Left-handedness seems to be no big deal. Many of us
are left-handed and those of us who aren't don't tend to
give left-handedness much thought. Yet throughout
history left-handers have been associated with
clumsiness, untrustworthiness and insincerity. The Latin
word for left, sinister, is redolent of all kinds of
ominous connotations. Rik Smits uncovers why history has
been so unkind to our left-handed forebears. Through an
array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions and
old wives' tales, Smits explains why left-handedness
continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds,
including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay
fever, diabetes, insomnia, suicidal urges, criminality
and shorter life spans. But apart from folklore and
myth, the notions of left and right have a real and deep
influence on the way we experience the world. These
influences show up everywhere, from engineering and
architecture to music, painting, photography, film and
comics.This book shows how, contrary to what many might
think, left-handers can write just as well as the rest
of us, and explores how and why we came to prefer one
hand over the other and how left- and right-handedness
are represented in the brain. The greatest puzzle is why
in every country one in ten people favours the left
hand. It is a mystery as yet largely unsolved, whose
solution may very well lie in the secrets of twinning.
''The Puzzle of Left-handedness'' is an enlightening and
entertaining odyssey through the enigmas and paradoxes,
theories and experiments surrounding the left-handed
among us. |
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