Twins: Bauby and The Butterfly

Kim Blankenship

LIT 4093

April 22, 2010

Twins: Bauby and The Butterfly

Once I dreamed I was a butterfly. I knew I was a butterfly and did not know I was a man. Suddenly I awoke, and there I was, visibly a man. I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, Or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am a man. ~Zhuangzi

Jean-Dominique Bauby reflects upon his life in his memoir, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, A butterfly, mentioned rarely, reaches title status because he identifies himself with the butterfly in Zhuangzi's poem, I Dream. I According to Bauby, the Diving Bell was an initial consideration for the book title, but the term butterfly was not mentioned. (Bauby, 55), yet this is placed in the chapter “Voice Offstage” which parallels much of I Dream. t would not be a surprising to expect that he would use a renowned story to serve as a foundation for his own. As an editor of a national magazine, Bauby was well-read, and prior to his stroke had aspirations to rewrite a feminized version of The Count of Monte Christo.

One passage of the I Dream poem is familiar to the general public, and he would have had many opportunities to read the more complete version in any general survey literature of Chinese philosophy. The poem begins:

I do not know how long I dreamed, or what came before.
The dream was my world and I was content within it.
And as I dreamed, a man spoke to me..

Bauby's metamorphosis into his new life followed “twenty days of deep coma and several weeks of grogginess and somnolence” (Bauby, 4). In describing an ordinary day, His first reference to the butterfly in his memoir is that his “mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tiera del Fuego or for King Midas' court. (Bauby, 5). We often think of butterflies as representing freedom or to symbolize rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time, and he speaks of a certain kind of happiness through his imagination.

In I Dream, the narrator hears a man (speaker) tell him the butterfly story; the speaker tells the narrator that in the speaker's dream, he cannot distinguish between being a man and a butterfly. The narrator is Bauby with locked-in syndrome; the speaker is Bauby before the stroke. Locked-in Bauby is the Narrator of his memoir, Healthy Bauby is the speaker. Bauby's memoir is Locked-in Bauby telling us about stories and dreams that he knows through his Healthy self. Bauby transports the reader back and forth between past and present, using his imagination to glue the edges together.

The narrator then asks about the meaning of the story and finds the speaker replaced by his own reflection in a moonlit pool.

I was struck by how this man was me and yet not me. While my hands were old and wizened, his were young and smooth. While my skin was dark and rough, his was fair and soft. Yet in his eyes I saw myself, or rather who I would be had I been born another.

This image he sees of himself is of his Healthy self. Bauby's formerly strong body is now fragile. He is shocked when he first looks in a mirror. Like the new self that has emerged from the coma, the butterfly is a fragile insect with delicate wings. Had he come out of the coma, his cocoon, without the locked-in syndrome, he may have returned to a more normal life.

Next, the narrator wants to reach out to the speaker and makes a discovery. “I reached down to touch the shimmering surface. It was then that I realized I was looking up through the pool.” Here in the poem, everything is upside down. The narrator thinks that he is on top, looking down into water, but discovers when he tries to use his physical senses, here the sensation of touch, that his perspective is wrong. He is not in the physical world. He realizes that he is looking up to the speaker who then tells him:

You are that which I would be but cannot. You follow a path I dare not follow. You live a life that I shall not lead, for I have chosen another.

In the final reference to butterflies in the memoir, Bauby defines himself as one. In this chapter, he references butterflies twice, one as subject and object. First he wants to be able to listen to them, and then he claims to have butterfly hearing, identifying himself as a butterfly. “when blessed silence returns, I can listen to the butterflies that flutter inside my head. To hear them, one much be calm and pay close attention, for their wingbeats are barely audible...This is astonishing: my hearing does not improve, yet I hear them better and better. I must have butterfy hearing.” (Bauby, 97)

I Dream ends with a positive ending. “It is said that life is not a problem to be solved, But a reality to be experienced. This is truer for you than you know or can imagine. With this, a cloud passed over the moon and the dream began to fade into darkness. I am awakening.”

Bauby's chapter, Voice Offstage, parallels Zhuangzi's “I Dream” poem. Bauby says he has the final scene written in his mind. The stage is darkness, except for a halo of light around the bed in center stage. In the poem it is dark excep for the light of the moon. Mr. L will jump up walk around and it grows dark again, just as “a cloud passed over the moon.” In the memoir – after it is dark we hear Mr. L “Damn! It was only a dream!” (Bauby, 56) in contrast to the poem's “I am awakening.” Here Bauby's play leaves a literal and psychological darkening, quite possibly too dark for any reader, but it may be the most significant clue about Bauby's private state of mind.

Works Cited

Arnold, Beth. "The Truth about "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"" Salon 23 Feb. 2008. Salon.com. Salon Media Group, Inc., 23 Feb. 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Association ALIS. Web. 16 Apr. 2010. .

Bauby, Jean-Dominique. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: a Memoir of Life in Death. New York: Vintage, 1998. Print.

Anger as a Sign of Normal in 1940's Mental Institutions

Kim Blankenship

Dr. Gabbard

March 30, 2010

Cross-Cultural Disability Studies

Anger as Power

The third and sixth photographs taken by Warren Sawyer in the article, WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors published by NPR (WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors) demonstrate the power of anger in the acceptance of the medical model of disability. The normate is justified in his anger but is never out of control. The normate's anger is never directed at socially acceptable political policies.

Photo 3 exemplifies the isolation of the disabled at a Pennsylvania Mental Institution in 1945. It is of Byberry's A building for the disabled who were also incontinent. Because the patients were incontinent, many were restricted from wearing clothes. “Most of them naked – walked about aimlessly or huddled against the filthy walls.” The appearance of many bodies as emaciated and many others with such a lack of muscle tone isolates the bodies by their difference from the social norm. The men appear isolated even in the crowd toward the back of the room. Those settled in the furthest corner of the photograph do not appear to be communicating to each other. At least three men have their backs to the group and one is facing the wall.

While the viewer has no detailed close up shots to work with, every man appears depressed. Of more than a dozen men lined up against the wall, only one has his head positioned upward. All of the other men's heads are facing downward, whether standing, squatting or seated. Many of the men have shoulders dropping to the floor. These physical positions of the body reflect a lack of confidence or depression, which necessarily includes a deterioration of a person's confidence.

In addition to the men themselves, there are many large windows in the shot, but very little light enters. A lack of light can induce depression by inhibiting the ability of certain vitamins to function properly in the body. There are no social comforts other than the dark walls keeping them away from society. We see no furniture and learn from the photographer that there was no music. There was no history for them to hang onto through pictures, personal clothing or objects with sentimental value.

Finally, no caretaker is present. There appears to be no authority figure coercing them into these positions, though they may have forced them into the room. An authority figure in the photograph could offer some semblance of a societal norm to love or to hate, but they are left only with themselves to comprehend their situation.

The lack of any signal indicating conversation, the darkness, the men's nakedness, their lack of muscle, their body posture all support a belief that they are not members of society; they have in some sense accepted themselves as outsiders to society because of a medical determination that declared them so and therefore they have been excluded.

While still overfilled with incapacitated men, the B Building housed men with tempers. Warren Sawyer explained that employees referred to the building as the "violent ward...because angry men sometimes violently attacked one another.” Though the viewer lacks the knowledge of the restrictions imposed upon them by the employees, including being tied or handcuffed to their beds, there is more of a willingness to treat angry men as more normal than depressed men. Sawyer describes a man freeing himself from his restraints, grabbing the sharpened edge of a broken end of a spoon and using it to attack another patient. Men with this type of anger who had the mental capacity to plan an attack by taking the time to break the spoon and sharpen it should have been housed in an empty room. If anyone was to feel isolated from society, it should have been the men with uncontrollable and irrational streaks of violence.

However, the sixth photograph in the NPR article provides a different daytime environment for these men. The most notable differences are in the physical facilities. This room seem larger, but more importantly, the walls are painted with a lighter color, and there is more light. There is enough external light to cast shadows upon objects and there is enough internal light to serve as a spotlight on the man closest to the camera.

Most of the men in this photo are clothed. With their anger, the last thing they need in a shared room are potential weapons, yet we see a chair in the foreground. Its difficult to tell, but there appears to be at least two more chairs. Some men do walk with their heads down, but many heads are positioned upright, The bodies are not in a fetal position and many more are standing here. We don't see direct conversation, however the man in the dark clothing to the right is in a position to speak with someone nearby. With the exception of the man in the foreground and the badly needed paint, shirtless and shoeless, and the desperately needed painting, the photo could be of any social hall in society.

Finally, It seems that the division, incontinent versus the angry, in and of itself is a strange division. Surely, some incontinent men were angry, but their surroundings may have dulled their anger along with any other feeling of human proportions. Their must have also been some men housed in the violent ward that were incontinent. In fact, being restrained to a bed for long periods of time might even encourage incontinence from men with great control over their bodies. Anger was likely to be the defining factor, not continence, for the division.

In summary, the level of anger created the distinction in treatment. Anger is a male norm that provides benefits such as chairs in spite of their potential as a weapon of violence. Society views anger as normal in both a medical and social model of men, and as a result, their treatment, even in the worst of facilities is better than men without it.

Works Cited

Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. "How We Look at Health Care." Web Log post. OUP Blog. Oxford University Press, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .

Sawyer, Warren. "WWII Pacifists Exposed Mental Ward Horrors." Interview by Joseph Shapiro. NPR. NPR, 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. .

Taylor, Steven J. "Conscientious Objectors of WWII." The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company, 28 May 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. . 

Lennie's Aunt Clara and Whore House Boss Clara: Allusions to Asylums

The name 'Clara' in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men does not represent a person; it represents American asylums in the 1930s. It might even refer specifically to the Agnew's State Mental Hospital in Santa Clara, California since the institution was a model of progressive treatment in the 1920s and 1930s. Steinbeck gave two very different female characters the name 'Clara'. He could have selected any number of different names, or even a similar one, such as Clair. His use of the identical name for more than one character indicates that they represent the same object. Because these are not primary characters, readers must look harder for clues about their meaning, but Aunt Clara's critical voice in the final chapter affirms the allusion with her psychiatric knowledge of Lennie. The distinguishing element between the two women is their point of view of the asylum. Through Lennie and George, we see Aunt Clara as an asylum from the perspective of the disabled and their families. On the other hand, whore house boss Clara represents the distant public perception of mental institutions. We learn this from the ranch hand characters that Clara's whore house is a danger to all who enter. The ranch hands' image of Clara's whore house, like the public perception of mental institutions, is acquired through rumor, feeding upon a fear of disease and a belief that pretty buildings cannot change what is dirty inside. 

 

Steinbeck designed the allusion based upon his knowledge of asylums. He lived in a era where society openly discussed eugenics, euthanasia, the cost of care for the disabled, and, if possible, how to value life.ⁱ Steinbeck's awareness of asylums influenced this work because Lennie's character is based upon a man Steinbeck knew. In an interview with The New York Times just after the book was published, Steinbeck told the reporter that he had worked as a bindlestiff in the story's county and he created composite characters from his experience. He explained that: 

 

Lennie was a real person. He's in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn't kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach...I saw him do it. We couldn't stop him until it was too late.ⁱⁱ 

Steinbeck was also specifically aware of the Agnew's Facility for the Insaneⁱⁱⁱ, “a neuropsychiatric institution for the care and treatment of the mentally ill,”^iv located in Santa Clara, California, less than 100 miles from his home. It was famous during Steinbeck's writing career because an earthquake destroyed it in 1906, killing many patients^v and leaving many other patients homeless.^vi In addition to its historical significance at that time^vii, Agnew's State Mental Hospital was rebuilt with the most progressive rehabilitation goals in the State. The new building “was redesigned in a revolutionary cottage plan spreading the low-rise buildings designed to bring light and air to patients along tree-lined streets in a manner that resembled a college campus.”^viii The Agnew's' Asylum was “intended to be a 'cheerful' place with its decentralized specialized buildings for different treatment purposes and different types of patients.”^ix

Steinbeck crafted two women to represent two contrasting views of asylums.^x He provided hints through enunciation, definitions and dialog. With respect to enunciation, the name 'Clara' is identical to the last part of the asylum's home town name, Santa Clara. Secondly, the actual sound of the asylum's home town name, Santa Clara, is very close to the sound of Aunt Clara. Few, if any, other given names of women could have served as a crafty. but effective allusion of asylum. For example, Agnew's, the name of the institution, is the name of the donor of the property and the direct use of his name could have led to legal problems. A variant of the name, Agnes, may not have been an acceptable name for both an aunt and a whorehouse boss, or it might have made the allusion too easy for his readers to find.

The foundational character is Lennie's Aunt Clara. She appears just after the introduction of Lennie's desire for rabbits and just before the final rabbit's appearance at the end of the book. The 'aunt' relationship may symbolize an asylum because an aunt is not always blood related, and her relationship to Lennie is not necessarily a biological one. During Steinbeck's life the term, 'aunt', included an endearing use for “[a]ny benevolent practical woman who exercises these qualities to the benefit of her circle of acquaintance; ...or as ‘a term of familiarity or respect applied to elderly women, not necessarily implying relationship’.”^xi Early in the book, George does not refer to Lennie's aunt when he explains their relationship to the boss. “He's my...cousin. I told his old lady I'd take care of him.^xii The colloquialism, 'old lady' usually refers to a wife or a mother. George did not claim an obligation to Aunt Clara or to 'Lennie's aunt' or even to 'Lennie's people' but to Lennie's 'old lady'. Lennie's 'old lady' could be his mother and not his aunt. Aunt Clara was benevolent like an aunt in that she raised Lennie, but we see no direct benevolence between them in the book. She knows Lennie better than anyone else, and yet lacks the compassion of a relative or caretaker. 
 

We also learn several facts about Aunt Clara's physical appearance which offer a glimpse into the institutional world. She was “a little fat old woman. She wore thick bull's-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean.”^xiii In the end, we learn that she knows Lennie better than anyone, even George.

Aunt Clara's physical stature was little and fat. In California, there were few state-funded mental institutions despite a great social need. In terms of overall state services, asylums were a small part, a little part. Yet in terms of need,by 1920, the Agnew's asylum was overcrowded by 20% and had a waiting list of more than 800 people.^xiv So, an asylum, within its little body, it was overflowing with patients. Steinbeck may also be referring to the cost of mental health resources in the state. Agnew's Asylum aimed for a self-sufficient farm atmosphere, though it was far from financially self-sufficient. The budget for California asylums in 1898 was almost 1.5 million dollars.^xv

 

If fat does not refer to the number of people within the California asylums or the cost of these asylums to the state, then it must refer to Agnew's Asylum's prosperity. Lennie loves to talk about how they will “live off the fatta the lan'” and have the best of everything. Yet Lennie and George's dream for a place of their own and their desire to survive and prosper by relying on what they can grow and raise sounds very similar to language used by the Trustees of the Asylums in their reports to the State of California. Agnew's State Hospital's occupational therapy program included participation in the operations of the extensive orchard and farm, gardening, industrial therapy and occupational rehabilitation programs for men and women:

Those at the farm will...spend more time out of doors and many of them can be occupied with farm. [R]ugs carpets baskets brooms toys shoes and different other articles are manufactured...this is not alone very beneficial to the welfare of the patients but means quite a saving to the institution...The farm...has been very productive enabling us to diminish our cost of maintenance and at the same time provide the patients with a great variety of vegetables and an adequate supply of milk eggs etc.^xvi
 

Indeed, Agnew's Asylum was designed to feel more like a home or a college than an institution with work, re-education and even performance in on-site theatrical productions.^xvii The institution could be so fulfilling, that “the fatta the lan'” at Agnew's Asylum is so "fat", they will need nothing else to be happy. 

Aunt Clara's her old age could refer to the length of time mental institutions have been in society, particularly if the discussion of euthanasia and cost of the mentally ill was at issue. Steinbeck may have wanted to note that caring for the mentally ill is not a recent phenomenon. Societies have found ways, other than by euthanasia to care for these people over hundreds of years. Cost was a pressing consideration for states. As early as 1920, California accountants were projecting the savings to the state of deporting non-citizens housed in asylums.^xviii If Steinbeck is drawing upon the Agnew's Asylum specifically, this could be a reference to the decrepit Agnew's Asylum just after the 1906 earthquake.^xix

 

One of the most important aspects of Aunt Clara is her vision. Bull's-eye glasses are thick, convex lenses, curving outward.^xx Bull's-eye glasses were used by people who had cataracts before contemporary eye surgery techniques became standard. People with cataracts are becoming blind to the outside world. The exterior rules no longer apply in the institutional setting. George describes Lennie as “strong and quick and Lennie don't know no rules.^xxi His physical strength can be used, but he has been blind to the rules of society. Additionally, Aunt Clara's knowledge of Lennie's vices, including his manipulation of George demonstrates her knowledge of Lennie. She knows him so well she can be in Lennie's head and step out of it. Lennie does not get into trouble at Aunt Clara's place; Aunt Clara complains that Lennie is always getting George into trouble. 

 

Steinbeck points out that Aunt Clara's clothing was protected with a gingham apron and the apron had pockets. The interiors of mental institutions, particularly its patients also need protection. They need protection more than other governmental functions. Aunt Clara's protection is a cotton cloth that typically has stripes or checks woven into it. Stripes could symbolize prisoner's uniforms or imprisonment. This is consistent with the medical professionals' perspective of their patients because the institutionalized were not always called patients; sometimes they were called inmates.^xxii Given this medical model's influence, health care professionals continued to see their patients as a social burden, whether or not they resided in the institution. In part of Aunt Clara's attack on Lennie, she blames him for George's lack of freedom because the institutional perspective also views mentally ill people as a burden to society, even if they function well inside of the institution. Aunt Clara says, “All the time he coulda had such a good time if it wasn't for you. He woulda took his pay an raised hill in a whore house, and he coulda set in a pool room and played snooker. But he got to take care of you.”^xxiii A concerned caretaker would not be angry at someone's behavior because it prevented another person from going to a whorehouse and playing pool.

 

Finally, Aunt Clara was starched and clean. Aunt Clara provides an image of what an institution is like for the insiders. It serves as a caretaker without any emotional closeness. Steinbeck slips in that Aunt Clara was starched, not the apron. Starched means stiffened.^xxvi This starch could refer to a separation or a distance, but it definitely contrasts with the softness that Lennie craves. Distance suggests the relationship is not a close one. However, an institution can feel like a place of benevolence for those who have been excluded from society. Asylums at the turn of the century addressed what they believed to be a broad range of causes of insanity.^xxiv Once inside, the outside world became a distant force.^xxv A stiffness is a contrast to Lennie. Lennie likes to pet soft animals, like mice and puppies, but he is very strong and often kills his tiny pets. This stiffness can explain why there was never an effort to touch him or show him compassion even when George who has been responsible for him, has been able to feel compassion for Lennie. George was a person; Aunt Clara was not. 

 

Whorehouse boss Clara is a different story. The second Clara we meet runs a less than desirable whorehouse, according to her competition. We hear the description of her place third-hand through the ranch hands.^xxvii This outsider view of Clara's whore house from Suzy's perspective is accepted as truth by the ranch hands, but George seems skeptical of the ranch hands' description since none had actually been there. He is the one that asks for the source of the information and the reader learns that this is Suzy's perspective. Through Suzy's eyes and then through the ranch hand's voice, a mental image of a mental institution is formed. What we know of Clara and her whorehouse is from an outsider's perspective. We do not have Clara's opinion, or anyone that has personally been there before.

Clara's whorehouse is distinguished by its Kewpie doll lamps, it homemade rugs, and a danger of being burned. Clara's Kewpie doll lamp is a particular type of doll first manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century, around the opening of the Agnew's Asylum, but its meaning is tied into the childish nature of the object interconnected with a functional object. 

 

Clara's place is also defined by the risk of syphilis Whit says that Susy “says, 'there's guys around here walkin' bow-legged cause they like to look at a Kewpie doll lamp.'”^xxviii They are referring to the way a man might walk who has contracted a venereal disease. Syphilis was a major issue in Steinbeck's time as it was for mental institutions, including Agnew's Asylum. For example, it was a factor in nearly one-fourth of all admissions in 1920 with more then 10% of these in the later stages that affected the nervous system.^xxix The message is that if you think that these institutionalized people are safe, you are at risk of catching whatever illness they have. 

 

The final distinction between Clara's whorehouse and Susy's whorehouse is made through a negative inference. Susy “[d]on't let no goo-goos in, neither.”^xxx The conclusion Whit expects George to draw from this is that in Clara's whore house, he will have to hang around with goo-goos. A goo-goo describes “An imitative representation of baby talk” or “of the eyes or glances: amorous, ‘spoony.”^xxxi. The goo-goos at Clara's whorehouse will stare at George with amorous or spoony eyes and speak in “baby talk”. That is no place for a man to be, according to Whit. George does not respond to this claim. It is the type of response that family members may have when mentally ill people are caricatured. Whit's wit can only bring out a protest of silence, for in George's mind, it cannot be explained. 

 

In conclusion, Lennie's Aunt Clara and whore house boss Clara are representative of the public's image of the asylums; Lennie's Aunt knows them personally while the whorehouse boss Clara has never been described directly. Given Steinbeck's general knowledge of the issues of his time and his experience with a 'real' Lennie, he knows that mental institutions are experienced in such different ways that a discussion of euthanasia for the socially useless members of society cannot be effectively explored until they see Clara's whore house for themselves. For intellectuals without direct first-and knowledge, they will see costly and dangerous adults walking in circles with their childlike minds. Advocates of eugenic euthanasia should at least see with their own eyes what Aunt Clara's apron protects before making social policy decisions. 

  

iSee Pernick, Martin S. The Black Stork: Eugenics and the Death of "defective" Babies in American Medicine and Motion Pictures since 1915. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print. This book provides a historical perspective on eugenics, euthanasia and the use of film to influence cultural values.

iiParini, Jay. "FILM; Of Bindlestiffs, Bad Times, Mice and Men." New York Times 27 Sept. 1992, New York ed., Film Reviews sec.: 224. New York Times. New York Times. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

iiiThe facility was also known as the Great Asylum for the Insane, Agnew's Asylum, and Agnew's Insane Asylum.

ivUnited States. National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. National Park Service. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

vIn some reports to the legislature, the Trustees identify the residents as “inmates”. Provide example/cite

viFind original source: During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the center became infamous as the site of the Santa Clara Valley's greatest loss of life resulting from the quake. The Daily Palo Alto reported: "The position of the people in Agnew's is critical; a number of insane persons having escaped from the demolished asylum, are running at random about the country." 117 patients and staff were killed and buried in mass graves on the site. The main building and some others were irreparably damaged. Source: "Agnew's Developmental Center." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. See also Crazyhorseghost. "Agnew's Insane Asylum 86." HubPages. Hubpages, Inc. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.

vii. To the left of the entrance is a small historical society plaque stating the building was known as “the great asylum for the insane.” "When the Going Gets Tough." Context Magazine Feb. 2002. Context Magazine. Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

viii National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary.

ix  National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary.

x FREUD must be considered because Aunt Clara's final words are “from out of Lennie's head”(100), but I'm out of time. After Lennie recognizes that he killed Curley's wife. Freud's story of Dora with an aunt complex – Lenny's “craftily” actions were sly, cunning, intentional, with an intentionality George does not see. Aunt Clara “stood in front of Lennie and put her hands on her hips, and she frowned disapprovingly at him.” (101) Also look at doubling.

xi"Aunt." Def. 1.b. Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.

xii Steinbeck, 22

xiii Steinbeck, 100-101

xiv Page # California. State Commission in Lunacy. Twelfth Biennial Report of the State Commission in Lunacy for the Two Years Ending June 30, 1920. Sacramento: State of California, 1921. Print.

xv 1898 Report

xviPage 28. California. State Commission in Lunacy. Twelfth Biennial Report of the State Commission in Lunacy for the Two Years Ending June 30, 1920. Sacramento: State of California, 1921. Print. By FRED P CLARK Medical Superintendent New Buildings.

xvii Inmates at Agnew's State Hospital performing in A theatrical production. 1900s. Photograph. Silicon Valley History Online, Santa Clara, California. Santa Clara City Library. Santa Clara Library. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.

xviii Page 21. California. State Commission in Lunacy. Twelfth Biennial Report of the State Commission in Lunacy for the Two Years Ending June 30, 1920. Sacramento: State of California, 1921. Print. Financial Benefit Derived by the State Through the Efforts of the State Commission in Lunacy TABLE No 4

xix To consider: “When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie jus come along with me out workin'. Got kinda used to each other after a little while.” Did her death represent the 1906 earthquake? Or possibly the waiting lines for entrance?

xxAnother potential related topic to research: A definition of bull's eye glass as an artifact of an era when window glass was mouth-blown. Used often in colonial front doors.

xxi Steinbeck, 27.

xxii This language is used throughout reports to the State of California. The photograph description provided by the Santa Clara Library, for example, also uses this language.

xxiii Steinbeck, 101.

xxiv Some of the claimed causes of insanity in 357 patients as stated in commitments from July 1 1890 to July 1 1891: Alcoholism, Abstaining from food, Cigarette smoking, Death of mother, Disappointment in love, Domestic trouble, Dissipation, Death of employer, Excitement over invention, Epilepsy, Exposure, Financial anxiety and homesickness, Heredity, Hard work, Injury on head, Inhaling benzine, Inability to support family, Jealousy, Loss in stocks, Louisiana lottery, Morphine and cocaine, Misfortune, Nightmare, Opium, Overwork, Prize fighting, Reverses in business, Religion, Reading works on miraculous cures, Softening of brain, Spiritualism, Study, Shock from accident, Typhoid fever, Worrying over women. Report of State Insane Asylum at Agnew's, 1891, Table IV, p. 21. For causes of insanity for admission this fiscal year by medical diagnosis, see Table 5, page 22. For information on the treatment of syphillus, see page 32 of report.

xxv Note: Santa Clara's new image was to convey a sense of hope for its patients by ensuring proper care for patients. Imagine the public anger in the Great Depression if Agnew's was as the Trustee's described.

xxvi I need an OED cite.

xxvii Steinbeck, 52-53.

xxviii Steinbeck, 52.

xxix Page 32 STATE COMMISSION IN LUNACY. SYPHILITIC TREATMENTS AND LABORATORY WORK

xxx Steinbeck, 53.

xxxi Goo-goo. OED

Fame wasn't too much to ask, but societal security was

Ian Curtis' line, “I was foolish to ask for so much” in 'Passover' from Joy Division's album, Closer, is a reference to the mythical security that social norms provide and not a reference to fame. His personal status, his love for music and the context of the following lines in the song and all support this interpretation. 

 

First, Ian's social status when he wrote these lyrics evidence his desire to be an outsider. He was in his early 20s, an age which can often reject social norms as the financial and social pressures of independence from one's family mount. More importantly, he majored in English in college and he would have been familiar with postmodernist and deconstructionist theories which dissect social norms. Finally, he had a bureaucratic job but preferred band life. Not only did it offer opportunities to express himself creatively, it raised his sexual desirability as an individual stronger than social norms. It would be a reasonable expectation for a young man in his situation to want to reject societal expectations. 

 

Secondly, his love for music was not Ian's problem. But for the epilepsy, it was not foolish to ask for fame and success. His desires weren't to be an ordinary bureaucrat, but to be healthy again. 

 

Finally, the lyrics address his struggle as an outsider to social conventions available to mentally healthy people, not his solution to the struggle. The line 'I was foolish to ask for so much' could indicate that the desire to be a success in the band was the foolish request, but then the following two lines do not make sense. The lines state that his success falls apart at first touch 'without the protection and infancy's guard'. We cannot tell what protection or why infancy's guard would ensure his success, or at least protect him from falling apart. 

 

However, if read that he wanted to be free of social norms and expectations, the following lines are very coherent. Social expectations give society a level of certainty that does not actually exist. With his epilepsy, Ian could never be assured, even with medication,  that he could walk from one point to another without a life-threatening seizure occurring. This persistent anxiety that society represses in order to function was an unanticipated cost of separating himself from 'normal' society.

The phrase “infancy's guard” refers to children learning to walk. In infancy, before society expects a child to walk, bodies are more flexible and prepared for falls. Also society through parents, siblings and relatives, provides training, encouragement, support and safety measures for infants learning to walk. The guard of infancy is the additional attention society provides when the outsider to 'normal' is created by inexperience as a newcomer.

Yet anyone can fall at anytime.The phrase 'without the protection' refers to society's ability to repress this existential angst. It is not just any protection, it is “the” protection. Society masks this by keeping disabled people as outsiders. People who cannot live up to the expectation of walking without falling are pushed out of sight. 

 

What could fall apart at first touch? Ian's success was not falling apart - the social myth of certainty falls apart. It is an illusion and when you try to be certain of walking from one place to another outside of society, a person can realize, like an infant trying to steady herself, that 'at first touch' anyone can fall down. 

 

Works Cited

 

Control. Dir. Anton Corbjin. Perf. Sam Riley. The Weinstein Company, 2007. DVD.

 

Curtis, Ian. "Passover." Rec. 30 Mar. 1980. Closer. Joy Division. Martin Hannett, 1980. YouTube. Thisisbedge, 14 Apr. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJjoK2vl3eU>.

English Literature:

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Cultural Disability Studies

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LIT 4093

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