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CATEGORIES:Lecture / Talk / Workshop
DESCRIPTION:A discussion of Ellen Wayland-Smith’s new book\, The Science of
  Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self (Milkweed 
 Press\, October 2024). The author will be joined in conversation by Eula Bi
 ss (author of On Immunity) and Lochlann Jain (Stanford University)\, modera
 ted by Maggie Nelson (USC). Organized in partnership with the USC Writing P
 rogram\, the Department of English\, and the HEAL program at the Keck Schoo
 l of Medicine. Registration is required. REGISTER HERE\n\n \n\nAbout the Bo
 ok: In this luminous collection of essays\, Ellen Wayland-Smith probes the 
 raw edges of human existence\, those periods of life in which our bodies re
 mind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve.\n\n \n\n
 From the Old Testament to Maggie Nelson\, these explorations are grounded i
 n a rich network of associations. In an essay on the postpartum body\, Wayl
 and-Smith interweaves her experience as a mother with accounts of phantom l
 imbs and Greek mythology to meditate on moments when pieces of our being ex
 ist outside our bodies. In order to comprehend diagnoses of depression and 
 breast cancer\, she delves into LA hippie culture’s love affair with crysta
 ls and Emily Dickinson’s geological poetry. Her experience with chemotherap
 y leads to reflection on Western medicine and its intolerance of death and 
 the healing capacity of nature. And throughout\, she challenges the false s
 eparation between the human and the “primeval\, animal mode of being.”\n\n 
 \n\nAt 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.\n\n \n\nAbout the Author: Ellen Wayland-Smith is the
  author of Oneida and The Angel in the Marketplace. Her work has appeared i
 n Guernica\, Catapult\, The Millions\, Longreads\, The American Scholar\, a
 nd the Los Angeles Review of Books.\n\n \n\nOpen to attendants outside of U
 SC. An excerpt of the book will be made available to registered attendants.
  Registration before the event is required. \n\n \n\nThis event is part of 
 the Levan Institute for the Humanities' “Book Chats” series\, conversations
  about new books published by USC scholars in the humanities and humanistic
  social sciences. To see more events in this series\, including recordings 
 of past events\, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/levan-institute/book-chats/
 .
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SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Levan Book Chat—Ellen Wayland-Smith\, The Science of Last Things
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_47385864831036
URL:https://calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-book-chatellen-wayland-smith-the-s
 cience-of-last-things
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