Keats, by Andrew Motion

Keats by Andrew Motion

WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be [...]

  then on the shore

  Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,

 Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

John Keats, now considered one of the greatest poets to have ever lived, died of consumption in 1821. He was 25 years old. Unrecognized, unrequited, and underestimated in his lifetime, this young genius toiled away to create authentic works of art, that have been loved by many generations. However, he went to the grave without recognition. Until reading this biography I never realized just how harrowing and tragic Keats’ life really was.

I think any fan of the Romantics will feed into the myth of ‘destiny;’ the idea that such writers will leave this earth early, just by the nature of their gift, and the fevered fire in their soul. However, I always assumed that even the most lowly would get some recognition and a glimpse of posthumous fame in their lifetime. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron all did, but alas not so with Keats’. Diligent studies of Shakespeare, obsessive analysis of Spenser, dreams Milton, and yet Keats was derided by the upper-crust critics: ‘Back to the shop Mr John, back to plasters, pills and ointment boxes.’ All the while, for year on end, he sickened unto death.

This is why I really wanted to like this book! However, after picking up a biography on a poet, written by a fellow poet, I was expecting something, dare I say, a bit more poetical! Motion writes with the pomposity of a 19th century schoolmaster. There is no sparkle or flair to the language and there is the rather offensive assumption that readers should be familiar with such things as: Negative Capability, Soul-making, and the Mansion of Many Apartments. Most of all though, Andrew Motion for a poet, displays a surprising lack of empathy. There is no warmth in reporting on the trials and tribulations Keats’ endured, no compassion when speaking of his final hours in Rome. Instead, dry scholarly observations abound. Admittedly the work is magisterial in terms of research, and it is one of those books, you come away from feeling suitably enriched and a little bit cleverer than you were previously. However, it is so academic, that any enjoyment or pleasure in the story of this brilliant man’s life is diminished considerably. 

Unfortunately there is not much else to say! Motion limits his insight of each poem to the standard cliches, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ has a subliminal subtext of rape. ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ seeks to evoke reality but is defeated by abstraction. ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is about life and death, and the search for synthesis, and ‘to Autumn’ is about a beautiful season but the coming loss. Worse still, in my opinion Motion, continually wants to explain Keats’ poems in their historical context. A reference here is about his brother George, a line there is about a recent corn legislation, a stanza everywhere is about classism. To me a poem should transcend all of this and be ahistorical. Keats better than anyone aimed for this and achieved this, and so to my mind, his poems should be read in a similar vein.

Overall if you are a professor of Romantic literature, an undergraduate studying your English degree, or just an eccentric who likes dull academic criticism then this book may be for you! If, on the other hand, you are like me, and you want to read about the poets, because their poetry moves you, their lives inspires you, and their legacy enthralls you, then maybe it’s not. Andrew Motion will never be able to write like fellow Romantic biographer Richard Holmes, because the latter cares more deeply and on a more emotional level about the subject. Besides that, he’s just a more engaging writer!

Keats’ was all about rich and sensuous language. Evocative and beautiful images. Transcendent and eternal themes. This is why, I find it so disheartening that Motion’s book is so boring! The Romantic’s are part of our culture and heritage, like the superstar songwriters of today, their poems are about love, life and loss. If we want to reconnect with the past, as we should, Keats’ needs a more imaginative writer than Motion to facilitate it. To paraphrase Keats ‘Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!’ and so we need a writer to really give this poet his wings. 

Trauma, by Professor Gordon Turnbull

Trauma, by Professor Gordon Turnbull

From Lockerbie to 7/7: How Trauma Affects Our Minds, and how We Fight Back

Psychological trauma is a phenomena as old as humanity. Ancient Egypt soldier ‘Hori’ recounts the terror preceding battle: ‘You determine to go forward [...] Shuddering seizes you, the hair on your head stands on end, your soul lies in your hand.’ Herotudus the first Historian, tells of the Athenian warrior, who became stricken by blindness after battle, though ‘being wounded on no part of his body.’  Samuel Pepys, London diarist, and man about town, says the Great Fire has caused ‘sleeping and waking, such fear of fire in my heart, that I took little rest.’ The best account of trauma so far: Shakespeare’s play Henry IV, Lady Percy, soliloquizes on her estranged husband: ‘O, my good lord, why are you thus alone? [...] In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd [...] [heard] Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents [...] And thus hath so bestirred thee in thy sleep, That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow [...]  And in thy face strange motions have appear'd.’ 

Flash-forward and trauma has been with us ever since: From World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan, shell-shock to post-Vietnam-syndrome. However it was only in 1980 that the DSM V created the diagnosis PTSD. While tending to the survivors of Pan am flight 103 and Lockerbie, pioneering trauma psychiatrist Gordon Turnbull had an epiphany: Until then, PTSD had been viewed as a mental illness and suggestive of an innate character flaw. Turnbull saw what he saw, and subsequently broke ranks: ‘PTSD was not an illness, but a survival tool [...] [it] wasn’t a case of the body going wrong. It was a natural response to highly unnatural events.’ Common sense now, but in the old days it was a radical step from tradition and had a profound effect on treatment. 

The first part of the book is perhaps little too rambling and self-indulgent and at some points almost reads as an autobiography: One ‘polymath’s’ rise in the psychiatric profession and the innovative theories he discovered. Perhaps this can be forgiven because Turnbull is not only recounting his own life, but discussing the long drawn out development of trauma theory. And it is true he played a part in getting the diagnosis the recognition it deserved. The latter half of the book really illustrates how primitive treatment was, even three decades ago. It shows how far we have come from psychoanalysis to Neurology! 

The book really shines when it is discussing cutting edge research into trauma. Turnbull is a talented writer, who makes extremely complex events occurring on the molecular level understandable. According to him psychological trauma actually has a ‘Biological signature’: The hippocampus acts, ‘a bit like a USB cable connecting left and right side of the brain.’ Left brain is used to store memory, right brain sensory impressions. High levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline ‘nibble away’ at the hippocampus ‘and kill the nerve cells,’ creating a failure in function. Flashbacks, the core PTSD symptom occurs because the hippocampus now ‘has difficulty passing sensory information from the right to left side of the brain.’ 

But there is more: Disassociation is not just zoning out but can be accounted for by ‘hypo-arousal,’ ‘tonicity,’ or in layman’s term ‘playing dead;’ an evolutionary tool from our jungle days. Physical problems from IBS to headaches, can occur, because the brain releases neuropeptides when in a state of arousal. These peptides ‘reach into all organs and tissues of the body [...] [meaning] that emotional memory is stored in the body’ as ‘imprints’ which provoke, physiological changes. Finally even the most maladapative behaviors, like drinking, drugs and even violence, seen ‘through the eyes of a trauma victim’ are tools for adaption: Avoidance is where ‘the left side of the brain shuts down,’ Alcohol and drugs, ‘boost [damaged] endorphin levels,’ and finally violence, is a ‘conditioned response,’ and outlet for chronically high levels of adrenaline.  

Overall, the theory is this: The brain is using its greatest tools on a psychological, physiological and neurological level, to help us survive. However, our greatest asset, is out of sync with modernity, for we are no longer on the African Savannah. Nevertheless, the brain still behaves as if we do, and will do anything to help us live and reproduce!

Admittedly Turnbull is a little too radical in some respects advocating hypnotherapy, Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, tapping and emotional freedom technique, and even speaks of a sixth sense. While some of these ideas like ‘EMDR’ and ‘intuition’ are becoming empirically validated, others like hypnotherapy need more research. Concepts like ‘Emotional Freedom Technique’ and ‘thought field therapy’ on the other hand are unscientific in my opinion!Nevertheless, Turnbull is an engaging and convincing author. In the future who knows maybe some of his more radical ideas will find mainstream acceptance. Ultimately, his book not only discusses the symptoms of trauma but also the way to recovery: ‘Neurogenesis,’ and ‘neuroplasticity.’ The brains ability to rewire and remake all the damage trauma causes, and turn it into a new beginning.