Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Five books that provide insights into pregnancy, menopause & gender

Gavin Francis is a doctor and writer. His books include Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change. At the Guardian he tagged five favorite books that provide personal and profound insights into pregnancy, the menopause and gender, including:
[T]ransformation is one of the most ancient and resonant themes in literature and art: two thousand years ago in Metamorphoses, the Latin poet Ovid painted nature and mankind as a seething maelstrom of flux. Marina Warner’s Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds maps this cultural topography since Ovid, showing how stories of change can guide us through the perils of life. “It would be stupid to suggest stories invariably enlighten,” Warner says, “but stories do offer a way of imagining alternatives, mapping possibilities, exciting hope, warding off danger by forestalling it, casting spells of order on the unknown ahead.” At its best, the same could be said of medicine.
Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue