At this point we should pause in our consideration of Sacks’ article in order to note that he is working with two concepts that we need to notice, because they are essential for understanding our contemporary world and also will be important for this book. They will be especially important when, in the last chapter, we return to the issues raised by Sacks, but they are also concepts it will be helpful to have in mind throughout. One of these is the notion of a metanarrative or grand narrative. Sacks’