The odd couples

This is the first post in an occasional series about rediscovering old science books.

Twins, Lawrence Wright posits, pose a threat to the established order. People have long been scared of, and intrigued by, them. The doppelganger holds a special place in the gothic canon, whilst some cultures have even seen men cutting off a testicle in the hope it would eliminate the possibility of twin-bearing. Conversely, twins have been held up in voodoo ceremonies as objects of worship or been the subject of televised wonder and investigation. Whether the sentiment is positive or negative, we see them as an aberration and have tended to hold such specimens at arm’s length. More than anything else, Wright says, this is because we are scared of what they can tell us about ourselves.

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With an identical twin for a father, I expected the tales of synchronised thought processes or uncannily similar life-choices to be the most enthralling sections of the analysis.