Here’s an interesting bit from The Affair of the Poisons, pgs. 407-8: “A recent authority has suggested that under relentless interrogation witches ‘engaged in a peculiar kind of dialogue with their interlocutors, adapting their responses to meet expectations’ and it is now recognised that under extreme stress individuals will ‘mingle themes from their cultural milieu with elements derived from dream and fantasy to generate self-incriminating narratives which have their own psychological significance’.

And this, on the ability for influencing human behavior displayed by the brain-infecting Toxoplasma: ” Psychologists have found that Toxoplasma changes the personality of its human hosts, bringing different shifts to men and women. Men become less willing to submit to the moral standards of a community, less worried about being punished for breaking society’s rules, more distrustful of other people. Women become more outgoing and warmhearted. Both changes seem to break down the fear that might keep a host out of danger. They’re hardly enough to make a person throw themselves at lions, but they’re a very personal reminder of the ways in which parasites try to take control of their destiny.” Parasite Rex, pgs. 93-94. Toxoplasma is easily picked up from pets and is a common parasite in humans. Zimmer’s point is that all hosts infected by this parasite seem to show a disregard for their own lives: infected rats, for instance will be attracted by the scent of cat urine, instead of repelled and of course this helps the parasite proliferate. Apparently human hosts are not immune. I know many men and women who would fall under Zimmer’s above mentioned categories. Makes one wonder how much human personality–esp. among those who work around animals, or who have pets–owes to the parasites swimming in and around their neurons.

For English language haiku buffs: Jean Toomer, author of Cane, one of my all-time favorites, also wrote haiku in the 1920s. A good example can be found in Jones’ and Latimer’s The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer. (U. of N. Carolina Press). This fact should be added to the “official” histories of English language haiku as presented in Wm. Higginson’s books and the Haiku Anthology. Interesting that both Toomer and Richard Wright, both contemporary African-American writers should be attracted to haiku at about the same time. What about Langston Hughes?

It’s a glorious morning here in Shin-Urayasu, Japan. CNN’s droning on in the background while we await the election results.