The Goodness of Show Business

The beginning of this section reminds me of the technique that directors use when creating a series, say House of Cards or Fargo or Breaking Bad. When one cues up a new episode on Netflix, one must first suffer an introduction that is a brief summary of the action thus far.  This is particularly helpful if a large span of time has occurred between viewings.  However, I tend to marathon my Netflix obsessively watching one episode after another, and so, while I appreciate the intention, it can be a little annoying when cramming in episodes back to back which is what I've been doing with the chapters of Emperor in the last two days in an attempt to catch up from my vacation.  So, as far as the first paragraph goes, I get it, Mr. Mukherjee. In the meantime, in Farber's laboratory.......Thank you.  Excuse my crankiness.   I put myself in this position.

Sweet rhetorical move:  "The suspension of patients inside these iron lungs symbolized the limbolike, paralytic state of polio research" (94).

Another sweet rhetorical move:  the title of this section.  When I first read it I thought it rather "clunky."  And then after reading the note left with the abandoned child, I recognized its double meaning.

Farber's "Go big or go home" attitude with Bill Koster and the Variety Club reminds me of a conversation that I had with Mr. Gregory this summer. I won't bore you with the details, but we were talking about implementing a new program at Northern for which I may or may not be the English teacher, and so I laid out a huge plan with lots of requests for time for research and design.  Let's just say, I did not experience the success that Farber had with Koster.  But,  like MJ said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." I'm glad it worked out better for Farber.  So much more at stake.

This section is particularly interesting in that it illustrates the idea that science and medicine doesn't exist in a vacuum.  Many disciplines are needed to achieve the goals of science and medicine..language related disciplines....business, marketing, communications.  Farber had to be savvy in these areas, first of all, to recognize that he needed something like the polio campaign to make any progress and then to team up with Koster to build his own campaign. This is especially relevant for those of you entering AP Lang who think of yourselves as "Math/Science" people.  The "Math/Science" people need to be able to write well, to speak effectively, to listen and think critically.  I am always dismayed when I hear that students don't take AP Lang because it "isn't their area."  They are the ones who need it most.  This whole Jimmy episode proves that.

Did anyone notice that Part One starts with Farber in his basement pathology lab and ends with "The emergence of cancer from its basement into the glaring light of publicity..?" (100).