"Industrial Medicine and the Work of Normalizing Violence"
Hey everybody. I hope you're all hanging in there. I had the thought tonight that this might interest some of you so I figure I'll pass it along in case so, no worries if not - no pressure and all.
The final chapter of my book is on doctors who worked at large manufacturing companies where their job was in part to discriminate against disabled people. This week I presented a draft I wrote to try to make sense of some bits on this stuff that didn't make it into my book. This isn't directly covid related so if you're only interested in covid zero zealot marxism then this might not be up your street, no worries if so. The basic idea of the draft is that industrial physicians were expected to fill out paperwork that documented their practice of medicine in ways that stripped out the sometimes literally and often metaphorically bloody character of business as usual. This meant that people higher up the food chain were able to minimize the degree to which they had to confront some of the terrible harms that were baked in to business operations. So it's social murder and agnotology again.
Some of this is stuff I first found in 2011. I put it in my dissertation but didn't really make sense of it. Later I put the stuff I knew how to make sense of into my book and left out this stuff because I didn't feel like I could go 'hey I don't know either, reader, but, like, god damn, am I right?!' So I've spent like a decade and change being compelled by but not able to really comprehend some of this. I wrote another draft a few years ago, I think when the book was basically done but not entirely done and was away in the hand of a reader, I don't remember the specifics now. Anyway, that draft didn't work in that I still couldn't figure this stuff out.
I turned a corner this summer and really this fall writing this thing for the workshop this week in that I can now say what it was that captivated me in this - testament to the power of deadlines and the fact that writing when scared and confused, I guess (or as I call it, 'writing') can occasionally lead to new thoughts. I'm a little nervous this may end up a book project, kind of not ready to face up to that right now, but I'm pleased to have achieved some relatively new clarity.
I'll add that this relates to a thing I talked about in my book somewhat, I don't remember how much I put in there. One of the main doctors I looked at is a guy who lost his hearing and so left ordinary medicine to become an industrial physician where he ended up the architect of a program of employment discrimination against disabled people. He seems to have felt guilty about that and done it anyway. He also seems to have been a good dad. I found some family papers where he wrote a story for his kids about when his dog died when he was a kid, as a way to help his kids process their grief over the death of their mother, and he also helped his kids stay in touch with their grandfather and aunts on their deceased mother's side of the family. I found a letter one of his kids wrote to her aunt, something like 'I'm in daddy's office, I like to typewrite,' which is adorable and touching it's also the officer typewriter he used to do his job that harmed so many people. I find that juxtaposition of deep real humanity and atrocious, compelled inhumanity very affecting.
So here's the paper if you want to read it, I want to say it's like twenty pages, so you know what you're getting into. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xFOK6Si-taN1oLetJeZYNXeqqftPB0PrJ4FWDTVhfyI/edit?usp=sharing
If I end up eventually trying to turn it into something more finished or whatever then I may take this draft down but I don't anticipate having the time to really do anything substantive until 2024 (and can I just say, 2024, what the FUCK?! Time can't be real, it just doesn't make sense.)
As long as I'm sending this out I thought I'd mention two records as well. One is this heavy noisy record by Bruxa Maria, which is what I write to most of the time this year. (I like to write to higher energy and kind of dissonant or dark music, it works as a stimulant, but I like it to be familiar rather than new and to not have clear lyrics I can make out, because new and clear lyrics distract me.) https://bruxamaria.bandcamp.com/album/build-yourself-a-shrine-and-pray
The other is this new record by Kevin Richard Martin who makes kind of dance music from space a lot of the time under the name The Bug and has more recently started doing cinematic ambient under his real name. This one's written as what he calls a musical eulogy for Amy Winehouse. I think that idea's moving. I've listened to two tracks and especially like the second. Loud, slow, lonely bass, makes me think of monoliths. https://kevinrichardmartin.bandcamp.com/album/black
Sorry if neither of these is your cup of tea (or maybe it is your cup of tea but you don't like tea? God damn. Sounds miserable!) Anyhow, have a good weekend.