The flea's progress

Fantastic piece by Will Self at the Guardian about the trouble with his blood. Warning: don't click through if you have trouble reading about needles and blood-related grotesquerie!...

The plagues of Job

Just about survived my trip to Baltimore.

I was still really pretty sick the whole time, and the last straw - it was ill-timed to say the least - was that when I woke up on Saturday, my eyes were very gummy in a way that made me start worrying; and by late afternoon (the wedding was at five) it was horrifyingly evident that I had been struck down by one of those plagues that makes you feel a true pariah (I had it once before, which is how I knew what it was): bacterial conjunctivitis!

I was dabbing my left eye (only one eye was really bad) with a tissue during the service, and slapped the sunglasses back on afterward as the situation was wildly escalating with every passing minute. I had to explain to anyone who asked that it was not an affectation but that my eye was truly so disgusting to look upon (teaspoonsful of yellow-green pus streaming out of it, and so grotesquely swollen that I looked as though I had gone eight rounds with the heavyweight champion of Sao Paolo!) that I had to keep it covered; the glasses stop you from rubbing or touching your eyes, too.

(The reception and dinner were held here, in the remarkably beautiful library of the Peabody Institute. The rehearsal dinner the night before was at Da Mimmo's, famous for its veal chops!)

So during the first part of the wedding reception I stepped outside and put in a call to the practice where I see a doctor, and he called in a prescription to my local NY pharmacy (it did not seem to make sense to try and find a Baltimore pharmacy that would be open on a Saturday night, and my timing really was most unfortunate!).

I took an earlier train home than I had planned and made a beeline to the pharmacy; I know from past experience that the antibiotic eye-drops are basically a miracle cure. But when I got there around 1, they had no record of the prescription having been called in, and I proceeded to spend an extremely frustrating hour and a half calling the medical answering service again and again until I finally got an answer back. By this time I had given up and gone home; the doc said he'd tried many times to get through to the pharmacy, but not been able to until just then (3pm Sunday by this point, almost 24 hours after I had first talked to him). So I went back over there, but they only had one of the two kinds of eyedrops and I had to go to another Rite Aid pharmacy to get the more important of the two! By this time it was almost four o'clock...

It was a huge relief to put in the first set of drops, I must say...

In fact it is much better than it was last night and this morning already; I took some Benadryl before I got on the train, and it brought down some of the swelling. Not so leaky now either. But - talk about disgusting!

I have now been sick for a week, and with no exercise - I would guess it is at least a couple days more before I should even attempt an easy hour on the stationary bike...

Subdued to what it works in

Interesting CNN bit on Edmund White and HIV in the 1980s.

Something I found absolutely inspiring: Michael Wood's LRB review of the latest volume of my colleague Edward Mendelson's edition of Auden's prose. I have to reread The Dyer's Hand, a book that made a great impression on me when I was a teenager but that I don't think I've read again since; but also, hubristically on my part, Wood made me want to strive to be a critic more like Auden!

I have a full draft of my theater-and-the-novel essay, but it needs a lot of editing and considerable library work to replace piecemeal editions with proper ones. I had a very good workout (double spin class) yesterday evening, but it caused my lungs to fill up with more phlegm this morning, so I'm taking a recovery day. Raced through Jo Nesbo's The Devil's Star last night; strange to say, it manages to be at once rather preposterous and quite excellent! The writing is very high-caliber, that I suppose is what lets him pull it off.

Infectious

Human-armadillo contact continues to lead to leprosy cases!

Linkage

Laura Hillenbrand's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. (Her essay on the illness was extraordinary.)

Only the introductory blurb is given online, but check out the Believer interview in which Lawrence Wechsler talks with Christine and Margaret Wertheim about hyperbolic crochet.

Still pretty much flattened by the week's accumulated fatigue; I swore I would not get on such a boom-bust parabola this semester, but it is difficult not to...

Production of quota

c. 1,200 words, for a total of 33,327 words.

I have to reread Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -- and I also think I want to find some way of alluding to and integrating the thought expressed in the passage I blogged a couple of years ago from Sarah Manguso's lovely The Two Kinds of Decay:

A woman rides her motorized chair up a ramp and onto a stage. Ten feet away from the podium, she parks her chair, gets up, and walks a few steps, very slowly, to accept her award.

What a sickening prop.

But people forget a woman in a chair is strong enough to walk a few steps each day and has saved this day's steps for the acceptance of her award.

Chair or no chair: a binary relation. But the vicissitudes of moving the body around are infinite. You never know what a person in a chair can do.

I saw two young women at a lecture once, one of them in a wheelchair that looked like a piece of expensive Italian furniture. Her girlfriend sat down and said You want to do a transfer? and the girl in the chair said Yeah and maneuvered her chair next to the bank of auditorium seats, placed her hands on the arms of the first seat, and swung herself into it with her ropy upper body. Then she reached over and folded up her hot little wheelchair.

"The final thing"

A fascinating and moving piece by Tom Lubbock on losing language to a brain tumor.

"If I had a hammer" redux

Aida Edemariam interviews Terry Pratchett for the Guardian. Here, on the encroachments of Alzheimer's:

He doesn't say it in so many words, but that must also be combined with grief for the loss of his ability to write longhand, or type with anything other than one finger at a time (although, weirdly, he is still perfectly able to sign his name — "the bit that knows how to sign my name is an entirely different bit of the brain"); the grief of knowing that while he may have years yet, most of his other mental faculties will go the same way. But probably not suddenly.

"Every day must be a tiny, incrementally . . . incremental . . . incremental . . . – he stumbled over a word; you must write that one down," Pratchett says with a dark, almost-laugh. (Having been a journalist himself, before becoming a PR in the nuclear industry and thence a novelist, he rarely passes up a chance to remind you that he knows how journalists work) ". . . incremental . . . change on the day before. So what is normal? Normal was yesterday. If you lose a leg, one day you're hopping around on one leg, so you know the difference.

"The last test I did was the first where I wasn't as good as the previous time. I actually forgot David Cameron. I just blanked on him" – this time the laugh contains, what – a kind of ironic approval? "What happens is, I call it the ball bearing. It's there, it just hasn't gone into the slot." He cannot begin to do tests that require him to scribble shapes, but asked to list names of animals, "I industriously say more than you can possibly imagine" – you can just see the pleasure of the earnest nerd in school – "and we go on for a little while until she smiles and says, 'Yes, we know, we know.'

"And then there was the time with dear Claudia with the Germanic accent – which is always good if someone's interrogating you – and she said, 'What would you do with a hammer? And I said, 'If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning. I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land.' And by the end I was dancing around the room, with her laughing. The laugh will be on the other foot, eventually, and I'm aware of that. But it shows how different things can be: I can still handle the language well, I can play tricks with it and all the other stuff – but I have to think twice when I put my pants on in the morning."

Darkness falls

Tony Judt has died; here is a link to his stunning piece "Night".

Making sense

At New York Magazine, Wesley Yang on Tony Judt.

The mirror and the light

Anna Murphy interviews Hilary Mantel at the Telegraph (I am hoping, of course, that she will 'fall into the pit' of a 10-year Civil War novel - that is exactly what I would love to read!):

A self-proclaimed slip of a thing when she was young, her struggles with severe endometriosis – the pain of which has often debilitated her – followed by a thyroid problem, led to her body 'rising like a loaf left in a warm place’. In the past she has written of how 'ignorable you become when you are fat – like a piece of furniture. I’m like a comic-book version of myself. My body is intent on telling the story, so my mind had better go along with it and write the memoir.’ And yet, as these words suggest, this body that has again and again betrayed her has also empowered her as a writer.

Indeed, she credits her ill health with getting her to write in the first place. She studied law at university but by her early twenties, 'My options were closing off, because the things I felt I might do, I clearly wasn’t going to be able to do. I was still without diagnosis, but I knew something was wrong with me. I felt really marginalised, and that what I needed was a project under my control.’ As she once wrote, 'Illness forces you to the wall, so the stance of the writer is forced on you.’

And so, while Mantel still struggles through days and weeks when she feels too ill to work, paradoxically her illness also seems to be her hardest and therefore her most loyal task master. As she puts it now, 'You can’t get away from dire health, but you may as well get some use out of it. It is not a question of making sense of suffering, because nothing does make sense of it. It is a question of not… sinking into it. It is talking back to whatever hurts, whether that is physical or psychological, so that it doesn’t submerge you.’

Amazon wars

Amazon gives in to Macmillan (not before dismaying many authors and readers by its choice to stop selling all Macmillan books on its site on Friday); worthwhile earlier analysis by Caleb Crain and Charlie Stross.

On a sadder note: more on Tony Judt and ALS in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Guardian.

Sweat, n.

I have a minor sinus infection and (it is not really causal) have been lounging around in sweatpants, giving rise to etymological curiosity...

The OED:

IV. 11. attrib. and Comb., as sweat-drop, labour, -scraper, -secretion, -stain; spec. = ‘exciting or relating to the secretion of sweat’, as sweat-absorber, apparatus, canal, centre, coil, fibre, nerve; sweat-dried, -marked, -shining, -soaked, -stained, -wet adjs.; also sweat-band, (a) a band of leather or other substance forming a lining of a hat or cap for protection against the sweat of the head; (b) in Sport, a strip of material worn around the (fore)head or wrist to absorb perspiration; sweat-bath, a steam-bath or hot-air bath, esp. among N. American Indians; cf. SWEAT-HOUSE 1; sweat-bee, a name for the small bees of the family Andrenidæ; sweat-box, (a) a narrow cell in which a prisoner is confined (slang); also U.S., a room in which a prisoner undergoes intensive questioning (see quot. 1931); (b) a box in which hides are sweated; (c) a large box in which figs are placed to undergo a ‘sweat’; (d) transf. and fig., spec. a heated compartment in which perspiration is induced, to encourage weight loss, etc.; sweat-cloth, a cloth or handkerchief used for wiping off sweat; a sudary; see also quot. 1872; sweat cooling Engin., a form of cooling in which the coolant is passed through a porous wall and evenly distributed over the surface, which is cooled by its evaporation; hence sweat-cooled ppl. a.; sweat-cyst Path., a cyst resulting from some disorder of the sweat-glands; sweat-duct Anat., the duct of a sweat-gland, by which the sweat is conveyed to the surface of the skin; sweat equity U.S., an interest in a property earned by a tenant who contributes his labour to its upkeep or renovation; sweat flap, a leather flap in harness, for protecting the rider's leg from the sweat of the horse; sweat-gland Anat., each of the numerous minute coiled tubular glands just beneath the skin which secrete sweat; sweat heat Gardening, the heat at which fermentation takes place; sweat-hog U.S. slang, a difficult student singled out in school or college for special instruction; {dag}sweat-hole, = sweat-pore; sweat-leather, (a) a leather sweat-band in a hat or cap; also sweat lining; (b) = sweat-flap; sweat-lodge, = SWEAT-HOUSE 1; sweat-orifice = sweat-pore; sweat pants chiefly U.S., trousers of thick cotton cloth worn by athletes, esp. before or after strenuous exercise; tracksuit trousers; sweat-pit, {dag}(a) the arm-pit exuding sweat (obs. nonce-use); (b) in Tanning, a pit in which hides are sweated, a sweating-pit; sweat-pore Anat., each of the pores of the skin formed by the openings of the sweat-ducts; sweat-rag (slang), any cloth used for wiping off sweat, or worn round the head to keep sweat out of the eyes; sweat-rash Path., an eruption caused by obstruction of the sweat-pores; sweat-room, a room in which tobacco is sweated; sweat root, Polemonium reptans (Dunglison Med. Lex. 1857); sweat rug a rug put on a horse after exercise; sweat-shirt orig. U.S., a loose shirt; spec. a long-sleeved, high-necked pullover shirt of thick cotton cloth (usu. with a fleecy lining), worn by athletes to avoid taking cold before or after exercise (cf. SWEATER 7b); hence sweat-shirted a.; sweat-shop orig. U.S., a workshop in a dwelling-house, in which work is done under the sweating system (or, by extension, under any system of sub-contract); also fig. and attrib.; sweat-stock Tanning, a collective term for hides which are being or have been sweated (see SWEAT v. 13); sweat-suit orig. U.S., an athlete's suit consisting of a sweat-shirt and sweat-pants; {dag}sweat-sweet a. nonce-wd., having a sweet exudation; sweat vesicle Path., = sweat-cyst; sweat-vessel Anat., = sweat-duct; sweat-weed, marsh mallow, Althæa officinalis (Billings Med. Dict. 1890). See also SWEAT-HOUSE.
1956 S. BECKETT Malone Dies 93 A *sweat-absorber for the armpit. 1883 F. T. ROBERTS Handbk. Med. (ed. 5) 960 Affections of the *sweat-apparatus. 1891 Pall Mall G. 28 Sept. 2/3 An American chemist..threatens us with lead-poisoning from the ‘*sweat-band’. 1956 R. H. APPLEWHAITE Lawn Tennis i. 12 Sweatbands..are worn round the wrist to prevent perspiration running down the arms into the hands. 1977 J. F. FIXX Compl. Bk. Running xii. 134 When I started running, I saw a lot of runners wearing sweatbands, so after sweat had dripped into my eyes a few times I went out and bought one. 1877 S. POWERS Tribes of California xxvi. 244 [The Shasta Indians] have no assembly chamber..; nothing but a kind of oven large enough that one person may stretch himself therein and enjoy a *sweat-bath. 1921 J. HASTINGS Encycl. Relig. & Ethics XII. 128/2 When we turn to the Old World, we find a striking resemblance to the American customs in Herodotus's description of the use of the sweat-bath among the Scythians as a means of purification, after mourning. 1963 E. WAUGH Let. Sept. in C. Sykes Evelyn Waugh (1975) xxvi. 439, I have sat in a ‘sweat-bath’ and been severely massaged. 1965 S. G. LAWRENCE 40 Yrs. on Yukon Telegraph xiv. 75 They [sc. some Indians] stayed over a day and all the old men took sweat baths. 1894 U.S. Dept. Agric., Div. Veg. Physiol. & Path. Bulletin v. 79 (Cent. Dict., Suppl.) The *sweat bees of the genus Halictus and Andrena. 1870 U.S. Navy Gen. Orders & Circulars (1887) 97 He was..gagged and confined in a *sweat-box of such dimensions that it was impossible to sit down. 1888 W. B. CHURCHWARD Blackbirding in S. Pacific 28 This sweat-box is a sort of cell in the lowest part of the ship, pitch dark, and hot as hell. 1890 BARRÈRE & LELAND Slang Dict., Sweat-box, the cell where prisoners are confined on arrest previous to being brought up for examination before the magistrate. 1895 Pop. Sci. Monthly XLVI. 345 When sympathetic visitors crowded around his sweatbox. 1897 Chicago Tribune 10 July 1/4 The upper gallery commonly known as the ‘sweat box’ in regular theaters. 1900 Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 94 After the figs were dried they were placed in sweat boxes holding about 200 pounds each, where they were allowed to remain for two weeks, to pass through a sweat. 1901 ‘J. FLYNT’ World of Graft 102 He was copped out on suspicion. They put him in the sweat-box, made him cough, an' you know the rest. 1931 Z. CHAFEE et al. in Rep. Nat. Comm. Law Observance & Enforcement (U.S.) ii. 38 The original ‘sweat box’ used during the period following the Civil War..was a cell in close proximity to a stove, in which a scorching fire was built and fed with old bones, pieces of rubber shoes, etc., all to make great heat and offensive smells, until the sickened and perspiring inmate of the cell confessed in order to get released. 1973 ‘H. HOWARD’ Highway to Murder ii. 28, I ought to stick you in the sweat box until you told me the name of your client. 1974 J. ENGELHARD Horsemen vi. 38, I never go in a sweatbox... I lose all the weight I want playing tennis. 1890 BILLINGS Med. Dict., *Sweat canal, excretory duct of a sweat-gland. Ibid., *Sweat centre. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 200 The effect of this [accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood] being to stimulate the sweat centres. 1872 SCHELE DE VERE Americanisms 329 The *sweat-cloth, a cloth marked with figures, and used by gamblers with dice. 1894 Athenæum 24 Feb. 239/3 The appearance of the sweat-cloth is a very characteristic mark. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 741 An uninterrupted series of changes in the *sweat-coils was observed from the beginning up to the end of the disease. 1948 Technical Publ. Amer. Inst. Mining & Metall. Engineers No. 2343. Class E. 1 In designing a *sweat cooled part it is imperative to assure a given rate of flow of coolant. Ibid., A less orthodox method consists of making the part to be cooled of a porous material, so that the cooling fluid can be forced through the pores... This method, referred to as ‘*sweat cooling’, was proposed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in September 1944. 1969 E. C. ROBERTSON Now Bks. Rocket Motors iv. 29 Many devices have been tried to keep the walls of the chamber cool and techniques have ranged from sweat cooling..to the one that is most common today. 1898 HUTCHINSON Archives Surgery IX. 160 My patient had been liable to unilateral sweating of the face... The vesicles or little cysts..varied in size from pins' heads to peas... There could be little doubt that these were *sweat-cysts. 1885 B. HARTE Maruja iii, As he groomed the *sweat-dried skin of the mustang. 1776 MICKLE tr. Camoens' Lusiad 304 Fell the hot *sweat-drops as he champt the rein. 1817 BYRON Mazeppa xi, And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain Upon the courser's bristling mane. 1881 HUXLEY Elem. Physiol. v. (new ed.) 114 Cells lining the *sweat duct. 1973 Time 16 July 43 A group of poor, racially mixed tenants took over a nearby city-owned tenement, stripped the shabby interiors and are building modern apartments to replace the narrow, cold-water flats... In return for their ‘*sweat equity’, the builder-residents will make payments as low as $80 per month and ultimately own the building as a cooperative. 1980 B. VILA This Old House v. 83/1 The calculations you make in a sweat equity job are different from those in a project in which you are employing professionals. 1908 Animal Managem. 182 The *sweat flap of the girth. 1845 TODD & BOWMAN Phys. Anat. I. 423 The *sweat-glands exist under almost every part of the cutaneous surface. 1843 Florist's Jrnl. (1846) IV. 225 A ‘*sweat heat’ of from 85° to 95° temperature. 1976 Senior Scholastic 4 May 41 John Travolta..[is] back in the classroom..as the leader of the *sweathogs in ABC's Welcome Back, Kotter. 1979 BROOKS & MARSH Compl. Directory Prime Time Network TV Shows, 1946-Present 673/1 Gabe's ‘sweathogs’ were the outcasts of the academic system, streetwise but unable or unwilling to make it in normal classes.

Great geniuses of literature

I have just had a great treat, namely rereading the first two volumes of Jo Walton's Farthing trilogy in preparation for a delightful light-readingish wallow in the third. The books are Farthing, Ha'penny and Half a Crown. (Previous Light Reading discussions here.)

These really are the perfect books - the obvious comparisons are to recent literary WWII-related alternate histories by Philip Roth and Michael Chabon, but they are so beautifully inflected with the whys and wherefores of some of my utter longtime favorites that reading them is like being magically given fresh new books by writers I have reread almost to death (Josephine Tey, Dorothy L. Sayers, Peter Dickinson). I think the first book in the trilogy is still my favorite, but these books are just delightful...

(Attentive readers will note that Walton includes, in this final volume, the gym shoes with rosettes from Miss Pym Disposes! And a number of other nods to other fictions of the time - I was thinking in particular, at the end, of Scott's Heart of Midlothian...)