The body, real and imaginary

Ross MacFarlane delights in an erudite yet playful exploration of the rebelliousness and unpredictability of the human body

TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM The Body Fantastic Frank Gonzalez-Crussi MIT Press 2021 Pb, 264pp, £24, ISBN 9780262045889 Sometimes you can grasp the essence of a book by its cover. Frank Gonzalez-Crussi’s The Body Fantastic is adorned by anatomical drawings – the bones of a human leg, the stomach of a wombat – juxtaposed with illustrations of the natural world, both real and mythic, from a frog to a squid, to a mermaid. This arrangement might sound peculiar at first, but it proves to be a perfect visual representation of the author’s view that the idea of “the body” flits between the real and imaginary. Inspired by the ideas of French poet and philosopher Paul Valéry, the author sees the body as more than just something to be gazed on in…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 411

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