"We speak with the skin: We get tattoos, we sit in the sun for a nice, deep tan, we cover up or show ourselves off, we get piercings or smear ourselves with expensive creams or go for Botox treatments in an attempt to remain eternally young. ... And yet, at the same time, we pretend we don’t care about it. Skin-related issues — apart from those that affect politics, like racism — aren’t generally deemed worthy of writerly reflection.... Nobody cares about the feelings of shame experienced by those with skin conditions.... I never considered writing about my psoriasis because I resisted the very idea that it was a problem. It wasn’t part of me. My body wasn’t part of me; I existed purely in what was noncorporeal, in my writings, my intellect. All the itching, the patches of peeling, flaky skin — these were private problems.... I would sometimes come across historical figures and writers who suffered the same illness as I do. Joseph Stalin, for example. And Vladimir Nabokov. Their biographies would barely mention it.... But... the skin problems of these people had a considerable influence on their lives and work. Their skin was instrumental in shaping their ways of perceiving, understanding and relating to the world, which was almost always from a position of shame and rage.
Studying Stalin’s life, I began to entertain the notion — I’m a writer, it’s my job to exaggerate — that the gulags were a kind of revenge for all the intolerable itching."
Not discussed in the column, but here's a bit — an itchy flake — from the book "Skin":
२४ टिप्पण्या:
Updike also. He wrote a lot about it in "Self Consciousness."
The way the author treats Nabokov and Humbert as if they were both real is interesting.
J.P. Morgan had a disfigured nose and didn't hide it.
When he was a young man, the Wall Street tycoon was afflicted with acne rosacea, a skin condition that left his nose the color and texture of a strawberry.
If only science had known earlier the role played by interleukin 23A, the world would never have heard of Solzhenitsyn.
Interesting speculation: Stalin and Marat's Terrors, a way to spread their existential pain to the general populace.
Shut up and take an organic gluten free Aveno bath. I thought the progressive virtue signal was claiming no soy mi enfermedad. With out subtitles. Con Castilian lysthp.
Remember!
IF there is NO skin to skin contact... it is NOT RAPE! (according to This blogsite)
So... Wear a condom... Do ANYONE You Want, ANY WAY You Want... and it's All perfectly legal
(according to THIS blogsite)
Their biographies would barely mention it.... But... the skin problems of these people had a considerable influence on their lives and work. Their skin was instrumental in shaping their ways of perceiving, understanding and relating to the world, which was almost always from a position of shame and rage.
I remember that in the mid-80s John Updike published a lengthy and engaging chronicle in the New Yorker of his life with psoriasis, “At War with My Skin.” It was a big influence on his life.
In the Bible's book of Job, much of Job's suffering is a skin disorder.
I always wonder who the 'we' is, when I see nonsense writing like this.
I never considered writing about my psoriasis because I resisted the very idea that it was a problem.
You were right to begin with, Sergio.
The Skin Disease That Gave The World Socialism
"This chronic discomfort not only affected Marx’s work output, but was also responsible for the excoriating tone of his work, writing to his friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels: 'the bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day.'”
Oh for fuck's sake, Stalin didn't kill millions because he had eczema. He killed millions because of communist ideology.
Would you publish this if it referred to Hitler? Maybe you would.
Your approach to genocide is disturbingly cavalier today.
Can’t see that picture without thinking of Marat/Sade, and Glenda Jackson as Charlotte Corday.
If you're talking skin, your Catholic commenters might appreciate a shout out to Saint Bartholomew, an Apostle, whose martyrdom involved being skinned alive. There is an amazing sculpture of the saint in Milan's Duomo. The statue shows the Apostle wearing his own skin as a cloak, with every muscle from forehead to foot exposed. Links for the strong of stomach.
“ Can’t see that picture without thinking of Marat/Sade, and Glenda Jackson as Charlotte Corday.”
It was better as a stage play. Saw it on Broadway when I was about 17.
Is it something I said? I commented earlier that Updike covers skin issues in "Self Consciousness."
Better luck this time.
Is it something I said? I commented earlier that Updike covers skin issues in "Self Consciousness."
Better luck this time.
We had an anthropodermic binding (or so we thought) in our special collections. Turns out the ability to analyze and distinguish human from other animal skin advanced a lot between 1986 and 2014.
So much for that macabre item.
We had an anthropodermic binding (or so we thought) in our special collections. Turns out the ability to analyze and distinguish human from other animal skin advanced a lot between 1986 and 2014.
So much for that macabre item.
I'll just leave this here.
Root Boy Slim - Heartbreak of Psoriasis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0rqyJ_5uKc
I'm pretty sure I read an essay by Updike about his sufferings with psoriasis or eczema.
This made me think of Naaman the Syrian, whom the prophet Elisha healed of leprosy. (2 Kings 5:1-14)
Well, I'm confused! Sorry for the overposting. I'll go away until tomorrow.
I would almost rather like to read about his psoriasis than hear the "Emerge Tremfiant" commercial yet again ...
Almost ...
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