THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN (SIRI HUSTVEDT) AND THE FUNCTION OF CORPUS CALLOSUM

In 1906, the anatomist Robert Bennett Bean claimed that the corpus callosum—the neural fibers that bind the two halves of the brain together—were bigger in men than in women and hypothesized that the “exceptional size of the corpus callosum may mean exceptional intellectual activity.” Big thoughts = Big CC.

The corpus callosum is a controversial topic, not only from a feminist point of view. Back in those days, some scientists also tried to find differences between the corpus callosum of several races. Nowadays nobody thinks this is true. For me, it is not only diffcult to believe those differences exist, but also that this disgusting cauliflower is, as some claim, able to do anything except getting to know itself. This last thing would be, according to David Hubel, “like getting up from the floor by pulling up your own shoelaces”