The atmosphere was intimate – with the rain outside and jovial Alistair Moffat welcoming the audience to the festival of ‘books and boating’ – as Philip Ball took to the stage. Ball, looking every bit the university lecturer, but with the added bonus of the ability to work the projector, spent the hour talking the audience through cultural myths ranging from Prometheus to Brave New World (via Faust and Frankenstein) to show how, frankly, ridiculous it is that society’s arguments against IVF and human cloning come from them. At no point excessively technical, his lecture was fascinating. Bell artfully demonstrated that anthropoesis (the creation of artificial people) is not unnatural, as attested by the four million children born through IVF to date.
ScottishPower Studio Theatre, 16 Aug, 12.00pm (1.00pm), £8.00 – £10.00, eibfpp15
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Sections: by Camille Burns - ED2011 Book Reviews | Tags: Edinburgh International Book Festival
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