I think an interesting topic for me in our discussion was the idea of the connection between society and the perception of disease. On page 7 and 8, Sontag describes the process in which an oncologist reveals cancer test results to the patient in France, Italy, and America. She writes that cancer is seen as “a scandal that jeopardizes one’s love life, one’s chance of promotion, even one’s job, patients who know what they have tend to be extremely prudish, if not outright secretive, about their disease.” (page 8) She goes on to discuss how it has become more difficult for societies in modern times to come to terms with and accept death. As a class, we touched on the idea of longer life expectancies and how death becomes more distant in our minds and less prevalent, especially in the society we live in today.
Because of the taboo surrounding the prospect of death, regardless of the fact that eventually, everyone will die, it becomes almost shameful for someone with a disease to be open about it. On page 87, Sontag writes "our views about cancer, and the metaphors we have imposed on it, are so much a vehicle for the large insufficiencies of this culture..." and goes on to discuss these "large insufficiencies". Do you think these "large insufficiencies" still exist or have they changed since Sontag wrote this book? And do you think that there will be a time when cancer becomes romanticized in the way that tuberculosis has been? If so, what could change the perception of cancer and will there be another disease that would take cancer's place?
These large insufficiencies Sontag describes, in my opinion, still exist. Sontag describes these insufficiencies quite well and really highlights the main points as to why society fears death and anything that quickens the end of one's life span. On page 87, Sontag writes that society still has anxieties about feeling. I think this is a very interesting line because it reveals a lot about how we deal with death and diseases that usually end with death. If we were a society that did not fear death, embraced emotions/feelings, and accepted the inevitable, I think we would have a much different response to the bad news of disease and death. I think once a cure to cancer has been found, the perception of cancer as the "end" will disappear. People fear what they do not understand, and I believe that we do not fully understand cancer yet therefore we fear it. I also think that a certain STI will be the next disease to steal the spotlight from cancer.
ReplyDeleteDeath is not something that humans will understand in the near future, and therefore we love to make metaphors out of it or fear it. Sontag writes that "interest of the metaphor is precisely that it refers to a disease so overlaid with mystification, so charged with the inescapable fatality" (87). The same seems to apply to death. We see so many "beautiful" or "tragic" deaths in movies and books that glorify dying, that make it almost something to be desired. We have become shallow toward death because of our constant exposure to media that allows death to be not-so-bad in the eyes of viewers. Losing a favorite character in a book or movie is nowhere near as painful as losing a family member in reality. In a way I think many view excessive feeling as a weakness, or it is portrayed as such in modern media (note Frozen). Our list of insufficiencies continues on, with Sontag wondering if cancer as a metaphor will cease to exist before anything is really resolved. Years later, we still have a shallow image of death in our minds and have anxiety about feelings, we still fear the violent history that threatens to repeat itself. Now, cancer as a disease "is finally [mostly] understood and the rate of cure becomes higher" (86), though it is still held as something feared and glorified. Cancer has become romanticized, though not to the positive extent that TB was. We see books like The Fault in Our Stars that use cancer as a medium for a love story, as a common connection between the two main characters. A Walk To Remember uses cancer as a means of getting the characters to admit love faster. It has become the incentive to live life to the fullest, while also being haunted by the deathly connotations connected to it in the past. As of now, there are so many forms of cancer that we have yet to cure or decipher, so cancer still has a long run before it will be replaced by another untamable disease.
ReplyDeleteThe ‘large insufficiencies’ of our culture that Sontag points out are always going to exist, regardless of whether they’re in relation to cancer or whatever possible diseases come our way in the future. The large insufficiencies of our culture are, at their root, due to how we’ve evolved as people. We stigmatize death because of its implications. If we die too soon, we’ve essentially failed our biological purpose as humans - to reproduce and survive long enough to raise children. In Sontag’s case, this stigma surrounding death manifests itself in the public’s perception of cancer. It hasn’t become more difficult to accept death, whether it be death by cancer or death by being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger - it’s remained just as terrifying as it always has. Just the concept of ceasing to exist and becoming nothing is so terrifying to people that nearly every civilization since the dawn of time has invented their own version of the afterlife. People enjoy living, and don’t want to leave this world until they’ve had their fill, and most people never have their fill.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of cancer being romanticized, I think at this point it’s impossible for it to gain the reputation that TB had, and continues to have. Cancer is simply too ugly of a disease - from the mysterious, unexpected, nonlinear progression of the disease, to how chemotherapy destroys the human body, cancer is seen as a disease that not only demoralizes patients, but systematically and efficiently corrupts every aspect of their being, from their internal organs to their mind. The history that cancer has had, and the ideas that have spread as a result of the reaction people have had to cancer is simply too enduring and present to ever be truly shaken off. If cancer ever is cured, there will be a disease or condition that comes to supplant it as the most feared disease in the world. At this point, the most probable culprit is antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The prospect of having an incurable bacterial infection, and eventually dying of sepsis, is quite frankly terrifying. Indeed, in the future if we’re unable to control the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, surgery and many other modern medical procedures (blood donation and testing, tissue sampling, etc.) could be rendered completely useless. Surgery is predicated on the notion that we can prevent possible infection, so that we can cure the patient of what ails them, and also prevent them from dying in the process. If we fail to control this variable, much of modern medicine would not be able to help, and we’d face many of the medical problems people faced starting 200 years ago and going back to the dawn of civilization.
At the end of "Illness as a Metaphor," Sontag finishes with the final thought, "The cancer metaphor would be made obsolete, I would predict, long before the problems it has reflected so vividly will be resolved" (Sontag 87). This passage stood out to me because it instantly made me ponder the presence of cancer in today's society. In my opinion, Sontag's prediction has been rather off, for there are still plenty of metaphors and connotations being attached to cancer in modern times without any appearance of an instant, surefire or painless cure. For example, I find that the novel, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green "romanticizes" cancer in a similar, but not identical fashion to how TB has been romanticized in the past. The story centers on young people who both have cancer and their experiences, both heart-wrenching and uplifting, with the disease and their relationship with one another. I feel that this follows along with how Sontag describes TB as "the romantic disease that cuts off a young life" (18). Another example of modern society's "romanticization" of cancer is its attitude towards breast cancer. It is now easy to associate breast cancer with the color pink, lively community rallies/parades and "I Love Boobies" merchandise. In some sense, battling breast cancer can almost be seen as a form of feminine power. Suffering from breast cancer, of course, is still an extremely traumatic and unpleasant experience, but at the same time, the modern view of it greatly contrasts with what Sontag had to say about cancer over the course of the entire novel: "The person dying of cancer is portrayed as robbed of all capacities of self-transcendence, humiliated by fear and agony" (17).
ReplyDeleteI was wondering whether or not cancer would take the role that TB has and become a romanticized disease that is seen as beautiful. I don't really have a direct answer to it, because I feel as though there are two barriers stopping it from becoming romanticized. The first is that we don't really know what causes it. Just like TB earlier in history, we don't know where cancer comes from and how to eliminate it completely. The second barrier is how cancer infects the body. TB can be seen as beautiful or spiritual because it infects the lungs. Cancer, on the other hand, infects places that are embarrassing. Sontag says, "cancer is notorious for attacking parts of the body (colon, bladder, rectum, breast, cervix, prostate, testicles) that are embarrassing to acknowledge." (17). Cancer can't really become something beautiful when it attacks places that no one sees as beautiful or spiritual. I think there will be another disease that takes cancer's place. Sometime in the future something will eventually become a large part of people's lives as TB has in the past and cancer has currently.
ReplyDeleteI believe these large insufficiencies still exist. People still view cancer as an ugly, diminishing thing. They don’t normally associate cancer with power and beauty, especially due to the physical effects it has. Unlike TB, which momentarily produces these physical aspects (pale skin, red cheeks, thinner body) that the public were able to view as attractive and glamorous, cancer is linked to a deterioration of the body that is unstoppable, despite its remissions. I think it will be difficult to change the perception of cancer and start to romanticize it the way TB has been romanticized due to its deep-rooted implications. Sontag states, “Cancer is generally thought an inappropriate disease for a romantic character, in contrast to tuberculosis, perhaps because unromantic depression has supplanted the romantic notion of melancholy” (Sontag 50). There have been attempts in the media and in pop culture to romanticize cancer (like The Fault in Our Stars). However, these attempts ended up diverting the public’s attention to other, more positive aspects surrounding cancer and don’t directly address how scary cancer is and how much of one’s life it actually takes away.
ReplyDeleteSince death and disease are so closely connected, there will always be a sense of taboo when discussing these topics. Disease is seen as the strange agent which causes death and death is on its own is widely unknown. The inefficiencies that Sontag describe are still prevalent in our society today and how we discuss disease. Throughout the novel, tuberculosis was described as being the disease of “sensitive passive people”(25) and responsible for making women appear more attractive due to their thin and pale appearance. The visual signs and symptoms which were a product of TB were the main reason as to why this disease was able to be romanticized. Whereas Sontag describes cancer as being a insidious disease which shows no symptoms. Since cancer is a disease which shows very few symptoms and does not alter one's appearance the way TB once did, this disease can never be romanticized, and will continue to cause fear of the unknown among those at risk of contracting the disease and those who already have it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that until we can better understand diseases themselves, particularly cancer, these metaphors will persist as a deeply insufficient tool for society to think about and cope with the reality of cancer. Understanding (and subsequently being able to treat or cure) a disease is a helpful step toward reducing the use of these metaphors. For example, most people in western society in the present day no longer speak about TB in romanticized terms of passion and vitality, and TB is rarely assigned as a metaphor to other contexts: nobody calls racism a “tubercle on society.” Societal evils are now referred to as “cancers on society.” According to Sontag, “now it is cancer’s turn to be the disease that doesn’t knock before it enters...a role it will keep until, one day, its etiology becomes as clear and its treatment as effective as those of TB have become” (Sontag 5). However, I believe that understanding alone will not be sufficient to remove the associations society places on disease. Even if we reach a point at which we fully understand the physiological mechanisms of all diseases that afflict humans, I expect that we will still continue to use metaphors to speak about them because we will continue seeking to find meaning, logic, and for some people, spiritual explanation from a higher power as to why and how the diseases affect us. If they cause death, we will seek to assign value to the lives we led and meaning to deaths we will meet.
ReplyDeleteI believe that cancer has the ability to become like TB, beautiful and romanticized. In fact it is almost inevitable that certain types of cancer will. TB was once the demon and some other "romantic" disease held its place. I do think that there are so many riddles and mysteries within cancer that even if it does eventually become a beautiful disease it will not be in my life time. I think especially as life becomes longer and longer it will become something to be avoided, but its characteristics -- weight loss, epiphanies (when closer to the death stage), etc. will gain somewhat romantic qualities. It is also possible that diseases all together will lose any romantic nature as it becomes more viable that people can live longer than a century. I also believe that until more is understood about the complexities within cancer that the "large insufficiencies" Sontag speaks of will retain their intended meaning until proven otherwise.
ReplyDeleteSomething that is remarkable about diseases, the human body, biology is that they are always changing. Species adapt, they mutate, they change and know one can really predict how humans, or any species really, will function in the future. I think it is not only possible but probable that sometime in the future cancer could be romanticized the same way TB was. Although we have focused on the positive romanization that Sontag provides evidence for in her novel, she also provides insight into the fact that people also viewed TB in a similar manner to how we view cancer today. She explains how in response to someone dying from TB "'They have burned all the furniture - and are now scraping the walls - making new windows - new doors - and even a new floor.' But TB was frightening, not only as a contagion like cholera, but as a seemingly arbitrary, uncommunicable 'taint'," (38). People feared TB back then but it was still ultimately romanticized into everything we have been discussing in class. Therefore I think it very probably that sometime in the future we will find a better cure/treatment for cancer and then the disease may become romanticized. Maybe cancer survivors will be seen as the strongest people who fought off the demons within them -- like invinvible warriors. And even so, a new disease will likely adapt, and in it's mystery we will again tremble at its uncertainty just as we have in the face of TB and cancer.
ReplyDeleteThe large insufficiencies definitely still exist in today's society and do not seem to be going away anytime soon. We have moved farther away from excepting death. With the advancements of medicine we feel that we can solve any problem, however, death still looms over us as a reminder of our mortality. Cancer specifically is hard for our society to face because it has stumped the medical community. As advancements are being discovered all the time, however, our advancement with cancer has been relatively slow. These "large insufficiencies" are still present and becoming larger as our society learns how to better deal with diseases scientifically but not emotionally.
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