From 7a6858d62bb9cc54698b45083e509674e56131eb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Holden Rohrer Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:41:54 -0400 Subject: blog post one --- markley/blog/01_strange_case | 54 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 54 insertions(+) create mode 100644 markley/blog/01_strange_case (limited to 'markley/blog') diff --git a/markley/blog/01_strange_case b/markley/blog/01_strange_case new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1f0b3e --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/blog/01_strange_case @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +*The Strange Case* is fantasy about the limits of medical science, used +as a lever into moral and mental exploration. +At the time of publication, medicine (especially drugs) was such an +experimental field that doctors were essentially testing these drugs on +their patients---many of which (laudanum, cocaine, oxycontin) were +highly addictive. +Addiction was known, but straddled the line between disease and vice. +This parallel between Dr Jekyll's fictional transformative drug and real +drug use is the biggest component of medicine as a moral element. +The story admits Hyde as an immoral creature of vice, symbolizing the +degrading effects that addiction has on a person's character, but +Jekyll's identity is retained (until he finally loses control of the +transformations)---which, as his more reasonable persona, the guilt, +abdication of conscience, and other tendencies that addicts are prone +to. +Jekyll is not as starkly immoral as Hyde, but he is certainly +irresponsible--which is where the line for him starts to blur between +physician practitioner and patient (more accurately, test subject). +[IMAGE: needle in arm, CAPTION: Jekyll's haste and "unscientific" desire +(treating the potion as a vice rather than an experiment) led to his +ruin.] + +Lanyon represents the establishment criticism of Jekyll's risky and +short-sighted experimentation, which traces its history through to the +modern day. +Doctors using drugs is no longer frowned upon (although, the precise +drugs that were prescribed at the time of publication are now known as +unmedicinal), but there is a clear establishment, and it's represented +by professional associations like the American Cancer Society or +American Heart Association. +[IMAGE: American Cancer Society logo, CAPTION: As official, established +sources of medical doctrine (not to imply they are undeserving), the ACS +provides official medical advice but also decries hack therapies] + +Morality doesn't exactly correspond to this modern image of efficacy and +responsibility (the ethos represented in malpractice suits), but it does +align with the idea of a trustworthy physician. +Untrustworthy and unethical physicians come out as scandals because it +isn't the expectation of a patient, and Jekyll's untrustworthy behavior +(bleeding-edge experimentation) makes him a poor physician. + +I can't find as clear of a relation for health as the specific nature of +Jekyll/Hyde's addiction and immorality, but it is relatively clear that +he is an unhealthy man. +Especially near the end, when he and Lanyon become so scarred by the +existence of Hyde and Jekyll by the constant transformation that they +become pale, sickly, and finally dead. +This is clearly an unhealthful state, discrediting Jekyll as a physician +if he still has any, and demonstrating the relation between morality and +health. +This is also encoded by Hyde's deformity without malformity and his dual +status as a very unhealthy man. +So there is clearly some sort of link between health and morality and +especially physicians' behavior, but I can't exactly specify it. -- cgit