"I do this with my own hand."
He looked at it critically, and said, more or less to himself, "If it could undertake the one task, it must undertake the other: that is but justice."
I was talking to
cionaudha about HMS Surprise recently, and...
We were both sympathizing about Stephen's surgery to remove the bullet after dueling with Canning. But she pointed out something I hadn't thought of, that by doing the surgery himself, he was expressing self-hatred.
Perhaps my judgment had been already clouded by first seeing that surgery scene in the movie, except there it's changed of course to be an accidentally injury from a stray bullet. And as cionaudha pointed out, Stephen's self-hatred wouldn't make any sense in that context. But in the movie, of course he's performing the surgery himself because he really is the most competent person to do it (and he doesn't want Higgins groping about clumsily in his abdomen). He's proud, and justifiably mistrustful of others.
But in the book, he's still proud and mistrustful - but in this case, it's "He has no opinion of the military surgeons, nor of the hospital" (at Fort William? in Calcutta). And I forget, M'Alister who assists him - what are his qualifications? Is he just a loblolly boy type of man? Anyway, we all know that Stephen is obstinate and feels he's the best qualified person to do the job. But still - removing a bullet - surely that's something a military surgeon would be quite competent in doing.
And another consideration is that he was shot on the right side of the chest, and in the duel had to switch his pistol to his less favored left hand. Surgery with his left hand!
And this after his terrible ordeal at Mahon of course, though a lot of time had passed - but Diana and Dil had only in recent months before (not sure how many months) fed him by hand.
Dil: "Thou hast no more skill in eating with thy fingers than a bear or a Frank, poor Stephen: art thou a Frank at times?"
Diana:"You are no great shakes at eating in the Indian way, I see... Oh my God, what have you done with your poor hands?"
(Though the night before the duel, he and Jack agreed that they had never played the Boccherini C major so well, so obviously his hands had to be in quite good shape for that, even if he still wasn't as good with a pistol as he had been before Mahon. So perhaps his hand was in good condition by this point.) (ETA: I discussed it with my cellist friend, and considering that his injuries were 1) having his fingernails pulled out and 2) possibly having his fingers crushed in screws (yes?), the left hand would have the harder task in playing the cello, because the left hand's work is mostly in the fingers while the right hand's work is more in the arm. So I think that means that if he was playing so well the night before, his hands must have been well-healed.)
Now I've lost track of what I was thinking. Oh, about self-hatred in doing the surgery himself. Yes, I can see that... And perhaps just self-punishment, and his Catholic view of penance, making amends? Poor Stephen. He really didn't intend to kill Canning. And if Canning hadn't tried to kill him and thus disabled Stephen's right hand, Stephen wouldn't have had to switch hands and wouldn't have missed his aim, which was just to knick Canning's arm. How I hate duels.
I must confess, I'm something like Stephen in my knowledge of nautical things - I neither know nor care about bowsprit nettings and boomkin knottings. But I adore medical things, and anatomy, and surgery. I've been looking at diagrams of the pericardium, the sternum, the third rib, trying to pinpoint the location of the bullet (under the pericardium, deflected across the sternum, having cracked the right rib, poor rib! Much much higher than in the movie. Of course, in the movie the danger was that the bullet had carried cloth into the wound, but in the duel Stephen had taken off his shirt to avoid that very threat. But this time, the bullet was under his pericardium, his pericardium, hoot toot! I want to see the davier that he himself designed for the purpose (did he draw it with his left hand, I wonder?) and see the demilune (is it like this??), and I want to know exactly what he was sawing with it, and which rib had to be raised and have the cartilage snipped (because in the movie they didn't have to snip cartilage, since the bullet was so low and I assumed Higgins was lifting one of the floating ribs), and how long did that take to heal?
Sigh. Medical love. Really this has turned out to be a rambling post about not much at all, just me thinking aloud.
By the way, I'm halfway through Desolation Island, so don't any of you DARE mention anything spoilery beyond that point. *death!glare* Or I shall stuff you full of madder like the poor rats. And then give you a bolus that will purge your innards unceasingly for days.
So! Was his surgery a self-punishment, an act of obstinacy and pride, or was it indeed a wise and prudent decision based on a deservedly poor opinion of military surgeons?
ETA: M'Alister is simply described earlier in the book as Stephen's "raw-boned Scotch assistant" without much history or credentials, but obviously he was at least competent enough for Stephen to trust him to raising the rib, snipping the cartilage, and then stitching and bandaging him up afterwards.
And maybe I'm crazy and non-squeamish, but it seems to me really not THAT bad for him to do surgery on himself. He would already be in pain from the bullet, so maybe the additional pain of a clean incision with a very sharp knife wouldn't be so bad. There are other much smaller painful things that one does to oneself - removing a splinter, removing an eyelash lodged in the eye - and one endures the temporary pain stoically, knowing that it will relieve the original pain. "Ouch, this hurts, but dangit, GET that bullet OUT of me." Maybe it's my own obsessive-compulsiveness. I know it gives me determination and endurance for other hands-on painful and maddening tasks. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I feel like I could do bullet-removal surgery on myself if necessary. Am I crazy? (Haha, in fact that almost sounds more feasible to me than climbing up the futtock shrouds. *shudder*)
------
And for fun, here's a completely unrelated random Jack-and-Stephen passage that I adore:
"There seemed to me a formidable array of guns. More than we possess, if I do not mistake."
"They were not guns, my poor Stephen. They were cannonades."
"What are cannonades?"
"Why, they are cannonades - medium eighteens. How can I explain. You know a carronade, I am sure?"
"Certainly I do. The short thing on slides, ignoble in its proportions, that throws an immense ball. I have noticed several about the ship."
"What a lynx you are, upon my honour: nothing escapes you."
x-posted chez moi
I was talking to
cionaudha about HMS Surprise recently, and...
We were both sympathizing about Stephen's surgery to remove the bullet after dueling with Canning. But she pointed out something I hadn't thought of, that by doing the surgery himself, he was expressing self-hatred.
Perhaps my judgment had been already clouded by first seeing that surgery scene in the movie, except there it's changed of course to be an accidentally injury from a stray bullet. And as cionaudha pointed out, Stephen's self-hatred wouldn't make any sense in that context. But in the movie, of course he's performing the surgery himself because he really is the most competent person to do it (and he doesn't want Higgins groping about clumsily in his abdomen). He's proud, and justifiably mistrustful of others.
But in the book, he's still proud and mistrustful - but in this case, it's "He has no opinion of the military surgeons, nor of the hospital" (at Fort William? in Calcutta). And I forget, M'Alister who assists him - what are his qualifications? Is he just a loblolly boy type of man? Anyway, we all know that Stephen is obstinate and feels he's the best qualified person to do the job. But still - removing a bullet - surely that's something a military surgeon would be quite competent in doing.
And another consideration is that he was shot on the right side of the chest, and in the duel had to switch his pistol to his less favored left hand. Surgery with his left hand!
And this after his terrible ordeal at Mahon of course, though a lot of time had passed - but Diana and Dil had only in recent months before (not sure how many months) fed him by hand.
Dil: "Thou hast no more skill in eating with thy fingers than a bear or a Frank, poor Stephen: art thou a Frank at times?"
Diana:"You are no great shakes at eating in the Indian way, I see... Oh my God, what have you done with your poor hands?"
(Though the night before the duel, he and Jack agreed that they had never played the Boccherini C major so well, so obviously his hands had to be in quite good shape for that, even if he still wasn't as good with a pistol as he had been before Mahon. So perhaps his hand was in good condition by this point.) (ETA: I discussed it with my cellist friend, and considering that his injuries were 1) having his fingernails pulled out and 2) possibly having his fingers crushed in screws (yes?), the left hand would have the harder task in playing the cello, because the left hand's work is mostly in the fingers while the right hand's work is more in the arm. So I think that means that if he was playing so well the night before, his hands must have been well-healed.)
Now I've lost track of what I was thinking. Oh, about self-hatred in doing the surgery himself. Yes, I can see that... And perhaps just self-punishment, and his Catholic view of penance, making amends? Poor Stephen. He really didn't intend to kill Canning. And if Canning hadn't tried to kill him and thus disabled Stephen's right hand, Stephen wouldn't have had to switch hands and wouldn't have missed his aim, which was just to knick Canning's arm. How I hate duels.
I must confess, I'm something like Stephen in my knowledge of nautical things - I neither know nor care about bowsprit nettings and boomkin knottings. But I adore medical things, and anatomy, and surgery. I've been looking at diagrams of the pericardium, the sternum, the third rib, trying to pinpoint the location of the bullet (under the pericardium, deflected across the sternum, having cracked the right rib, poor rib! Much much higher than in the movie. Of course, in the movie the danger was that the bullet had carried cloth into the wound, but in the duel Stephen had taken off his shirt to avoid that very threat. But this time, the bullet was under his pericardium, his pericardium, hoot toot! I want to see the davier that he himself designed for the purpose (did he draw it with his left hand, I wonder?) and see the demilune (is it like this??), and I want to know exactly what he was sawing with it, and which rib had to be raised and have the cartilage snipped (because in the movie they didn't have to snip cartilage, since the bullet was so low and I assumed Higgins was lifting one of the floating ribs), and how long did that take to heal?
Sigh. Medical love. Really this has turned out to be a rambling post about not much at all, just me thinking aloud.
By the way, I'm halfway through Desolation Island, so don't any of you DARE mention anything spoilery beyond that point. *death!glare* Or I shall stuff you full of madder like the poor rats. And then give you a bolus that will purge your innards unceasingly for days.
So! Was his surgery a self-punishment, an act of obstinacy and pride, or was it indeed a wise and prudent decision based on a deservedly poor opinion of military surgeons?
ETA: M'Alister is simply described earlier in the book as Stephen's "raw-boned Scotch assistant" without much history or credentials, but obviously he was at least competent enough for Stephen to trust him to raising the rib, snipping the cartilage, and then stitching and bandaging him up afterwards.
And maybe I'm crazy and non-squeamish, but it seems to me really not THAT bad for him to do surgery on himself. He would already be in pain from the bullet, so maybe the additional pain of a clean incision with a very sharp knife wouldn't be so bad. There are other much smaller painful things that one does to oneself - removing a splinter, removing an eyelash lodged in the eye - and one endures the temporary pain stoically, knowing that it will relieve the original pain. "Ouch, this hurts, but dangit, GET that bullet OUT of me." Maybe it's my own obsessive-compulsiveness. I know it gives me determination and endurance for other hands-on painful and maddening tasks. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I feel like I could do bullet-removal surgery on myself if necessary. Am I crazy? (Haha, in fact that almost sounds more feasible to me than climbing up the futtock shrouds. *shudder*)
------
And for fun, here's a completely unrelated random Jack-and-Stephen passage that I adore:
"There seemed to me a formidable array of guns. More than we possess, if I do not mistake."
"They were not guns, my poor Stephen. They were cannonades."
"What are cannonades?"
"Why, they are cannonades - medium eighteens. How can I explain. You know a carronade, I am sure?"
"Certainly I do. The short thing on slides, ignoble in its proportions, that throws an immense ball. I have noticed several about the ship."
"What a lynx you are, upon my honour: nothing escapes you."
x-posted chez moi