Alan Blum's concerns are dramatized in the surreal narrative ofhis novel Somebody Nobody Anybody: When the Cows ComeHome. He inverts the genre of magical realism that injects fictionand fantasy into a realistic tale as a way of showing how life needsmagic, by showing alternatively that magic needs a dose of the Realto deal with life. A beleaguered professor decides to study hatred bydoing research on the Anti-Hate unit of the Toronto Police Force.After becoming entangled in the clichés governing public opinionabout what is inoffensive rather than meaningful the professor ishimself accused and tried for a hate crime.

Noted sociologist Alan Blum's studies are sensitive to the interplay of words, meanings, and thought, and all their dimensions in human inquiry. Through events and workshops in London, New York, Montreal, Italy, and Greece, Blum has sought to create communities of interest oriented to collaborative research focusing on this question. He lives in Toronto.

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