Hot Stuff

[Ariadne]

I've read this book over and again and it lifts the spirits every time. It's very cheeky!

Freak of Nature makes a light-hearted mockery of using the reductionist method to examine the human. Unlike a watch, for example, when you take it apart to see what makes it tick, you lose the essence of what made it work as a whole.

Freud reduced the complicated self into Id, Ego and Super-ego; the Transactional Analysts to Parent, Adult and Child. These simplistic notions are at once useful and limiting. Whether one divides what influences our phenomenally complex machinations into three or two is neither here nor there. You lose the soul of the thing.

That said, we are all familiar with the bicephaloid sensation produced when we find ourselves simultaneously taking opposing stances when faced with the chocolate decision! John and Mick speak to the devil and the angel on either shoulder of us all and then lead us on to re-evaluate our inadequate categorisations of good Mick and bad John.

Of course, the male psyche is notorious for its preoccupation with things other than chocolate. Although most of us have moved on from Victorian attitudes, the discussion of sex remains, to an extent, taboo. This book is a joy - teasing us on the subject. It is great fun and very naughty! It invites us to decide on our views on what is politically incorrect versus what is a normal and necessary process? Something for the boys as well as for the girls in here.

Another thing that comes to mind when reading this book are the roles of the right and left cerebral hemisheres. The creative/emotional right superceded by the logical/sensible dominant left being the usual configuration. John and Mick again? Thought-provoking indeed.

The unification that happens within marriage also comes up. First you're 'joined at the hip' and then you have an 'other half'. Futhermore, the process of successful parenting is rendered far easier if husband and wife function as a unit. Fulfilling desires and having fun does tend to take a back seat. The role of the responsible carer suffering from sense of humour failure (Mick) is usually taken by the wife in our society. The common refrain from wives about the husband being like an extra child could easily be Jules on John. Of course, the traditional male role could be perceived the other way round - men responsibly working away while the wifey is off on a jolly at the pool with the kids. Let's not get bogged down in unhelpful sexism though. I just thought of the similarities between husband and wife and Mick and John. This book leads us to the conclusion that there are strengths and weaknesses (and which is which?) in us all.

In this work of fiction we can follow our list of cliches to 'Familiarity breeds contempt' and boredom and sometimes erectile dysfunction. The damage that can be wrought by prolonged close contact with another is also explored with the skill of a great painter - great depth with the lightest of brush strokes. It tickles!

Research tells us that the majority of the population have a spiritual belief. A lot of them, however, are keeping quiet about it. Well done Whitaker for broaching the subjects of religion and philosophy so deftly. It is fitting that it's a medic who exposes the fundamental error inherent in Descartes' nonsensical division of the person - which so blights the way medicine is practised today - in such a humour-filled way. Literature against science in the battle for the person?

'Freak', by its very nature, highlights the danger of oversimplification - it is not a book about conjoined twins any more than we are merely composed of two or three separate parts!

Suffices to say that Whitaker is a genius!