John Oakes (1) (1961–)

On the whole, this book on the practice and theories of fasting exceeded my expectations. It is structured around a one-week fast undertaken by the author John Oakes and his wife. Each of the seven chapters starts with a brief transcript from his personal journal for that day of the fast. But the chapters themselves are topical and wide-ranging. More than half of the content is historical, accessing millennia of philosophical, religious, political, and medical approaches to fasting. These histories are complemented by a survey of relevant contemporary science, introspection, social reflection, and personal anecdote.

Oakes incidentally explores other forms of asceticism--non-dietary forms of "fasting" that connect with a resistance to consume. He does advocate fasting, but he also offers cautions and discusses its pathological manifestations. His characterization of the practice as "anti-authoritarian" (starting on viii) is notable and recurrent.

My own special interest in the pre-Eucharistic fast of Christian tradition received only a glancing mention (105). It's unsurprising, since that technique doesn't quite fit with the larger themes developed by Oakes. He stumbles a couple of times on word choice, using "hermetic" to mean eremitic (27, 29) and "spiritualism" for spirituality (97).

The volume is furnished with a generous editorial apparatus. Source citations are given at the end of the book with chapter and page references. In addition to a detailed index and a full bibliography, there is also an annotated list of selected books for further reading. This section unhappily observes, "I did not come across a fasting guide that focuses purely on physical health that I would recommend" (217). A one-page appendix offers "A Sampling of Famous Fasters" given by name alone.

This book should be able to hold the attention of readers interested in spiritual discipline or political resistance, above and apart from any concern about eating. The writing is clear and well researched, and the author's conclusions are both measured and motivating.… (mehr)

A highly readable delve into the ancient and modern worlds of fasting. 'The Fast' by John Oakes provides a fascinating exploration into what it means to 'fast', a practice which has maintained popularity, and for some spiritual reverence, throughout recorded history. Oakes takes the reader along with him during a week of fasting, balancing within the book his own expereinces and insights with the expertise of various professionals and acedemics, and key historical moments and movements. I will admit that the introduction and opening pages of chapter one did not immediately grab me; I was momentarily concerned that the book was going to be an overly self-indulgent diary of the authours experiences, but this was not the case and I was well repaid for persevering. In fact the books is broadly outward looking and it is clear that considerable time and effort has been taken to research each of the many subjects covered. The book is a 210 pages, not counting the introducion or the thorough notes and bibliography, and is densely packed with information yet without falling into a dry and complex acedemic style. The tone throughout is confident, grounded and reflective, inviting the reader into Oakes' clear passion for the subject matter. One of the stand out features of the book is the clever interweaving of the personal, scientific, historic, and philosophic strands. If, like me, history is your area of interest you will be able to find that historical thread running through each chapter and will find the other threads as interesting supplements to your understanding. Yet if you are more interesed in science or philosophy you will similarly find yourself following your thread and find the history a diverting aside. The biggest recommendation I can give for this book, however, is that it has left a lasting impression on my thinking. As Oakes himself states this is not a book about how to fast or what the health benefits of fasting are, though it touches on both these subjects. Rather, it is a book which explores what is means to refuse to consume in a consumer world. Not only did I learn many new things (about fasting but also about various other related subjects) but I now actually want to give the practice of fasting a go myself.… (mehr)

Now that secularism is predominant in the post-Modern world, many people reject institutional religion but not spirituality or the practices associated with formal religion. Fasting has made a comeback as individuals recognize the benefits of the practice, but many world religions have advocated sound health for centuries. The author explores the history and science behind the religious practice.

Self-deprivation is unremarkable in religious contexts and spirituality has long advocated abstinence from sex, drink, sleep, or food. Today, fasting has returned mostly for secular and health-related reasons, or as a departure from a person's daily routine.

In the volume, the author interviewed practitioners of fasting and engaged in fasting himself as self-discovery. The survey of history includes a notable list of exemplars who fasted including: Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Gandhi, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Cesar Chavez; moreover, fasting has been adopted by religions and political movements all over the world for millennia. Fasting is central to holy seasons and days such as Lent (Christianity), Ramadan (Islam), Yom Kippur (Judaism), Uposatha (Buddhism), and Ekadashi (Hinduism). On an individual level, devout ascetics who master self-deprivation to an extreme are believed to be tuned into the divine, ascending to enlightenment or even sainthood.

In addition, The Fast considers complex science at the heart behind the biological phenomena that occur inside the human body when we fast. Metabolic switching induced by fasting can prompt repair and renewal down to the molecular level; such fasting can provide benefits for those suffering from obesity and diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and more. Prolonged fasting can serve both to reinvigorate the immune system and to protect it against damage.

The author alludes to the political aspect of fasting—a hunger strike—which has signaled purity of intent and action. It’s a tactic that has provoked a response to individual commitment, focusing on an unjust system. Advocates who have waged hunger strikes include Gandhi in India, Bobby Sands in Ireland, and the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York City.

Fasting is a determined stance, a commitment, and a hearkening to a basic survival mode. The practitioner is focused on basics and mastery of one's body. Practiced well, it can be ultimately empowering.… (mehr)

You can read my entire discussion here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/in-the-realms-of-the-unreal-edited-by-john-g-h-oakes/

Review excerpt: So let me get to the premise problems that harm this collection. In the Realms of the Unreal is a collection of various writings from people who, in some loose sense, fit the description of being “insane.” Sort of. The writings range from poems to involved works of fiction to intense biographies to snippets of what can only be called word salad. And when you have such a range of works under the heading of “insane writings,” it can make you wonder what the methodology of this book was. In the Editor’s Preface, it sort of explained things, but at the same time, it makes it clear that there really was no methodology beyond what the editors had access to within their parameters of unusual behavior.

From the editorial preface, an attempt is made to explain that insane means a lot of things and that their primary goal was to include a variety of writings, knowing full well some may not pass the sniff-test for true insanity.

An effort was made to include a wide variety of authors: living and dead, free and institutionalized, foreign and American, contemporary and antique.

But even within that paradigm, the editors give themselves a lot of wiggle room. They exclude the works of more famous “insane people,” like Antonin Artaud, because they made a living from their writing, but include Mary MacLane, whose writings were widely popular when they were initially published. It’s also odd because MacLane was definitely not insane, period, and the explanation for her inclusion is odd.

…MacLane’s work was never accepted into the literary canon. She had the double strike against her of being a woman and an eccentric during a period when society was particularly unforgiving.

The editors also have to explain their inclusion of Henry Darger:

We were looking for unusual poems and stories, often by people who had been or were currently institutionalized – although someone like Henry Darger (whose epic text lent its title to this volume) to our knowledge was never treated for “mental illness.” The amount of material produced by these unusual thinkers has greatly diminished in the modern era, principally because of the use of psychiatric drugs that often dull creativity, even as they help a patient adjust to life in conventional society.

I don’t know what to think of that statement about drugs dulling creativity because in my experience it is definitely untrue and it is often the mantra that so often prevents people who need help from getting it, but okay, let’s just roll with it for the purposes of this book. And as we roll with it, let’s just accept that “insanity,” for the purposes of this book, is whatever the editors decided it is.

But there is another problem with this collection. Again, from the editor’s preface:

No common theme to the book should readily emerge. To again borrow a phrase of Roger Cardinal’s, we are exploring an archipelago of ideas, rather than a continent.
[...]
These writings are not presented as clues to someone’s “illness”: they are published for their intrinsic worth.

This approach is problematic. Writings of genuinely insane people are chaotic at best. Without a common theme or at least an attempt to classify these writings, the reader is confronted with a wall of illness-influenced words that become amorphous and meaningless without context. The only divisions in the book are institutional and chronological, which is sort of helpful because one can almost see how anti-psychotic medications changed how mentally ill people interacted with their disease, but even that is not enough to give this work the sort of focus that prevents these works from becoming an assault on even readers who seek out this sort of literature.

Finally, I find the notion that “they are published for their intrinsic worth” to be utterly specious. Much of the work in this book is not good, and failure to link the work to the illness that may have fueled its creation, in my opinion, strips the works of their worth. To say that all of these pieces from the insane have intrinsic worth just because they were written by insane people is akin to saying that all diary entries from teenagers have intrinsic worth because they are from teenagers, or that all poems written by people in wheelchairs have intrinsic value because they were written by people in wheelchairs. It is disingenuous to compile a book of writings selected not because they were well-written but because they are the works of the “insane” and then tell the reader that one should not look at these works using a framework of insanity.

What other framework can the reader use to determine value? Most of this book is not genius borne from madness. It’s just madness. With the exception of a handful of writers, including Darger and Mary MacLane, these are not the works of natural writers. These are the works of people with a specific story to tell – the story of being mentally ill. There is no way to evaluate these writings without discussing the illness and experience of illness that inspired the writing in the first place. I think culturally we need to understand that 20 years ago, the liberal idea of colorblindness and being “handicapable” were in full swing. One was not supposed to see color, race, religion, disability or illness. One was just supposed to see people (leading to the now derided and utterly ridiculous insistence that black, white, pink, or purple, liberals don’t see color, just people). It’s easy to understand this approach to egalitarianism but such an approach denies the experiences of specific people as we deliberately refuse to see the things that define another person’s experience in this world.… (mehr)