Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements ix xi
Anecdote A Taste of Bitter Almonds
3
Bodies
The Plastinator
6
Cynicism Knock! Knock!
17
Depression A Conspiracy of Good Intentions
33
Ethics
Insomnia (in the Bed of Being)
40
Funerals
An American Book of the Dead
49
Galen
Crise de Foie
54
Happiness The Moral Life of Happiness
61
Integrity
An Empty Plot
69
Journeys
Chekhov Goes to Sakhalin
79
Kafka
Uncle Siegfried
97
Language Is There Life on Earth?
118
Mouth
Tell Me about Teeth
131
Nose
Hygiene of the Soul
136
Obit
The Importance of Being an Agoraphobe 146
Posture
The Human Position
Qi
Emergent Properties
Resilience A Mining Town in Australia
Science (envy) Lamplighters and Lucefactors
Translating Machine Made of Words
Upas
The Poison Tree
Vertigo
Stendhal’s Syndrome
Weightlessness The War of Eye and Ear
X-rays
Under the Magic Mountain
151
164
172
186
200
208
218
226
236
Yellow Fever The Life and Times of Ernst Weiss 252 (meta-)Zoology Parasites 260
Endnotes
Index of Names
270
285
