I argue that these bodily intimacies recast opium's historical role from one of criminalized vice to one of emergent possibility because these intimacies enable the characters to access what Ghosh has termed the "improbable," or the possibilities beyond mere realism that the modern novel materializes.
Following material ecocriticism's assertion that the body functions as a porous intersection enmeshed in the material world, Ghosh's Ibis trilogy features a series of "bodily intimacies" in which certain characters' embodied experiences with opium directly affect their ontological, epistemological, and ethical orientations.
Allen [ 5] explored the notion of 'boundaries' in nursing as did Chiarella and Adrian [ 14]; this latter work explores the ethical issues related to bodily contact and the consequent possible intimacy and sexuality connotations.
Sex work does involve violating normal social boundaries regarding physical and emotional intimacy, but other types of work similarly involve lowering ordinary bodily and psychological barriers.
It's not just the poverty and hardship, not even the bodily erosion and stony sorrow, but the theatrical sense of intimacy that stings my eyes.
May these all be ways of freeing animals of our kind from bodily tension, stressful isolation, drive, or worry into potentially prolonged relaxation, security, intimacy, openness to experience, or release from cares?
The only concern would be that, mid-operation, he would stick his hand into the incision and start throwing bodily organs around the operating room to make a comment about technology and intimacy in the modern world.
"That's a step of intimacy in a relationship that I hadn't seen negotiating a very real bodily thing that we all have to do," said Gordon.
Vitkova renders the viscosities of bodily fluids — blood, milk, amniotic fluid — as powerful natural symbols, using meticulous observation of extreme daily intimacies as well as bold special effects.
