<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14658">Hello. Simply to follow up briefly on the section of</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14744">Ian McEwan's novel, Atonement mentioned last</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14813" dir="ltr">week. As the Empyre topic changes, this will perhaps</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14814" dir="ltr">be of less interest. But as I brought up the novel--and</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14815" dir="ltr"> as ideas on what is "written on the body" in artistic con-</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14843" dir="ltr">texts are frequent here--I'm sending a short section</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14871" dir="ltr">from McEwan's book. This is from Chapter 3, where</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14915" dir="ltr">a major protagonist contemplates on selfhood:</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14916" dir="ltr"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14955" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">“She raised one hand and flexed its fingers and
wondered […]</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15061" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">how […] this thing for gripping […] came to be hers, entirely</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15062" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">at
her command. Or did it have some little life of its own? She</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15063" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">bent her finger
and straightened it. The mystery was in the</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15071" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">instant before it moved, the
dividing moment between not</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15072" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">moving and moving, when her intention took
effect….. When</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15073" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">did it know to move, when did she know to move it? There</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15074" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">was no
catching herself out. It was either-or. There was no</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15075" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">stitching, no seam, and
yet she knew that behind the</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15084" style="text-align:justify"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14956" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">smooth continuous fabric was the real self….”</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14925" dir="ltr"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_14924" dir="ltr">This narratological pondering may be of less interest to</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15112" dir="ltr">this week's theme, but I thought it fit in well with some of</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15142" dir="ltr">what was being said last month. So fwiw I'm sending it along.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1468217495197_15120" dir="ltr">With best wishes, William<br></div></div></body></html>