpting their bodies to extremes (such as the former soldier who was convinced that life would be far better if his legs were removed below the knees, a case that could not be cured by talking). Yet she doesn’t always provide the whole story, so we are left wandering what happened to many of the individuals in such circumstances. Much of Bodies is quite repetitive, and I felt that it would have been a lot more concise and powerful if Orbach’s main points had been restricted to a long article rather than a book, as its current format did not sufficiently engage me.
It’s very true that men as well as women nowadays feel pressured to attain the ‘perfect’ body, doubtlessly egged on by countless airbrushed images of models. Indeed, I have sometimes perhaps overdone it in the gym in my desire to improve my physical well being. However, there is a health aspect to gym going which Susie Orbach seems to rather overlook in Bodies, since a ‘healthy body makes a healthy mind’ doesn’t seem to be one of her mantras. As a psychotherapist, Susan Orbach is more interested in the ‘talking cure’, and would appear to think it is the norm for the humanity to be quite inactive. While it may be part the culture of the day for people to be physically unfit, this wasn’t so in the past, when there was a preponderance of manual labour. In some ways, I think Bodies could be quite a dangerous book, in that it downplays the fears of a developing ‘obesity epidemic’. While the levels of obesity may not reach the levels predicted in this current moral panic, there surely can’t be any harm in ensuring that the youth of today are more active. Indeed, it’s only by having informed discussions about nutrition that we may finally be able to escape the vicious circle of a daughter being overly influenced in her eating by a mother’s constant dieting. Susie Orbach does provide some fascinating case studies of individuals who have taken to sculpting their bodies to extremes (such as the former soldier who was convinced that life would be far better if his legs were removed below the knees, a case that could not be cured by talking). Yet she doesn’t always provide the whole story, so we are left wandering what happened to many of the individuals in such circumstances. Much of Bodies is quite repetitive, and I felt that it would have been a lot more concise and powerful if Orbach’s main points had been restricted to a long article rather than a book, as its current format did not sufficiently engage me.
Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes by Daniel Everett
Feb 2nd
This is an account by a young American missionary of his attempt to convert the Amazon tribe of Piraha to Christianity. Daniel Everett always knew that this was going to be a challenge, as the Piraha have resisted conversion for centuries. However, fired up by youthful enthusiasm, Everett thinks that he will succeed where others have failed. The main reason for his confidence is that he is a highly trained linguist. So, he and his family settle in the Amazon. Yet it’s not long before they run into trouble, as his wife and children suffer from malaria, which Daniel misdiagnoses. Although the Piraha and other local peoples are very helpful in his bid to save his family, Daniel shrugs off the suggestions that they may be suffering from malaria until it is diagnosed in the hospital in which he has sought aid. Later on, Daniel and his family come under threat from the Piraha when an unscrupulous river trader gives them alcohol. The Piraha, annoyed that this missionary may have attempted to deny them access to drink, become abusive to the point where Daniel feels compelled to remove their weapons. Another fascinating episode is when Daniel is confronted by a massive anaconda in the river. However, I was less enamoured by Everett’s comprehensive account of the Piraha language, which became too technical at times for me. While I appreciate the importance of his work, in trying to record a language that is now only spoken by a few hundred people, it’s inevitable that all languages, even English, will one day die. During his time with the Piraha, Everett plays an important role in preserving their way of life, by persuading the government to create a Piraha reservation, as they are as at much as threat as the indigenous people in are James Cameron’s popular movie Avatar. The Piraha ultimately resist Daniel’s attempt to convert them, as they refuse any narrative (such as the Bible) that is not the testimony of living witnesses. Instead, Daniel identifies with the Piraha so much that he loses his own faith. Everett’s conclusion that the Piraha’s way of life is literally paradisiacal is the only part of the book that feels underthought though, as this is contradicted by episodes that display the more unsavoury aspects of the Piraha character. Everett’s only mistake seems to be that by living with the Piraha so long, he has identified with them a little too much. Yet one can very much understand why he would do so in such a vital environment.
