Оглавление
Robert Rowland Smith. What it Means to be Human
Copyright
Foreword
Author’s Note
1. Blood and Water
Mutiny in the body
Institutionalised
Trouble in paradise
The axe falls
Man’s character is his fate
Our parents are foreigners in time
Performance versus belonging
The madness of decision
The contribution sextant
Soul knowledge
Frenemies
What’s in a name?
Incurable souls
Happiness
2. The Dream of Three Daughters
Down and out in Oxford and Croydon
Haunting
Sex: more recreation than reproduction
Self-sabotage
Pomegranate in a shoebox
A staircase without stairs
Too much freedom
Red voice, green voice
The dream
C’est une fille
Secret motives
The future of the past
The importance of doing nothing
A pint of Guinness
3. The Keys to the Tower
On purpose
French intellectuals
The purpose star
The golden arch
The shape of a trilby
AutoBioPhilosophy
Praying for all the souls of the Hundred Years’ War
Parfit nominat Smith R. R
How a cat can be an angel
The Lord Mallard
Integration
Paternal and maternal purpose
Human lefts
Disintegration
4. A Love Quadrangle
Miteinandersein
The curious Maddison
Three: that’s the magic number
Big Brother
World-forms
The logic of emotion
The splitting of the ice sheet and the end of the Ice Age
Fallout
Guilt is good
Lovesick
Pause before re-beginning
Second-hand news
5. Going to California: a case of aller-retour
At the Randolph Hotel
Twinkle, twinkle
Fish, water
Respect vs. engagement vs. control
Capital
1 August 1997: Day one
Beneficial harm
28 October 1997
White space, yellow pages
Adaptive fantasy
A tale of two tales
Boomerang Schadenfreude
2–14 January 1998
15 January 1998
Fireflies
The ring cycle
11 April 1998
June 1998
8 July 1998
16 September 1998
The happiest day of my life
October 1998
October 1998
January 1999
9 February 1999
February 1999
June 1999
Identity Jenga
Graham, the accountant from Purley
6. Office Politics
A cloud of gnats beneath a pine tree
Them and us
Divided by the same language
The cultural thermostat
An abortive attempt at cloning
The miracle of multiples
The mystical foundation of authority
A cure for deafness
The butterfly effect
COMPARTMENTS
Inside the Map Room
A single ball of wax
Shade-loving plants
The infinite tuning-fork
The spectral beauty of the West Pier
Il faut cultiver son jardin
7. Near Death
The one-way dolphin
Improbable origins of the double divorce
The semi-stranger
Three visits to a country house and one excursus on death
Half in love with easeful death
I look up, I look down
Two white lines
In the mountains, there you feel free
The animus cake
Adamantine™ and the chronic emergency
Two important phrases: ‘Release its grip’ and ‘I will live’
Kindertotenlieder
The invention of zero
8. The Forms of Things Unknown
Planets of knowledge
Real Imaginaries
Why the spirit is no spade
The Thing
Meditation ≠ mediation
Handing over your sunglasses
A feather tied to an anvil
Blood of gold
A free lottery ticket
The sheep dip
The gift of grace and how not to avenge it
A sigil stamped on wax
Fibre-optic
Spiritual but not religious
The cloud of unknowing
That oceanic feeling
9. Portraits of Love
Perfect symmetry
Seashells near the seashore
A broken plate
Abandon all hope
The artist’s way
High windows
Overdetermined
Weird artefacts of attraction
Monochrome paint-balling
The pink whiteboard
The ‘solus’
Creatures of love
Suppose the man should fall asleep
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Epitaph
Illustration Credits
Footnotes. 1. Blood and Water
2. The Dream of Three Daughters
3. The Keys to the Tower
4. A Love Quadrangle
5. Going to California: a case of aller-retour
6. Office Politics
9. Portraits of Love
By the same author
About the Publisher
