“At Home with Zoe”: Becoming Animal in Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things

This paper focuses on Charlotte Wood’s 2015 dystopian novel The Natural Way of Things. Set in an unnamed place in the Australian outback, it recounts the story of 10 girls in their late teens and early twenties who are kept prisoners by a mysterious corporate organisation for their sexual involvement with an array of powerful men. The novel’s title invites two main readings: the first, and perhaps more obvious, along gender lines; and the second, which will provide the backbone to my analysis, within the framework of the natural world, the animal kingdom in particular. The Natural Way of Things has been described as a study in contemporary misogyny and the workings of patriarchy. The ingrained sexism of society—the insidious, normalised violence against females, often blamed on them, glossing over male responsibility—is undoubtedly the central topic of Wood’s work. Without losing sight of gender issues, my approach to Wood’s novel is inspired by Rosi Braidotti’s posthuman theories on the continuum nature–culture and the primacy of zoe—“the non-human, vital force of life”—over bios, or life as “the prerogative of Anthropos” (Rosi Braidotti). According to Braidotti, the current challenges to anthropocentrism question the distinction between these two forms of life, highlighting instead the seamless connection between the natural world and culture and favouring a consideration of the subject as embodied, nomadic and relational. My reading of The Natural Way of Things in light of Braidotti’s insights will be supplemented by an analysis of the novel in the context of transmodernity, both a period term and a distinct way of being in the world theorised by critics such as Rosa M. Rodríguez Magda and Marc Luyckx, who emphasise the relational, interdependent nature of contemporary times from a more human-centred perspective. The Natural Way of Things is also a story of female empowerment. This is especially the case with Yolanda Kovacs and Verla Learmont, the two protagonist women, who step out of their roles as victims and stand up to their guards. My analysis of the novel will revolve around these two characters and their different reactions to confinement and degradation. I conclude that although a more zoe-centred conception of the human subject that acknowledges the human–animal continuum should definitely be welcomed, literally “becoming animal”, as Yolanda does, deprives one of meaningful human relationality, embodied in the novel in Verla’s memories of her caring, empathic relationship with her father.

ESTIMATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SURGICAL TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH OLD RUPTURE OF HEEL TENDON WITH SHORT PLASTER SPLINT IMMOBILIZATION

Heel tendon injuries is the most common trauma of tendomuscular apparatus. Old ruptures of heel tendon occur in 58 % of cases in humans. The aim of the research was to estimate the effectiveness of treatment of the patients with old ruptures of heel tendon with Myerson type III defects who had tendon reconstruction on Chernavsky and short plaster splint immobilization of lower extremity for 4 weeks. We operated 10 patients using reconstruction on Chernavsky in our clinic from 2012 to 2014 (average age – 47,6 ± 12,0 years, 8 males and 2 females). All patients had old ruptures of heel tendon. Average time from the moment of trauma till the operation was 112,6 ± 80,4 days. Diastasis between the ends of tendon was 5,8 ± 0,7 cm that corresponds to Myerson type III. Average term of staying at hospital was 10 ± 2 days. We didn’t register any complications in postoperative period. Term of plaster immobilization of the operated extremity was 4 weeks. AOFAS score was 34,2 ± 6,8 points at the control examination in 1,5 months that corresponds to bad functional result. We registered good functional results (88,6 ± 3,5 points) in 3 months. In 6 months, functional results were 95,9 ± 1,6 points. In 12 months after the operation average score was 97,9 ± 2,1 points that corresponds to excellent functional result. Using heel tendon reconstruction on Chernavsky at the Myerson type III defects in combination with short plaster immobilization and early activization of patients allows to decrease term of rehabilitation of patients after the operation.

The radius and the pulsation constant of the primary of Spica

In the late sixties, Spica (α Virginia, a 4.01454-day SB2 and interferometric binary, with a B1 IV primary component) was showing a light variation that consisted of two periodic terms. One term had the form of a double wave with the above-mentioned orbital period, the other was sinusoidal in shape and had a period equal to 0.1738 days. The double-wave term was clearly an ellipsoidal variation, caused by aspect changes of the tidally distorted primary, whereas the short-period term could only be explained as due to the primary's β Cephei-type pulsations. However, in 1972 these pulsations became undetectable.

Staphylococcus aureus Colonization and Infection After Discharge from a Term Newborn Nursery

During a 6-month period, term infants underwent nasal and umbilical swabbing within 96 hours of delivery and again at 1 to 18 (mean 3.8) weeks after discharge. Swabs were inoculated onto horse blood agar and all S aureus isolates were phage typed. Two hundred three infants were enrolled and follow-up was obtained for 181 (89%). Thirty-two of 181 (17.6%) were initially colonized, of whom 12 (37.5%) were colonized on follow-up. Thirty-two of 181 became colonized subsequent to hospital discharge. No single phage type predominated. Twenty-five patients were diagnosed to have clinical illness—omphalitis (11), conjunctivitis (10), and pustulosis (5). Six of these were colonized with 5 aureus initially, although organisms of the same phage type were not recovered from cultures obtained at the time of clinical illness. There was no significant difference in the rate of infections in colonized (19%) versus noncolonized (12%) infants. In five patients where S aureus was recovered at the time of symptoms, all organisms were acquired subsequent to discharge. We conclude that nursery colonization with S aureus did not lead to clinical illness, and clinical illnesse s previously ascribed to S aureus frequently occur in the absence of these bacteria.