The human body reflects the divine model . . . when, for an instant, the brilliance of divinity hap- pens to fall upon a mortal creature, illuminating him, as in a fleeting reflection, with a little of that splendor that always clothes the body of a god.
—Jean-Pierre Vernant, “Dim Body, Dazzling Body”

The body is precisely the locus for the commerce of desire, the passage of time, the exchange between Eros and Thanatos.
—Achille Bonito Oliva, “The Theater of Mortal Remains”

THE NEWS THESE DAYS is rarely good, but two stories in recent editions of the newspaper were truly shocking: a posse of 15