Why read The Body in Pain?

Book cover of The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

Book description

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, this profoundly original work explores the nature of physical suffering. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Body in Pain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Juergensmeyer

Author

This modern classic by a Harvard anthropologist is about torture and inflicted body pain in general, though it has abundant examples from the bible and religion-related conflicts. Her main thesis is that acts of torture are attempts to destroy the worlds of the victim and remake them in the mold of the torturer. It helps us understand that acts of religious violence are always so some extent a clash of worldviews and the attempt to forcibly destroy one view of reality with another.

From Mark's list on religious violence.