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Survival of the Adapted

The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory takes the theory of evolution—”survival of the fittest,” a phrase that appeared only in a later printing of Charles Darwin’s classic text—and, in alternating chapters, juxtaposes the relationship between Darwin and fellow biologist Alfred Russel Wallace with Fries’ curiosity about his own adaptations to a world unprepared for his body and his means of motion

By Achy Obejas

Kenny Fries’ The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Carroll & Graf) is not so much about disability, as it is about adaptation—but adaptation in the same way that the X-Men’s mutations are adaptations. Fries—a well-known poet and essayist who edited Staring Back, which many consider the foundational anthology on disability—was born without fibulae, with sharp… return to article

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