The Anatomy Shelf Issue #14 (June 2022)
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CONTENTS:
Featured:
Mummified: An Invitation to the Conversation, review of Mummified: The Stories Behind Mummies in Museums by Angela Stienne by Lauren @gothicbookworm
New Releases:
Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris
Upcoming Books:
D K Broster, From the Abyss, edited by Melissa Edmundson
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino
Calls for Papers:
Recovering the Vampire: From Degeneration to Regeneration
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FEATURED
Mummified: An Invitation to the Conversation, Review by Lauren @gothicbookworm
Mummified: The Stories Behind Mummies in Museums by Angela Stienne (2022) is a text that contributes to the wider conversation about the current status of human remains in museums. In addition to being a book about mummies, it is also an account of Stienne’s own relationship with mummies and the personal and professional challenges she faced whilst researching them:
“I have been interested in stories about Egyptian mummies for many years. I grew up in the suburbs of Paris, and when, at thirteen, I decided I wanted to be an Egyptologist, my attention naturally turned to the closest collection of Egyptian material culture” (p. 2).
The book begins with a wonderful foreword by John J. Johnston: “[the author] addresses the biographies of the mummies’ afterlives: not, however, the spiritual rebirths these individuals might have imagined for themselves but, rather, their corporeal afterlife of discovery, seizure and movement across the globe to cultures and circumstances they ever could have imagined in life” (p. xi). Mummified aims to give an overview of the history of mummies in museums, including their discoveries, and uses case studies to demonstrate specific practices and/or arguments.
Stienne begins by asking the reader, “what is a mummy?” Although many may assume that this answer is obvious, there are more layers to this question. What Stienne is actually trying to get the reader to do is think about the obvious: mummies are human remains. However, the fact they are in museums seems to have the effect of desensitisation; they are displayed for all to see, so it is easy to forget, or simply become insensitive to the fact that this exhibit is a corpse. Throughout the book, Stienne explains how mummies ‘arrived’ in museums, what they were used for, and how we can continue the conversation regarding human remains on display.
What I wanted to include in my review, and what I hope my readers will recognise, is the sense that our relationship with the dead, and in this case, mummies, is an objective progression within society, but it is also a subjective personal evolution that each individual experiences differently. Stienne’s book is an example of this where she explains in great detail her own particular museum visits, career roles, and encounters with mummies. For example, at the beginning of chapter 3 ‘Mummies Buried in a Garden, and Other Incidents,’ Stienne explains how once she ended up arriving to the British Museum drenched due to a storm, but this didn’t faze her as the excitement of examining a very unique coffin was the only thing on her mind (p. 69). Stienne then describes how she went about assessing the coffin and finding some ‘unusual holes.’ This personal account of spending time with this coffin and its history is both fascinating and beneficial: the personalisation of the account means that, in turn, the mummies also appear more human. This is just one example of many, but by the end of the book, it is clear that the human essence of the mummy has been resurrected.
During this chapter, after describing this unusual story, Stienne concludes the section and opens another by saying: “These unexpected stories really make us consider a variety of questions. Why have Europeans tried to collect, bring back and display behind cases these human remains and their coffins? At what cost to human life (even in their death) did Europeans bring these bodies back from Egypt?” (p. 75). It is these questions which Stienne examines in Mummified which furthers the debate surrounding mummies in museums today.
I appreciated the section on the Pharaohs’ Golden Mummies parade (2021) in the book’s epilogue leading an open conclusion: “[i]s the future of Egyptian mummies one where we no longer see them in museums, or is it one where we see them in different environments that are curated in a way that encourages respect?” (p. 207). I watched the event live on the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities YouTube Channel on the 3rd April 2021 and couldn’t help but ask the same questions Stienne does in her book… What is the future of Egyptian mummies? This parade was a modern-day mummymania event, the first of its kind at this level of magnitude where people all over the world watched in awe and suspense as twenty-two royal mummies travelled to their new home, the Royal Mummies Hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Arguably, this has developed the narrative of mummies in museums, and calls for a wider conversation, one that Stienne has started in Mummified.
My own research on mummies focuses on their treatment in the nineteenth century and the ethical implications of their discovery all under the umbrella of ‘travel’. What resonated with me whilst reading Mummified is that, not only is this book about the mummies’ journey and Stienne’s relationship with them, but it is also Stienne’s own personal journey from when she was first interested in mummies, to undertaking her doctorate, and then publishing this inclusive text, and various experiences in-between these core events.
Mummified is not a gatekeeping book, instead it is an honest and open account of a personal relationship with mummies with an inclusive an accessible tone throughout. Although this book is valuable to the academic community with its analysis of key research and case studies, it is also a book that would interest anyone who is attracted to this topic and to the wider subject of ancient Egypt. Afterall, museums host a variety of exhibits and information which many professionals and academics use for their research, but they are also for the public. In 2018/19, the British Museum saw 6.02 million visitors walk through its doors, most of whom were not there for research purposes, but as tourists and history enthusiasts (British Museum Stats). This book is connected by this concept: inclusive, personal, and aiming to be accessible to all. I would even go as far as to recommend this book to anyone who has seen a mummy in a museum, as it will probably make you think differently about it, and consider the wider conversation about their presence in museums overall. Mummified is an invitation to the conversation surrounding mummies in museums where you learn about their stories in the process.
A huge thank you to Christopher at Manchester University Press for gifting me this copy in exchange for an honest review.
Mummified: The Stories Behind Mummies in Museums is available now online and in store.
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NEW BOOKS
Ordinary Monsters (The Talents Series - Book 1) (Hardback) By J. M. Miro, (Bloomsbury) ISBN: 9781526650054, 672 pages, Hardback £15.99
Fantasy Bodies – Supernatural Bodies – Monstrous Bodies – Historical fiction
1882. North of Edinburgh, on the edge of an isolated loch, lies an institution of crumbling stone, where a strange doctor collects orphans with unusual abilities. In London, two children with such powers are hunted by a figure of darkness - a man made of smoke.
Charlie Ovid discovers a gift for healing himself through a brutal upbringing in Mississippi, while Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight, glows with a strange bluish light. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are confronted by a sinister, dangerous force that threatens to upend the world as they know it. What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London to the lochs of Scotland, where other gifted children - the Talents - have been gathered at Cairndale Institute, and the realms of the dead and the living collide.
As secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities and the nature of the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts. The first in a captivating new historical fantasy series, Ordinary Monsters introduces the Talents with a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world, and the gifted, broken children who must save it.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/ordinary-monsters/j-m-miro/9781526650054
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Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh (Vintage Publishing) ISBN: 9781787333826 320 pages, Hardback, £14.99
Medieval bodies – Historical fiction – Supernatural bodies – Superstition
A medieval village houses witchcraft, hypocrisy and the depraved excesses of its lord and master in this dazzling dissection of illusion and reality from the bestselling author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet.
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life's few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby, as she did for many of the village's children.
Ina's gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina's home in the woods outside the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place. Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches.
The people's desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord's family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year's end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world will prove to be very thin indeed.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/lapvona/ottessa-moshfegh/9781787333826
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The Facemaker: One Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Penguin Books Ltd), ISBN: 9780241389379 336 pages
Historical - Non-Fiction - Medial History - Surgery
Shedding light on the ambitious work of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies with the First World War soldiers who sustained facial injuries in battle, The Facemaker tells the story of how imagination and medical innovation helped to restore faces – and identities – wrecked by war.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind's military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war caused carnage on an industrial scale, and the nature of trench warfare meant that thousands sustained facial injuries. In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the true story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces of a brutalized generation.
Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, established one of the world's first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies restored not just faces, but identities and spirits.
The Facemaker places Gillies's ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-facemaker/lindsey-fitzharris/9780241389379
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UPCOMING BOOKS
D K Broster, From the Abyss, edited by Melissa Edmundson, (Handheld Press), Paperback, £12.99
Release date: 9th August 2022
Short Stories – Weird Bodies – Supernatural Bodies – Gothic undertones
D K Broster was one of the great British historical novelists of the twentieth century, but her Weird fiction has long been forgotten. She wrote some of the most impressive supernatural short stories to be published between the wars. Melissa Edmundson, editor of Women’s Weird, Women’s Weird 2, Elinor Mordaunt’s The Villa and The Vortex and Helen Simpson’s The Outcast and The Rite, all published by Handheld, has curated a selection of Broster’s best and most terrifying work.
From the Abyss contains eleven stories:
‘All Souls Day’ (1907), in which a deadly enemy saves his soul.
‘Fils D’Émigré’ (1913), in which a small boy sees across water and time.
‘The Window’ (1929), in which a deserted chateau takes revenge on anyone who opens one particular window.
‘Clairvoyance’ (1932), in which a katana wreaks its revenge.
‘The Promised Land’ (1932), in which the worm turns deadly.
‘The Pestering’ (1932), in which an ancient curse traps its maker.
‘Couching at the Door’ (1933), in which a spurned mistress becomes a familiar.
‘Juggernaut’ (1935), in which a bathchair goes over the cliff.
‘The Pavement’ (1938), in which the protectress of a Roman mosaic cannot bear to let it go.
‘From the Abyss’ (1940), in which the survivor of a car crash develops a doppelganger.
‘The Taste of Pomegranates’ (1945, previously unpublished version), in which the present-day enters the Palaeolithic.
More information: https://www.handheldpress.co.uk/shop/fantasy-and-science-fiction/d-k-broster-from-the-abyss/
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Cackle by Rachel Harrison, (Titan Books) ISBN: 9781803361451, 304 pages, Paperback, £8.99
Release date: 23rd September 2022
Supernatural Bodies – Gothic Bodies – Witches – Superstition
Marian Keyes meets The Craft in this deliciously dark feminist tale of witches, bad ex-boyfriends, good coffee and friendly spiders. All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She's stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation. Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That's how Sophie lives. Annie can't help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem...a little afraid of her. And, okay. There are some things. Sophie's appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power... but she couldn't be...could she?
More information: https://www.waterstones.com/book/cackle/rachel-harrison/9781803361451
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Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino, (Titan Books) ISBN: 9781789098150, 368 pages, Paperback, £8.99
Release date: 12th September 2022
Supernatural bodies – Fantastical bodies – Gothic – Monstrous bodies
Salem's Lot meets The Darkest Part of the Forest in this gruesome, horror-fantasy retelling of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market." Louisa doesn't believe in magic, until her teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped to the goblin market. The market is a place of magic, where twisting streets, succulent fruits, glimmering jewels, and death are on offer to the unwary human. An enticing place that her mother and aunt barely escaped seventeen years ago, paying a terrible price. With only three days before the market disappears, Lou must navigate the treacherous market, controlled by bloodthirsty goblins who crave vengeance against her family. She must learn the songs and tricks of the goblins to save Neela, or the market might just end up claiming her too.
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CALLS FOR PAPERS:
Recovering the Vampire: From Degeneration to Regeneration
(See graphic for information)
Deadline: Monday 8th August
Thank you for reading this month’s issue of The Anatomy Shelf.
If you have anything you would like me to include in the next issue, please DM me on social media, email theanatomyshelf.gmail.com or message me on Substack by Monday 18th July to guarantee its inclusion.
Please also send me your submissions! If you wish to submit to The Anatomy Shelf, please read the submission guidelines & contact information via the link below:
I am looking for written pieces, reviews, articles, short fiction, images, photography, art, and more, all related to the body in history, literature, and art, so please get in touch theanatomyshelf@gmail.com
For more updates, please visit my social media:
Twitter: @gothicbookworm @theanatomyshelf
Instagram: @gothicbookworm
Best wishes,
Lauren, The Gothic Bookworm