The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self - Paperback

$18.00

The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self - Paperback

Name: The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self - Paperback
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9781639550968
Price: 18.00 USD
Availability: InStock

by Ellen Wayland-Smith

$18.00

Book Overview

"Offering a deeply necessary, clear-eyed look at who we are as flesh-and-bone bodies during the climate crisis, this is a book that searches and finds meaning in both the hard truths and the value of wonder."--Ada Limón

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.

ISBN	9781639550968
Author	Ellen Wayland-Smith
Publisher	Milkweed Editions
Genre	Education, Literature, Philosophy, and Hobbies & interests
Format	Paperback
Published	October 2024
Language	ENG- English
Pages	208
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Adults
Print Size	Standard Print

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