‘It depends on the liver’: Alcoholism, Detoxification, Regeneration and Wound-healing in A Fairly Honourable Defeat

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘It depends on the liver’: Alcoholism, Detoxification, Regeneration and Wound-healing in A Fairly Honourable Defeat

AU - Isaacson, Rivka

PY - 2024/9/1

Y1 - 2024/9/1

N2 - ‘Is life worth living? It depends on the liver. Freud’s favourite joke.’ Thus quipped Julius King, quoting William James, via the pen of Iris Murdoch in A Fairly Honourable Defeat (AFHD). Alcohol in all its forms features heavily in Iris Murdoch novels and, in particular, four of the main characters in AFHD, Hilda, Morgan, Rupert and Simon, display serious alcohol dependency. Whisky alone is mentioned fifty two times in the novel. In AFHD every character undergoes at least one significantly life-changing event, most of which can either be blamed on, or led to, excessive alcohol-consumption.In our bodies, the liver is the major site for alcohol metabolism and the acute phase of wound-healing after trauma. The liver has such reliable back-up mechanisms, spare reserves and capacity for regeneration that noticeable symptoms only manifest themselves when it is often too late to prevent complete liver failure. Similarly, while cracks steadily seep into the middle-class stability of the scene in AFHD, the true extent of the damage takes a long time to make itself known.In this paper I will consider the cascade of drink-fuelled decision making that drives the plot of AFHD in the context of the molecular pathways for detoxification and wound-healing implemented by the human liver.

AB - ‘Is life worth living? It depends on the liver. Freud’s favourite joke.’ Thus quipped Julius King, quoting William James, via the pen of Iris Murdoch in A Fairly Honourable Defeat (AFHD). Alcohol in all its forms features heavily in Iris Murdoch novels and, in particular, four of the main characters in AFHD, Hilda, Morgan, Rupert and Simon, display serious alcohol dependency. Whisky alone is mentioned fifty two times in the novel. In AFHD every character undergoes at least one significantly life-changing event, most of which can either be blamed on, or led to, excessive alcohol-consumption.In our bodies, the liver is the major site for alcohol metabolism and the acute phase of wound-healing after trauma. The liver has such reliable back-up mechanisms, spare reserves and capacity for regeneration that noticeable symptoms only manifest themselves when it is often too late to prevent complete liver failure. Similarly, while cracks steadily seep into the middle-class stability of the scene in AFHD, the true extent of the damage takes a long time to make itself known.In this paper I will consider the cascade of drink-fuelled decision making that drives the plot of AFHD in the context of the molecular pathways for detoxification and wound-healing implemented by the human liver.

KW - alcohol; liver; sciart; literature; Iris Murdoch

M3 - Article

VL - 15

SP - 61

EP - 70

JO - The Iris Murdoch Review

JF - The Iris Murdoch Review

ER -