The Woman Who Had Two Brains

I finished reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels this week, and really enjoyed it. I've read and learned a little about Filipino history ... about how Spain controlled the Philippines for centuries until 1898, until the Spanish-American War when America brought the Philippines "Independence" from the Spanish and then proceeded to occupy it until World War II. The American presence was initially not at all welcome and the Spanish-American War was followed by the Philippine-American war from 1899 to 1902 officially with resistance continuing until 1913. After 1913, many survivors of the defeated resistance went into exile, and the Filipino people settled into an acceptance of American presence whereby the American influence on the country grew very strong, English replaced Spanish as the dominant Western language and the language of business and the arts, and Americans were generally more appreciated than resented. America failed to protect the Philippines from takeover and brutal occupation by the Japanese during World War II, but after the defeat of the Japanese when American soldiers returned to a shattered Manila they were celebrated as liberators. The Woman Who Had Two Navels takes place against this backdrop of history, as Filipinos of multiple generations, some exiles, some born in exile in Hong Kong, and some visiting Hong Kong from Manila, interact in a tangled web of present (1950s) events, flashbacks to the Manilas of "Independence" through the 50's, love, denial, shattered dreams, and transformation. Joaquin's writing is beautiful and complex, so that it's the kind of novel where you have to mark every word and pay careful attention to each strand of plot, and you're rewarded when the whole thing comes into focus as the strands converge at the end.

While I was reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels, my Balikbayan Box finally arrived from the US! In it I had packed a book I got for Christmas and knew I wouldn't have time to read before I got to Manila, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. I do want to continue my Filipino literary explorations by reading Philippine National Hero José Rizal's Noli me Tangere, but I knew I had to read My Stroke of Insight first when, a couple of days before my box arrived, my friend Charlie was raving about it. In all the excitement of the past couple of months, I'd forgotten that I actually owned the book and that it was on its way to me in the long-awaited box, so I was totally delighted to find it the first thing looking up at me from the top of the pile when I finally got to open the box. I've had Filipino friends tell me the only way they got through Noli Me Tangere was by using the local equivalent of Cliff's Notes, so I was grateful to find My Stroke of Insight to be a much easier read than the book I read before it. I'm a biologist by education and this was a book presenting a lot of brain science to the average non-scientist. So reading about a familiar subject that was so carefully and clearly presented as to be accessible to someone with no scientific background was a lovely breeze after the challenging (and thrilling) work of deciphering the mysteries of The Woman Who Had Two Navels. And what wonderful experiences and ideas conveyed so clearly! Jill Taylor is a brain scientist who had a massive stroke that wiped out most of the function of her left brain, and who recovered fully over the course of eight years. What happened to her when she had the stroke is that she lost her ability to (among other things) speak or understand (or even think in) verbal language, read, walk, and conceptualize the future and past. All that remained was her right-brain consciousness, the in-the-moment sensory stream for which, without judgment, categorization, or prioritization, we are literally one with the universe. Over the course of her recovery, she was able to observe as the logical, analytical, ego-based structures of her left brain regenerated. I often wonder why I simultaneously feel "one with the universe" and "self-interested and totally separate." Instinctively I've been accepting of this in myself, but I was a lot more confused by it until I read Jill's book. The idea that seems so much simpler and clearer thanks to the experience she's shared is that the ego lives in the left brain. It's what makes us, as humans, able to do all the amazing, analytical, logical, historiographical and strategic stuff we do - but it's just a construct. Why let it convince us that its reality is the only reality, or that we're not good enough, or not lovable, or that we need to kill that person who's going to take our dinner or who doesn't agree with us, etc., etc.? Jill's story and her message are beautiful, inspiring, and hopeful. I'm so glad I read this book - it's such an important issue in my life, finding a balance between individuality and universality, and My Stroke of Insight fills in huge swaths of the roadmap to finding that balance. To see Jill talk about her experience, check out the link to her talk at the 2008 TED conference on her website, http://www.mystrokeofinsight.com/. Her speaking schedule and lots of other cool stuff I'll be checking out soon are on that site, too.

Warmly,
Carol