jenks
thread death
You know how to use the internet.
Joan Didion (1934 - 2021)
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“I was told that the disorder was not really in my eyes, but in my central nervous system. I might or might not experience symptoms of neural damage all my life. These symptoms, which might or might not appear, might or might not involve my eyes. They might or might not involve my arms or legs, they might or might not be disabling. Their effects might be lessened by cortisone injections, or they might not. It could not be predicted. The condition had a name, the kind of name usually associated with telethons, but the name meant nothing and the neurologist did not like to use it. The name was multiple sclerosis, but the name had no meaning. This was, the neurologist said, an exclusionary diagnosis, and meant nothing.
I had, at this time, a sharp apprehension not of what it was like to be old but of what it was like to open the door to the stranger and find that the stranger did indeed have the knife. In a few lines of dialogue in a neurologist’s office in Beverly Hills, the improbable had become the probable, the norm: things which happened only to other people could in fact happen to me. I could be struck by lightning, could dare to eat a peach and be poisoned by the cyanide in the stone. The startling fact was this: my body was offering a precise physiological equivalent to what had been going on in my mind.”
I had, at this time, a sharp apprehension not of what it was like to be old but of what it was like to open the door to the stranger and find that the stranger did indeed have the knife. In a few lines of dialogue in a neurologist’s office in Beverly Hills, the improbable had become the probable, the norm: things which happened only to other people could in fact happen to me. I could be struck by lightning, could dare to eat a peach and be poisoned by the cyanide in the stone. The startling fact was this: my body was offering a precise physiological equivalent to what had been going on in my mind.”
-- ... on her MS diagnosis
jenks
thread death
I don’t really want to have a row about it - I just think she’s a really great writer and I’m not in the mood to go back and forth with someone so clearly opposed to that point of view. The world is large enough for both of us to disagree and remain polite about it.
luka
Well-known member
I was drunk when I wrote this and I don't stand behind it.
jenks
thread death
I didn’t say you’re not polite and I’ve no real idea what you think your reputation is. I just make it a policy on here not to really argue with people who hold entrenched ideas opposite to mine. It doesn’t get anywhere. It’s really not my job to change anyone’s mind.
