Saturday, January 28, 2017

'Anthropos' by Deborah Levy

From Hot Milk, shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize

I kept on walking in a daze. I had made something happy. I was shaking and I knew that I had held myself in for too long, in my body, in my skin, the word anthropology from the Greek anthropos meaning 'human', and logia, meaning 'study'. If anthropology is the study of humankind from its beginning millions of years ago to this day, I am not very good at studying myself. I have researched aboriginal culture, Mayan hieroglyphics and the corporate culture of a Japanese car manufacturer, and I have written essays on the internal logic of various other societies, but I haven't a clue about my own logic. Suddenly that was the best thing that ever happened to me. What I felt most was the way she had squeezed the medusa sting on my shoulder.

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