This is a collection of essays, apercus and anecdotes which capture the centrality of the human and humane in modern literature and life. Begun as reports from conferences and seminars around the world, John Needham has produced an accessible, entertaining and amusing collection of articles which reports on the front line battles between literature (as well as film, architecture and art) and theory. From John Portman's Westin Bonaventure hotel in LA, on which Frederic Jameson wrote, to the problems summoned by a conjunction of D.H. Lawrence and Derrida in Texas: these essays explore the links between geography, culture, travel and learning.