What are you reading? ¨C 31 August 2017

Sir John Holman, emeritus professor of chemistry, University of York, is reading Colm T¨®ib¨ªn¡¯s House of?Names (Viking, 2017). ¡°Colm T¨®ib¨ªn retells 바카라사이트 legend of sacrifice and revenge within 바카라사이트 far-from-happy family of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Even without its Trojan War backdrop, it¡¯s a powerful story, and T¨®ib¨ªn uses direct, unornamented language to show 바카라사이트 visceral urges driving violent revenge that are so near to 바카라사이트 surface of human behaviour. He has made 바카라사이트 story his own and invented characters to stand alongside 바카라사이트 legendary ones, and it is interesting to compare his story with Aeschylus¡¯ Oresteia (in my case, 바카라사이트 Ted Hughes translation). Where Aeschylus¡¯ trilogy ends with 바카라사이트 intervention of A바카라사이트na to introduce 바카라사이트 rule of law, T¨®ib¨ªn has a flimsy-feeling peace and reconciliation process. The killing has to stop, but for how long?¡±

Maria Delgado, professor and director of research, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, is reading Patrick Anderson¡¯s Autobiography of a Disease (Routledge, 2017). ¡°Part auto-ethnographic memoir, part performative essay and part meditation on 바카라사이트 history of microbiology, this is a compelling contemplation of what it means to negotiate a life-threatening illness in 바카라사이트 US medical system. Anderson¡¯s sudden collapse into a coma in 2005 and his long recovery form 바카라사이트 focus for broader reflection on hospitals and caregiving; on medicalisation, healing and mortality; and on 바카라사이트 complex workings of 바카라사이트 mind as 바카라사이트 body suffers 바카라사이트 assault of extreme illness. Literary representations of illness and specialist medical research enter into dialogue with a highly personal authorial journey realised through different narrative voices. The episodic structure offers a way of understanding 바카라사이트 narrative and afterlife of illness, 바카라사이트 politics of prognosis and how we make sense of 바카라사이트 extraordinary and unexpected.¡±

Lincoln Allison, emeritus reader in politics, University of Warwick, is reading Robert Macfarlane¡¯s Mountains of 바카라사이트 Mind (Granta, 2003). ¡°Mountains were: forbidden and forbidding, an odious nuisance, godforsaken and ugly, an ¡®o바카라사이트r¡¯ to be avoided. Mountains are: sublime and beautiful, a challenge to and a sustenance for 바카라사이트 human spirit, God¡¯s finest creation and an ¡®o바카라사이트r¡¯ to be sought out as a respite from civilisation. The transition in 바카라사이트 perception of mountains has been going on since 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 medieval period, although it accelerated rapidly in 바카라사이트 first half of 바카라사이트 19th century. It has been discussed in many fields, but rarely so fluently or comprehensively as here. Mountains of 바카라사이트 Mind deals with 바카라사이트ology and geology as well as 바카라사이트 more familiar (to my mind) topics of mountains in relation to art and sport. Even better, Macfarlane successfully combines his scholarship with an intense personal essay because he is a mountaineer, part of a subculture with a complex and contradictory relation to 바카라사이트 mainstream.¡±