On Being Born and Other Difficulties [Paperback]

F. Gonzalez-Crussi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2005

With a pathologist's trained eye for observation of detail and a style unrivalled in elegance and wit, Gonzalez-Crussi discusses science, religion, and philosophy, on topics, such as the origin of life in the universe, the complex evolution of human sexuality, and the debate over when the soul is acquired. Drawing on a variety of sources spanning the fields of biology, literature, history, myth, medicine, and philosophy, "On Being Born" surveys a vast field of opinions and theories, contrasting the supremely rational processes by which we evolved on this planet with our irrational and often bizarre attempts to understand them. Gonzalez-Crussi traces millennia of misunderstandings to their sources - Aristotle, Hippocrates, Descartes, Sir Thomas Browne, Cervantes, Rabelais, Maupassant, and Nietzsche, among others.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this learned and graceful meditation on the question "where do we come from?" González-Crussi (There Is a World Elsewhere), emeritus professor of pathology at Northwestern University Medical School, traces the history of thought about the origins of life, from the Pythagoreans to the present day. The author begins with the mysteries of evolutionary history and the origins of each of us as individuals, and ends with an outline of modern obstetrics, sperm donation and in vitro fertilization. In between, he surveys the folly of past misunderstandings and myths; in particular, he scrutinizes misogynist received ideas about the properties of the womb and "hysteria," notions of female inconstancy, and male paranoia about virginity and paternity. The concept of "maternal impression," or links between maternal experiences during pregnancy and birth defects, provides some especially grisly material. In a chapter on the presentation of the baby at birth and the mystical powers attributed to the caul, González-Crussi draws on his own experiences as a young medical intern in a maternity ward. He treats the skills of midwives with great respect, lamenting their eventual marginalization in industrial-age, male-dominated medicine. In a grand rhetorical style, González-Crussi illuminates the murky depths of the history of medicine, reflecting, often morbidly, on our evolving attitudes to the natural wonders of birth, life and the origins of the universe. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gonzalez-Crussi has already treated the physiology and medicine of death, sex, and, with the resplendent admixture of some sublime memoirs, The Five Senses (1989). Thus it is appropriate that he apply his physician's knowledge, multilingual literacy, and expository legerdemain to conception, gestation, and parturition. He begins, as the first essay's title in part says, "at the Beginning . . . or Almost," with the question, "Where do we come from?" observing that the Renaissance divides answers to it that assume a living universe from those that assume a dead one. Subsequent essays spring from further contrasts between premodern and modern thinking about the womb and the fetus, influences from outside the womb upon the fetus, the phenomenon of right-left orientation, and midwifery. Others consider the travails of uncertain fatherhood and how sexual reproduction requires that individuals be genetically similar "dividuals." In-vitro fertilization, fertility boosting, and the Pandora's box of consequences they open are the foci of the pensive concluding piece. Another lusciously slow-reading gift from an author without peer in our time. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Overlook TP (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585676799
• ISBN-13: 978-1585676798
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,732,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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