Professor Honeycutt and Chaplain White Lecture Response

                              The Lord Shall Smite Thee with a Consumption

    “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones.” (Proverbs 3:6-7) The belief that health is maintained through doing right and following the Lord is pervasive throughout the Christian community. An equally common belief is, through transgression comes illness and misfortune. These create a strong “moralized notion of disease.” (Sontag, 43) As medical research suggests, disease is caused by an array of variables; these could range from genetics to a communal outbreak.  Contrary to vast amounts of medical studies and theories, many believe in the idea that disease is a form of punishment.
    In chapter 6 of Susan Sontag’s Illness as  Metaphor she discusses both the philosophical and religious views on disease, and the metaphors they share. “Many people believed that the disease was a form of punishment and this can be found in a number of ancient literatures, including the Bible” (Croft, 2005). By associating disease with punishment, suggests that there is a higher power in control. For many, this higher power is God. During Chaplin White’s portion of the lecture, he stated that “…we feel that someone always needs to be in control”. It is a comfort to know that a higher power is guiding our disease, and not leaving our lives to chance. It is a much scarier though to be left in the hands of fate, without any idea of what may happen. For disease to be a punishment, one knows that it can only end unpleasantly. It is a comfort to the soul to know the outcome of an event, rather than to experience the fear of the unknown. “Ceasing to consider disease as a punishment which fits the objective moral character, making it an expression of the inner self might seem less moralistic.” (Sontag, 46)
     One of the multiple Deuteronomistic themes in the bible pertains to disease. “Disobedience led to tangible punishment in this world, and obedience was rewarded with material goods and divine blessings.” (Weinfeld) Chaplin White posed a question, “Does God reward the good?”  The answer to this, from a religious perspective, is yes. The Deuteronomistic themes associated with disease focus more on how God reprimands rather than rewards. One of the two main diseases that Sontag discusses in her book is tuberculosis. This disease dates back to biblical times and is described in Deuteronomy – the key book from which the Deuteronomistic themes arise. "The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish" (Deuteronomy 28:22). The evolution of this disease throughout history – transitioning from the unknown and ungodly to the beautiful and romantic – suggests that our ideas of disease change as time, and political views change. One notion that will remain in many religious communities is that disease, no matter how it has changed, is a divine punishment.

Annotations: Part I - Chapter II

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P. 9 “John of Trevisa: “When the blode is made thynne, soo folowyth consumpcyon and wastying.” ”
John of Trevisa (or John Trevisa) according to Wikipedia, was born at Trevessa in the parish of St Enoder in mid-Cornwall. He translated for his patron the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, adding remarks of his own, and prefacing it with a Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk. He likewise made various other translations, including Bartholomaeus AnglicusOn the Properties of Things (De Proprietatibus Rerum), a medieval forerunner of the encyclopedia.



P. 10 “(Thomas Paynell in 1528: “A canker is a melancole impostume, eatynge  parets  of the bodye”)” 
Thomas Paynell (1528- 1567), according to the Online Library of Liberty, was an English Renaissance author who translated a number of Latin works into English.


P. 10 “Rudolph Virchow, who founded the science of cellular pathology in the 1850’s, thought of the tubercle as a tumor.”
Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (1821 –1902), according to Wikipedia, was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorianbiologist and politician. He was known for his advancement of public health. Referred to as "the father of modern pathology," he is considered one of the founders of social medicine
For more information visit:www.eghitequalsd.com 


P. 12 “the patients at the sanatorium in The Magic Mountain carry theirs around in their breast pockets”
The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg), according to Wikipedia, is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.
 Mann started writing what was to become The Magic Mountain in 1912. It began as a much shorter narrative. The newer work reflected his experiences and impressions during a period when his wife, who was suffering from a lung complaint, was confined to Dr Friedrich Jessen's Waldsanatorium in Davos,Switzerland for several months. 


P. 13 “…recall the Old West legend of Doc Holliday, the tubercular gunfighter released from moral restraints by the ravages of his disease.”
John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851 –1887) according to Wikipedia was a gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Shortly after beginning his dental practice, Holliday was diagnosed with tuberculosis (generally called "consumption" in that era). It is possible he contracted the disease from his mother, although the clear possibility must remain that he caught the disease from a coughing or sneezing patient. Little or no precaution would have been taken against this during dental procedures, as tuberculosis was not known to be contagious until 1882. He was given only a few months to live, but he considered that moving to the drier and warmer southwestern United States might slow the deterioration of his health.
 

P. 13 “Alice James, writing in her hournal a year before she died fromcancer in 1892, speaks of “this unholy granite substance in my breast.” But this limp is alive a fetus with its own will.
Alice James (1848 –1892), according to Wikipedia, was a U.S. diarist. The only daughter of Henry James, Sr. and sister of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James, she is known mainly for the published diary that she had kept in her final years.
James began to keep a diary in 1889.  It is full of witty, bitter, insightful comments on English life and manners. It included excerpts from various publications to support her opinions. The diary was not published for many years after her death due to sharp comments on various persons whom she had mentioned by name.
 

P.13 “ Novalis, in an entry written around 1798…defines cancer, along with gangrene, as “full-fledged paracites”…”
 Novalis, according to Wikipedia, was a German poet who influenced later Romantic thought, sometimes called "the prophet of Romanticism". Novalis took his pen name from "de Novali", a name his family had formerly used. The central image of Novalis' visions -- a blue flower -- later became a symbol of longing among Romantics. According to Wikipedia Novalis, who had great knowledge in science, law, philosophy, politics and political economy, started writing quite early. He left an astonishing abundance of notes on these fields of knowledge and his early work, shows that he was very educated and well read. His later works are closely connected to his studies and his profession.

 
P. 14 “St. Jerome must have been thinking of a cancer when he wrote: “The one there with his swollen belly is pregnant with his own death.””
According to Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Jerome is best known for his new translation of the Bible into Latin. He is recognized by the Catholic Church as a saint and Doctor of the Church. His version of the Bible is still an important text in Catholicism. He is also recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is known as St. Jerome of Stridonium or Blessed Jerome.

 
P. 14 “The cancer patient… “shrinks” (Wilhelm Reich’s word)”
 Wilhelm Reich (1897 –1957), according to Wikipedia, was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry. He was the author of several notable textbooks, including The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis, both published in 1933. Reich worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1920s and was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. Later in life, he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their "orgastic potency." He said he had discovered a primitive cosmic energy, which he said others called God, and that he called "orgone". He built "orgone energy accumulators" that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about "sex boxes" that cured cancer.
For more information visit http://www.orgonelab.org/wrhistory.htm


P. 14 ““The word of hem crepith as a kankir,” Wyclif wrote in 1382 (translating a phrase in II Timothy 2:17);”
 John Wyclif, according to Wikipedia, was an English theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformist and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. Wycliffe was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common tongue. He completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into vernacular English in the year 1382, now known as Wyclif's Bible. It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while his associates translated the Old Testament.  
 For more information visit http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15722a.htm

 
P. 15 “The poverty may not be as literal as Mimi’s garret in La Boheme…”
According to The France of Victor Hugo, La Boheme is considered one of the "three or four most popular operas in the repertory".  Its plot centers on a community of artists in Paris, particularly between the romantic relationship of poet Rodolfo and grisette Mimi.  Mimi and Rodolfo's love is not without conflict. At the end of the opera, however, they are united tragically as Mimi returns to the garret and dies there, surrounded by her friends. Musical devices emphasize the lines, which consists of common language turned poetic.
For more information visit http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?id=7 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_boh%C3%A8me


P. 15 “…the tubercular Marguerite Gautier in La Dame aux camelias lives in luxury, but inside she is a waif.”
 According to Wikipedia, The Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux camélias) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, that was later adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. An instant success, Giuseppe Verdi immediately set about to put the story to music. His work became the 1853 opera La Traviata with the female protagonist "Marguerite Gautier" renamed "Violetta Valéry". In the English-speaking world, The Lady of the Camellias became known as Camille. The supposed lady is Marguerite Gautier, who is based on Rose Marie Duplessis, the real-life lover of author Dumas, fils. 
  For more information visit http://operachic.typepad.com/opera_chic/la_dame_aux_camlias/

 
P. 16 “… particularly of young people, such as Little Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin…” 
  Uncle Tom’s Cabin, according to Wikipedia, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel, "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. Eva, whose real name is Evangeline St. Clare, is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare. Eva enters the narrative when Uncle Tom is traveling via steamship to New Orleans to be sold, and he rescues the 5 or 6 year-old girl from drowning. Eva begs her father to buy Tom, and he becomes the head coachman at the St. Clare plantation. However, he spends most of his time with Eva. Eventually Eva fallsill. Before dying, she gives a lock of her hair to each of the slaves, telling them that they must become Christians so that they may see each other in Heaven. On her deathbed, she convinces her father to free Tom, but because of circumstances the promise never materializes.
For more Information visit http://www.uncletomscabin.org/ and http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/stowe/stowe.html

 
P. 16 “…Dombey’s son Paul in Dombey and Son…”
Dombey and Son, according to Wikipedia, is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in monthly parts between October 1846 and April 1848 with the full title Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The child, also named Paul, is weak and often ill, and does not socialize normally with others; adults call him "old fashioned". Paul's health declines even further in this 'great hothouse' and he finally dies, still only six years old.


P. 16 “…Smike in Nicholas Nickleby, where Dickens described TB as the “dread disease” which “refines” death”
Published between 1838 and 1839, Nicholas Nickleby, according to Daily Lit, is the tale of a young man forced to grow up and face the world in all of its wild and raucous variety. Nicholas loses his father and becomes the man of his family. As such, he must help provide for his mother and sister. He takes a job as an assistant at what appears to be a respectable boys' school, not realizing that the "school" is a miserable institution where children are ill-treated and receive no education. Fed up with the horrors of the school, Nicholas seizes a moment's opportunity and escapes. He happens upon a traveling showman, who hires him to assist with his troupe's performances. Nicholas believes his troubles are over. And according to Wikipedia, Smilke is a poor drudge living in Squeers’s "care". Smike is a pathetic figure, perpetually ill and somewhat dim-witted, who has been in Squeers’s care since he was very young. After Smike dies of "a dread disease "(tuberculosis), it is revealed that he is Ralph Nickleby’s son.

P. 17 “…agonizing cancer deaths of Eugene Grant’s father in Thomas Wolfe’s Of Time and the River…”
Of Time and the River, according to Wikipedia, is a 1935 novel by American novelist Thomas Wolfe. It is a fictionalized autobiography, using the name Eugene Gant for Wolfe's, detailing the protagonist's early and mid-twenties, during which time the character attends Harvard University, moves to New York City and teaches English at a university there, and travels overseas.

P. 17 “…and of the sister in Bergman’s film Cries and Whispers.”
When a woman dying of cancer, in turn-of-the century Sweden, is visited by her two sisters, long repressed feelings between the siblings rise to the surface. According to Wikipedia,Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film is set on a mansion at the end of the 19th century and is about two sisters who watch over their third sister on her deathbed, torn between fearing she might die and hoping that she will.

 
P. 18 “(The heroine of Erich Segal’s Love Story dies of leukemia--…)” 
According to Wikipedia, the novel tells of Oliver Barrett IV, who comes from a family of wealthy and well-respected Harvard University graduates. At Radcliffe library, the Harvard student meets and falls in love with Jennifer Cavelleri, a working-class, quick-witted Radcliffe College student. Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry against the wishes of Oliver's father, who thereupon severs ties with his son. As instructed by his doctor, Oliver attempts to live a "normal life" without telling Jenny of her condition. Jenny nevertheless discovers her ailment after confronting her doctor about her recent illness. With their days together numbered, Jenny begins costly cancer therapy, and Oliver soon becomes unable to afford the multiplying hospital expenses. Desperate, he seeks financial relief from his father. When the senior Barrett asks if he needs the money because he got some girl "in trouble", Oliver says yes instead of telling his father the truth about Jenny's condition. From her hospital bed, Jenny speaks with her father about funeral arrangements, then asks for Oliver. She tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies.

 
P. 19 “George Groddeck, whose remarkable views on cancer in The Book of the It (1923)…”
According to Wikipedia, in 1923 he published The Book of the It, an unusual work in which each chapter is in the form of a letter to a girlfriend addressed as "my dear".
For more on The Book of the It, visit http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/groddeck.html 


Pg. 20 “Thoreau, who had TB, wrote in 1852: “Death and disease are often beautiful, like… the hectic glow of consumption.””  
According to Wikipedia, Thoreau contracted tuberculosis in 1835 and suffered from it sporadically afterwards. In 1859, following a late night excursion to count the rings of tree stumps during a rain storm, he became ill with bronchitis. His health declined over three years with brief periods of remission, until he eventually became bedridden. Recognizing the terminal nature of his disease, Thoreau spent his last years revising and editing his unpublished works, particularly The Maine Woods and Excursions, and petitioning publishers to print revised editions of A Week and Walden. He also wrote letters and journal entries until he became too weak to continue. His friends were alarmed at his diminished appearance and were fascinated by his tranquil acceptance of death. When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded: "I did not know we had ever quarreled."
For more information on Henry Thoreu, visit http://www.concordma.com/magazine/winter03/tuberculosis.html and http://kirjasto.sci.fi/thoreau.htm