What does it mean to fail oneself? Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment, longlisted for the Booker Prize this year, steps into the porous boundary between history and the now. If the novel were merely about these two, it might still succeed, but Perry’s attempt is to transcend character. Yet, Grace’s story is not merely about moral transgression; it is about the anatomy …
In the early 1960s, British nurse Cicely Saunders pioneered the concept of “total pain”, a comprehensive term that encompasses emotional, physical, social and spiritual suffering. The chapter titled ‘My Spiritual Insights and Breakthroughs’ contains descriptions of “Experiencing Krishna”, “Aparokshanubhtu — Contemplation, Realisation and Oneness”, “Emptiness and Light Experience” and “Experiencing Death Two-and-a-Half Times”. Since the author knew nothing about “yogic …
It is sickly hilarious to make a movie in which so much consensual sex is had, often so gleefully, that is not the least bit sexy. Though Bella Baxter’s insatiable libido might be her guiding light at first in “Poor Things,” sexual liberation is only part of this fantastical, anarchic journey to consciousness. Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and his star, Emma …
