On Farting: Bodily Wind in the Middle Ages (The New Middle Ages #1)

Valerie Allen


Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
4.00 · 1 ratings · 256 pages · Published: 26 Dec 2006

On Farting: Bodily Wind in the Middle Ages by Valerie Allen
This book presents waste as an aesthetic category that introduces an arsy-versy world where detritus is precious. This aesthetic is applied in the second part to etymology, poking through the "paternal dungheaps" of words, and tracing their origins not to Eden but to Babel, puns, and word play. Finally, in the case of Roland the Farter, who performed annually a jump, whistle, and fart before the king of England, we encounter the resistance of the past to historical rationalization. Roland moons at us across the centuries, deflating our attempts to become one flesh with the past, and placing laughter at the heart of knowing.

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