Poe and the Power of Animal Magnetism

PMLA ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris V. Falk

Accurate interpretation of Poe's three tales of “mesmerism” depends on the correct historical definition of that term. It referred not to “hypnotism,” a later concept, but to “animal magnetism.” Hypnotism is a psychological phenomenon, a function of suggestibility, demonstrating the influence of one human will upon another. “Animal magnetism” was thought to be a physical “fluid”—comparable to electricity and other “imponderables”— pervading animate and inanimate Being, and acting as the unifier, the cohesive force which organizes both matter and mind. In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” it is this magnetic “current” which preserves Valdemar's body until the circuit between him and the magnetist is broken, and the body decomposes. In “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” the fluid preserves Bedloe's body and his “nervous field” of identity; it also expands his consciousness into the past, which he relives as the magnetist writes his memoir. In “Mesmeric Revelation” Vankirk's consciousness is magnetized just on the verge of death; i.e., of absorption into the unparticled matter of a magnetized universe. His revelation of this universe relates animal magnetism not only to the attractionrepulsion force of Eureka, but to imagination and “ratiocination,” and the inevitable tension or “magnetism” between opposites in life. The unifying effect of animal magnetism, then, constitutes the “unity of effect” in these tales.

Derrida Today ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Morris

Over the past thirty years, academic debate over pornography in the discourses of feminism and cultural studies has foundered on questions of the performative and of the word's definition. In the polylogue of Droit de regards, pornography is defined as la mise en vente that is taking place in the act of exegesis in progress. (Wills's idiomatic English translation includes an ‘it’ that is absent in the French original). The definition in Droit de regards alludes to the word's etymology (writing by or about prostitutes) but leaves the referent of the ‘sale’ suspended. Pornography as la mise en vente boldly restates the necessary iterability of the sign and anticipates two of Derrida's late arguments: that there is no ‘the’ body and that performatives may be powerless. Deriving a definition of pornography from a truncated etymology exemplifies the prosthesis of origin and challenges other critical discourses to explain how pornography can be understood as anything more than ‘putting (it) up for sale’.


1924 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-253
Author(s):  
Charles Walston

It is hardly necessary to attempt a definition of what is meant by ‘the classical type’ in the body or in the face. Ordinary people know what they mean when they speak of a ‘classical face,’ ‘regular features,’ or ‘a perfectly made man or woman’ as regards the nude figure. Even though such people may have but a slight familiarity with Greek or Graeco-Roman statues and busts, or have never even actually perceived, themselves, the distinctive characteristics of the classical type, they have had it conveyed to them indirectly through the work of modern artists and illustrators of books or advertisements, or even in the attenuated and vulgarised renderings on chocolate boxes. No doubt we are now living in revolt and reaction against this type of beauty and normality, as in the past there have been periodic reactions against the dominance of the classic types, whether in ‘realistic’ or ‘romantic’ movements, throughout the historical development of art since the classical age. The fact, however, remains, that the standards of proportion and inter-relation between the parts of the body and between the features of the human head, as embodied in the classic type, still determine the taste of, at least, the Western world.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianne T Train ◽  
David H Rothstein

The definition of shock has seen multiple iterations in the past several decades. In its most recent form, shock is understood to comprise a series of insults to the body resulting in impaired end-organ perfusion and generalized tissue underoxygenation. Causative factors are protean, although a large proportion of recent attention has been placed on infectious etiologies, particularly those in the compromised host. Diagnosis and treatment of pediatric shock are particularly challenging because of inherent difficulties in examining a young patient, early compensation of advanced shock, and, in some cases, a lack of provider familiarity with early signs and symptoms of impaired perfusion. Perhaps the most important advance in the past several years has been the recognition that shock must be identified early and sometimes treated empirically, without a proven etiology. In addition, systems of practice are essential to focus early, aggressive treatment of shock and prevent associated morbidity and mortality. In this review, we discuss key points to the evaluation of a pediatric patient with suspected shock, define what laboratory and radiologic investigations may be of utility in confirming a diagnosis and defining an etiology and direct treatment, and highlight recent advances in the understanding and treatment of shock. We also discuss some of the important advances in integration of treatment pathways and the use of the electronic medical record as a clinical adjunct. Key words: shock, pediatric, critical care, sepsis


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianne T Train ◽  
David H Rothstein

The definition of shock has seen multiple iterations in the past several decades. In its most recent form, shock is understood to comprise a series of insults to the body resulting in impaired end-organ perfusion and generalized tissue underoxygenation. Causative factors are protean, although a large proportion of recent attention has been placed on infectious etiologies, particularly those in the compromised host. Diagnosis and treatment of pediatric shock are particularly challenging because of inherent difficulties in examining a young patient, early compensation of advanced shock, and, in some cases, a lack of provider familiarity with early signs and symptoms of impaired perfusion. Perhaps the most important advance in the past several years has been the recognition that shock must be identified early and sometimes treated empirically, without a proven etiology. In addition, systems of practice are essential to focus early, aggressive treatment of shock and prevent associated morbidity and mortality. In this review, we discuss key points to the evaluation of a pediatric patient with suspected shock, define what laboratory and radiologic investigations may be of utility in confirming a diagnosis and defining an etiology and direct treatment, and highlight recent advances in the understanding and treatment of shock. We also discuss some of the important advances in integration of treatment pathways and the use of the electronic medical record as a clinical adjunct. Key words: shock, pediatric, critical care, sepsis


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-168
Author(s):  
Janet Barış

The Dekalog series, comprised of ten films made by Kieslowski in 1989-90 for the Polish TV, inspired by the Ten Commandments (Decalogues) in the Torah, treats the goodness and innocence of human beings, as well as the evilness and anxiety. Generally, as a common element in all films of the series, appears the triangle of order-submission-disobedience and the power field becomes a tide moving back and forth between different characters. According to Foucault, power is perceived differently today, compared to the past. In the earlier times, power was perceived to be the rulership of a king over its subjects, while today, different types of power exist. Foucault argues that the punishment directed towards the body before is now directed to the soul. The discourse in the Ten Commandments that directs people what to do and what not overlaps the Foucauldian definition of power and the punishment of the soul. This phenomenon appears in every film of the series differently, through the characters and the plot. This article’s objective is to examine Kieslowski’s Dekalog series through the relationship between order, submission and power, and to discuss the effects of this relationship over the characters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-48
Author(s):  
Gilpatrick D Hornsby

The body of literature around minority entrepreneurship has been well established over the past few decades. Research however in the context of the hospitality industry on this topic has been lacking. Therefore a goal of this study was to examine the minority entrepreneur experience in the hospitality industry in order to fill this gap in the literature. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to examine black entrepreneurs. Participants discussed their personal definition of entrepreneurship, the challenges they faced while growing the business, and how they believe race impacted their success as a business owner. Responses were analyzed and future directions identified.


Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).


Author(s):  
Volker Scheid

This chapter explores the articulations that have emerged over the last half century between various types of holism, Chinese medicine and systems biology. Given the discipline’s historical attachments to a definition of ‘medicine’ that rather narrowly refers to biomedicine as developed in Europe and the US from the eighteenth century onwards, the medical humanities are not the most obvious starting point for such an inquiry. At the same time, they do offer one advantage over neighbouring disciplines like medical history, anthropology or science and technology studies for someone like myself, a clinician as well as a historian and anthropologist: their strong commitment to the objective of facilitating better medical practice. This promise furthermore links to the wider project of critique, which, in Max Horkheimer’s definition of the term, aims at change and emancipation in order ‘to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them’. If we take the critical medical humanities as explicitly affirming this shared objective and responsibility, extending the discipline’s traditional gaze is not a burden but becomes, in fact, an obligation.


Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-303
Author(s):  
Michael Connors Jackman

This article investigates the ways in which the work of The Body Politic (TBP), the first major lesbian and gay newspaper in Canada, comes to be commemorated in queer publics and how it figures in the memories of those who were involved in producing the paper. In revisiting a critical point in the history of TBP from 1985 when controversy erupted over race and racism within the editorial collective, this discussion considers the role of memory in the reproduction of whiteness and in the rupture of standard narratives about the past. As the controversy continues to haunt contemporary queer activism in Canada, the productive work of memory must be considered an essential aspect of how, when and for what reasons the work of TBP comes to be commemorated. By revisiting the events of 1985 and by sifting through interviews with individuals who contributed to the work of TBP, this article complicates the narrative of TBP as a bluntly racist endeavour whilst questioning the white privilege and racially-charged demands that undergird its commemoration. The work of producing and preserving queer history is a vital means of challenging the intentional and strategic erasure of queer existence, but those who engage in such efforts must remain attentive to the unequal terrain of social relations within which remembering forms its objects.


Author(s):  
Raphael A. Cadenhead

Although the reception of the Eastern father Gregory of Nyssa has varied over the centuries, the past few decades have witnessed a profound awakening of interest in his thought, particularly in relation to the contentious issues of gender, sex, and sexuality. The Body and Desire sets out to retrieve the full range of Gregory’s thinking on the challenges of the ascetic life through a diachronic analysis of his oeuvre. Exploring his understanding of the importance of bodily and spiritual maturation in the practices of contemplation and virtue, Raphael Cadenhead recovers the vital relevance of this vision of transformation for contemporary ethical discourse.


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