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Susan Sontag has said, “Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.” Author Lina Meruane challenges the idea that people with illnesses are necessarily separated into a different kingdom than those who are not sick, asserting instead that illness can be part of anyone’s normality. She makes this case through her novel, Nervous System. The novel tells the stories of four family members and a boyfriend who, at one time or another, develop a serious illness or help take care of one of the others with a serious illness: it’s all illness, it’s all the time, it’s normal. We talk with Dr. Meruane about her idea of illness as normality as she presented it in the novel, and about how its atypical structure and its evocative and memorable prose contribute to the stories told and the ideas offered.

Source

Nervous System by Lina Meruane, translated by Meghan McDowell, Graywolf Press, 2021.

Links

• Lina Meruane’s bio
• Russell Teagarden’s blog piece about the novel, Nervous System, and his blog piece about the MRI scene in the novel.
• Russell Teagarden’s blog piece about Lina Meruane’s novel, Seeing Red.
• Video conversation between Lina Meruane and Meghan McDowell about Nervous System.
• Interview with Lina Meruane in LALT magazine about Nervous System.

A big thanks to Lina Meruane for sharing her thoughts on illness as normality and her writing processes.

Our next episode will draw from the journalist Michael Pollan’s books investigating the prospects for psychedelics in the management of various mental health problems, or even to make individuals and societies better than well.

Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: russell.teagarden@theclinicandtheperson.com.

Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.

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Four movies released between 1997 and 2002 picked up on the anger and resentment building among people encountering increasingly aggressive managed health care tactics aimed at reducing costs during that time. The four movies are: As Good As It Gets; The Rainmaker; Critical Care; and John Q. We talk about how they caught and depicted the rage as it was just reaching the surface of broad societal notice and concern. We note how the rage persists despite efforts on many levels to address it over the years, and wonder if it has reached its apogee with the gunning down of a health care insurance executive.

Links

Trailers for featured movies:

• As Good As It Gets
• The Rainmaker
• Critical Care
• John Q

Other movies mentioned:

• Damaged Care (no trailer available)
• Sicko

Russell Teagarden’s blog posting on the featured movies, with more about what is behind the managed care practices generating anger and frustration.

Russell Teagarden’s published article on proper uses and improper uses of prior authorization. If not available and of interest, contact him at russell.teagarden@gmail.com.

Previous podcast episodes mentioned:

• Consumptive Heroines: Opera and TB with Drs Linda and Michael Hutcheon (Episode 26)
• Life Imitates Art: Covid-19 Edition (Episode 16)

Additional Background

• Daniels N, Sabin JE. Setting Limits Fairly: Learning to Share Resources for Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Wynia MK, Schwab AP. Ensuring Fairness in Health Care Coverage: An Employer’s Guide to Making Good Decisions on Tough Issues. New York: AMACOM, 2007.
• Pearson SD, Sabin JE, Emanuel EJ. No Margin, No Mission. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Daniels N, Teagarden JR, Sabin JE. An ethical template for pharmacy benefits. Health Affairs 2003;22:125-137.

Our next episode will focus on illness as normality as we can grasp it from the inventive novel, Nervous System, and with the help of its author, Lina Meruane. Our discussion could lead to the question: Why can’t biomedical writing be more interesting?

Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: russell.teagarden@theclinicandtheperson.com.

Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.

Send us a text

The trajectories of tuberculosis (TB) and opera met in the mid-nineteenth century most notably with the production of La Traviata in 1853, and then La Bohème near the century’s end. With eminent scholars Linda and Michael Hutcheon, we talk about how these trajectories converged and how these resulting two operas then brought attention to the medical effects of the infection and the sociocultural influences on its spread. We also discuss how the discovery of germ therapy during the time between the staging of these operas affected the way social behaviors changed accordingly, that is, from understanding TB as hereditary to understanding it as infectious. We play audio clips from parts of the operas pertinent to perspectives provided.

Links

• The combined bio for Linda and Michael Hutcheon.
• The New York Metropolitan Opera on-demand video service where you can get access to high-quality video productions of La Traviata and La Bohème among many other operas and performances. (There could be a 7-day free trial available).
• Homer Simpson performing as Rudolpho in La Bohème singing Oh Dio! Mimi!
• We covered the effects of TB as an aesthetic ideal of beauty during the nineteenth century as represented in paintings earlier in episode 5.

Audio Credits

La Traviata

Preludio (National Philharmonic Orchestra; Richard Bonynge cond London Records 1979)

Prendi, Quest’È L’Immagine (Orchestra of the Opera House, Rome; Tullio Serafin cond; Victoria de los Angeles (Violetta); EMI Records Ltd 1960; digitally remastered 1992)

La Bohème

O Soave Fanciulla (Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan cond; Mirella Freni (Mimi); Luciano Pavarotti (Rudolfo); Rolando Panerai (Marcello); London Records 1972)

Si. Mi Chiamono Mimi (ibid)

Mimi È Una Civetta (ibid)

Mimi È Tanto Malata! (ibid)

A big thanks to Drs Linda and Michael Hutcheon who in addition to providing their expertise and perspectives during the podcast, also contributed ideas for the production.

Our next episode will feature four movies that picked up early—latter half of 1990s—on the building rage to managed care policies and practices in the US that recently took the form of deadly gun violence.

Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: russell.teagarden@theclinicandtheperson.com.

Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.