My first book report since 1965: Im nine tenths through the novel Arrowsmith, written in and about the first quarter of the 20th century when medicine finally got serious about being scientific. Airplanes, Xrays, vaccines and antibiotics are in their infancy. The world is plague-ridden. Its the story of a young idealistic doctor and the society of his time, his education, frustrating trials and tribulations, greedy power plays among the leaders and sad resistance to progress among the lowly who needed it most; political times that often opposed that newfangled science stuff. Prejudice stifles his mentor and hero, an older uncompromising researcher whos discoveries are profound but hes a German Jew, an immigrant. A recurrent theme among his wealthier conservative contemporaries is distain with effective lying rumors denigrating him and undercutting efforts to battle infectious diseases by opposing free clinics for the poor because it might hurt their private practice incomes. This book belonged to my mother, and at least some of the doodles and penciled notes are hers, I believe. Or they could have been from her father or brother. She probably read it before WW2. Its doodle/noteworthy, too, because her father, Alfred Cowan, was a doctor approximately the same age as the doctors and scientists during this period and may have had similar experiences, endured prejudice. My take on the story is irony. Irony because nearly a hundred years later a host of infectious horrible diseases that were essentially defeated by the research of that time, and my mothers generation and mine, are again threatening. But ignorant religious and political fanatics are keeping huge areas of the world at war, preventing access to modern medicine. Ignorant politicians deny and denigrate science with cell-phone-satellite-relay-posted-propaganda! Arrogant TV know-nothings with simplistic agendas have more influence than real experts, terrifying vast audiences about Ebola while criticizing and discouraging our best heroic doctors and scientists. Irony, because todays liberal greens are just as much in denial of the science about genetic research, and others are posting simplistic false anti-vaccine propaganda on the web too. (below is more truthful info about Roundup than the scary posts about it being in 75 percent of our air and water) biofortified.org/2014/03/roundup-in-75-of-air-what-the-report-actually-says/ Irony, because the powerful and ordinary alike, beneficiaries of REAL research like that of the fictional character Arrowsmith are STILL trying to slow the course of knowledge. Not just ironic, tragic.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:12:07 +0000