What does it take to live without the ability to smile or move half of one’s face? For that matter, what does it take to live at all?

Sharrona Pearl
Sharrona Pearl is associate professor of medical ethics at Drexel University and a historian and theorist of the face. Her most recent book is Face/On: Face Transplants and the Ethics of the Other (Chicago University Press, 2017). She is currently writing a book on the face-recognition spectrum for Johns Hopkins University Press. You can find her freelance writing in the Washington Post, Real Life, Lilith, Tablet, Aeon, and a variety of other places.
The Book of Faces
I’m not actually sure if I should call Jessica Helfand’s Face: A Visual Odyssey a book. I mean, it looks like a book. It has text, divided into sentences, paragraphs, and sections. It’s on pages ...
What’s in a Face?
According to Jewish tradition, before each of us was born, we were visited by an angel who taught us all that is known and all that will be known. We were wise, in utero. And then, in the very last ...