Michelangelo's Finger
An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In this startlingly original and persuasive book, Raymond Tallis shows that it is easy to underestimate the influence of small things in determining what manner of creatures humans are. He argues that the independent movement of the human index finger is one such easily overlooked factor. Indeed, not for nothing is the index finger called the ̶forefinger.” It is the finger we most naturally deploy when we want to pry objects out of small spaces, but it plays a far more significant role in an action unique to us among primates: pointing.
Tallis argues that it is through pointing that the index finger made a significant contribution to the development of humans and to the creation of a human world separate from the rest of the natural world. Observing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the hugely familiar and awkward encounter between Michelangelo’s God and Man through their index fingers, Tallis identifies the artist’s intuitive awareness of the central role of the index finger in making us unique. Just as the reaching index fingers of God and Man are here made central to the creation of our kind, so Tallis believes that the seemingly simple act of pointing, which is used in a wide variety of ways, is central to our extraordinary evolution.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Basing his study on a detail of what is perhaps one of the best-known Western artworks Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel British poet, novelist, and professor Tallis (The Kingdom of Infinite Space) explores the significance of the index finger in humanity's development as a species. While the impulse to parse a cultural and biological history out of such an unassuming thing is a noble and intriguing one, in this case it's a stretch, as if contrary to Tallis's suggestion that the fingers of Adam and God in Michelangelo's masterpiece may have just separated, they are actually reaching to connect; similarly, Tallis is desperately trying to make this work. Though "the unnatural nature of pointing and what it tells us about ourselves are the theme of this book," he never quite reaches his mark. Expounding on meaning-making, linguistics (Tallis argues that "Pointing is often seen as a bridge between the pre-linguistic and linguistic states of humanity"), and other philosophical concerns, large portions will prove difficult to the general reader. However, such opaque ruminations eventually give way, in the latter half of the book, to an admirably breezy prose style more befitting its pop philosophy subject matter. Though Tallis begins with a compelling premise, readers will likely be using their definitive digit to scratch their heads after this one.
