"A Private Plague" is one of my favorite sections. I think this is because it begins in a way that is more literary than scientific with its references to Sontag's essay (which I think we will read this year) and to the great Romantic disease of "Consumption". In Victorian and Romantic literature, tuberculosis is always referred to as "consumption". Probably because-I'm guessing here- that it consumes the individual.
I especially like the comparison and contrast between tuberculosis and cancer and the ways in which the author applies the lens of literary criticism.
Golden Line: "It lives desperately, inventively, fiercely, territorially, cannily and defensively--at times as if teaching us how to survive."
For me the most attractive part of all of this literary discussion is that it is written by a scientist, a doctor, which gives further credence to the value of the humanities in their ability to help us understand and think about the non-literary, such as disease.
"So to begin again..."(39). I think it is here that the structure of the text becomes more apparent.
Questions, questions everywhere.
And then every once in awhile, Mukherjee shows us that he is also a comedian of sorts, that he enjoys word play. For example, on p. 43. when he is discussing Arthur Aufderheide, a paleopathologist at the University of Minnesota, he quips, "There are nearly five thousand pieces of tissue, sores of biopsies, and hundreds of broken skeletons in his closet." BAHHAHahahahah!
I haven't left you! Sorry for no comments in the last few days, lots of time has been spent visiting family over the holiday. Time to catch up.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was very skeptical of Mukherjee's connection between Victorian romanticism and tuberculosis. How could a disease shape and define and connect to literature? However, as Mukherjee elaborated, I started (though I don't think I'm completely there yet) to see both diseases in a literary sense.
I liked that golden line. Another of my favorites from this section: "It was Atossa's tumor, then, that quietly launched a thousand ships" (42).
I enjoyed Mukherjee's explanation of why there is so little early history of cancer. I never put much thought into why cancer is so prevalent now, attributing it to something in our modern lives. Nope, wrong again- "civilization unveiled it" (44).
That line definitely made me laugh! There's at least a few humorous parts of this book...
I understand completely. I'm happy to hear from you again.
ReplyDeleteI have to appreciate an author who can sometimes lighten the tone with wordplay and who even dares to insert humor into a book about such a dark topic.....but, I mean, if you think about it, who'd want to read it if he hadn't?
one point: Anyone notice omnis cellula e cellua e clellua repeats again and again?
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