Why I Support Something That Doesn't Yet Exist, or, Me And Obamacare

I have been surprised by the crude language and lies being put forth to attack "Obamacare," the as-yet unnamed and undefined amalgam of no less than five separate bills in the House and Senate that may or may not ultimately provide universal health coverage to most Americans, depending on what it looks like when it comes out of committee and gets voted on, with or without various amendments that may further water it down, if it gets voted on before next year's mid-term elections.

Whatever is currently happening in American politics, America itself is not poised on the precipice of great reform. Health care in America is not going to substantially change any time soon. But you wouldn't know that from watching television:



or reading various newspaper accounts of Obama's "dishonest," "judgment"-ridden program menacing America with roving "death panels" managing euthanistic, abortion-happy "death lists."

Excepting the New York Times' excellent work uncovering the outrageous and opportunistic roots of said "death panels," I've felt frustrated with the national reaction to the wild spectrum of anti-Obama rhetoric informing this "debate."

First, President Obama has not written any bill. His office supports no individual plan. Instead, Obama has set out a series of broad principles that he'd like to see Congress enact, however it best sees fit.

As has been widely reported, Obama learned a lesson from watching President Clinton fail to pass universal health care, and has instead requested that Congress create, debate, revise, and vote on its own variety of bills. Various bills still exist in various stages throughout Congress; there has been no formal vote on one bill in both houses of Congress. When the various current proposals eventually reach the intra-Congress committee, there will be further debate, revision, creation, and voting, after which one (or more) bill(s) will reach both floors of Congress, where there will be further debate and, finally, a vote.

In other words, Congress is doing its job as the legislative branch of our government. It is writing bills.

And Obama is sitting back, offering advice, working behind the scenes. He will eventually either sign or veto whatever bill does reach him, if one does at all.

Presidents and their staffs no doubt work the backroom scene, cajoling and glad-handing with the intention of influencing the various legislative acts. So do lobbyists. There are currently 6 health-care-specific lobbyists for every 1 member of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Think about that for a second: 6 to 1. For each state, that's one basketball team per Senate pair. For New York, that's an entire NBA conference of lobbyists working House members.

Americans should be concerned that so much corporate lobbying influence will dilute the final bills that come out of the Congress.

Instead, it seems, somehow, the outrage is directed at the Congressional members who, it is often implied, hate freedom and conspire in secret to somehow take away government health care coverage from some by extending it to all Americans:



or who conspire to empower Nazis:




or who look to hurt the elderly while giving young girls free abortions:




or who look to deny health care to Americans who need it:



or who want to kill any and all of the above:



To whom is this misinformation and fearmongering helpful? How does it add constructively to the important national debate that we should be having?

I should practice what I preach, right? Okay, here goes:

I'm 32 years old. I was born with bicuspid aortic stenosis. That means that my aortic valve doesn't work properly. Instead of three healthy valve flaps, it has two imperfect ones. Over time, that valve continues to narrow and work less well. As it does so, the aorta compensates by swelling in size. As the valve narrows and the aorta swells, my heart will work less well. Eventually, I'll have to have open heart surgery, at least once in my life (depending on the longevity of the artificial valve they put in to replace the original, and the little sleeve of fabric they use to reinforce my aorta).

Since birth, I have seen a cardiologist at least annually, often semi-annually. Last week, I visited my cardiologist, Dr. Hunt, a rock star Stanford Cardiology doctor who's one of the best in her field. I feel incredibly lucky to have Dr. Hunt currently overseeing my care. I get to see Dr. Hunt because I work at Stanford and I have HMO health insurance through Stanford, for which I pay about $300/month. I bring my records since childhood. She orders some tests, interprets them, and we talk about my long-term prognosis (so far, so good). My condition requires biannual check-ups with expensive tests that include echocardiograms and stress test echos. In the past, with health care that required me to pay 10% of my visits, the bill ran $800-$1,400 as my portion per visit. Expensive stuff.

I cannot get individual health care in America. Likewise, I can't get individual life insurance. I don't quality for either, because I have a pre-existing condition. That I was born with. I didn't develop it and I can't control its progression. All the same, call Blue Cross, Anthem, Kaiser, et al, ask for a health insurance policy and then say, "oh by the way, I have congenital aortic stenosis." No dice.

I'm well-educated and I'm good at finding jobs with group health coverage. When I needed to take some personal time two years ago, I was able to pay for COBRA coverage to extend the time until I got back on my feet.

The things that bugs me, personally, is that I can't imagine what someone in my situation, who doesn't work at Stanford, and/or who doesn't have health care coverage, and/or who has poor coverage, would do. Probably get really sick and then either die or cost a city hospital millions in lost expenses to do dangerous, end-of-life surgery from which s/he may not recover. That someone can be born in America with a condition that requires so much attention, and not be able to get it because s/he can't afford it, strikes me as unfair and short-sighted.

Regular check-ups are expensive, time-intensive, and require meticulous follow-up. Open-heart surgery is very complicated and expensive. It requires a lot of recovery time and follow-up, as well as medications and regular check-ups to make sure everything is working okay, and continues to work okay. And, ideally, you want someone really good at heart surgery to, you know, cut open your chest and tinker with your heart.

I believe in the potential of my country to solve problems, from work programs to social security to veterans' benefits to institutional care for the long-term unwell. Health care costs are a short-term problem, and in the long-term so is the staggering absence of a health care safety net for those who need it most. Having many uninsured Americans who do not treat small problems leads to many uninsured Americans who must treat big problems. It's like the story of the guy who busts his arm, doesn't get it fixed, eats lots of Advil, damages his liver, and ends up in the hospital looking for a donor, a surgeon, a nutritionist, and a welfare officer. All on the government dime. Small problems, left untreated, get big.

Let's have a real debate about real issues. I'm a big Obama fan, and I trust my president to make good decisions as the chief executive. At the same time, I appreciate and understand that others may not. So, let's hash out the issues, rather than score cheap political points:



And let's not get mired down in the muck of hypothetically intellectualizing the real issues we face today, so much so that we grind to a halt and get nothing done. In the words of a great American president, FDR, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

David Axelrod Counters the Lies and Rumors About Obama's Much-Needed Healthcare Reform

The following is from an email from White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod:

Dear Friend,

This is probably one of the longest emails I've ever sent, but it could be the most important.

Across the country we are seeing vigorous debate about health insurance reform. Unfortunately, some of the old tactics we know so well are back -- even the viral emails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions.

As President Obama said at the town hall in New Hampshire, "where we do disagree, let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that's actually been proposed."

So let's start a chain email of our own. At the end of my email, you'll find a lot of information about health insurance reform, distilled into 8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage, 8 common myths about reform and 8 reasons we need health insurance reform now.

Right now, someone you know probably has a question about reform that could be answered by what's below. So what are you waiting for? Forward this email.

Thanks,
David

David Axelrod
Senior Adviser to the President

P.S. We launched whitehouse.gov/realitycheck this week to knock down the rumors and lies that are floating around the internet. You can find the information below, and much more, there. For example, we've just added a video of Nancy-Ann DeParle from our Health Reform Office tackling a viral email head on. Check it out:

8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage

1.Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

2.Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.

3.Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

4.Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.

5.Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

6.Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

7.Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

Learn more and get details: whitehouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections

8 common myths about health insurance reform

1.Reform will stop "rationing" - not increase it: It's a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

2.We can't afford reform: It's the status quo we can't afford. It's a myth that reform will bust the budget. To the contrary, the President has identified ways to pay for the vast majority of the up-front costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. In the long term, reform can help bring down costs that will otherwise lead to a fiscal crisis.

3.Reform would encourage "euthanasia": It does not. It's a malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors. For seniors who want to consult with their family and physicians about end-of life decisions, reform will help to cover these voluntary, private consultations for those who want help with these personal and difficult family decisions.

4.Vets' health care is safe and sound: It's a myth that health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget significantly expands coverage under the VA, extending care to 500,000 more veterans who were previously excluded. The VA Healthcare system will continue to be available for all eligible veterans.

5.Reform will benefit small business - not burden it: It's a myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses, provide tax credits to help them pay for employee coverage and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.

6.Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform: It's myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform will improve the long-term financial health of Medicare, ensure better coordination, eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies, and help to close the Medicare "doughnut" hole to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.

7.You can keep your own insurance: It's myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.

8.No, government will not do anything with your bank account: It is an absurd myth that government will be in charge of your bank accounts. Health insurance reform will simplify administration, making it easier and more convenient for you to pay bills in a method that you choose. Just like paying a phone bill or a utility bill, you can pay by traditional check, or by a direct electronic payment. And forms will be standardized so they will be easier to understand. The choice is up to you - and the same rules of privacy will apply as they do for all other electronic payments that people make.

Learn more and get details:
whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq
whitehouse.gov/realitycheck

8 Reasons We Need Health Insurance Reform Now

1.Coverage Denied to Millions: A recent national survey estimated that 12.6 million non-elderly adults - 36 percent of those who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market - were in fact discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition in the previous three years or dropped from coverage when they became seriously ill. Learn more:
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/denied_coverage/index.html


2.Less Care for More Costs: With each passing year, Americans are paying more for health care coverage. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages. In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job. Americans pay more than ever for health insurance, but get less coverage. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hiddencosts/index.html

3.Roadblocks to Care for Women: Women's reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including yearly pap smears, mammograms, and obstetric care. Women are also more likely to report fair or poor health than men (9.5% versus 9.0%). While rates of chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are similar to men, women are twice as likely to suffer from headaches and are more likely to experience joint, back or neck pain. These chronic conditions often require regular and frequent treatment and follow-up care. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/women/index.html


4.Hard Times in the Heartland: Throughout rural America, there are nearly 50 million people who face challenges in accessing health care. The past several decades have consistently shown higher rates of poverty, mortality, uninsurance, and limited access to a primary health care provider in rural areas. With the recent economic downturn, there is potential for an increase in many of the health disparities and access concerns that are already elevated in rural communities. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/hardtimes

5.Small Businesses Struggle to Provide Health Coverage: Nearly one-third of the uninsured - 13 million people - are employees of firms with less than 100 workers. From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. Much of this decline stems from small business. The percentage of small businesses offering coverage dropped from 68% to 59%, while large firms held stable at 99%. About a third of such workers in firms with fewer than 50 employees obtain insurance through a spouse. Learn more:
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/helpbottomline

6.The Tragedies are Personal: Half of all personal bankruptcies are at least partly the result of medical expenses. The typical elderly couple may have to save nearly $300,000 to pay for health costs not covered by Medicare alone. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction

7.Diminishing Access to Care: From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. An estimated 87 million people - one in every three Americans under the age of 65 - were uninsured at some point in 2007 and 2008. More than 80% of the uninsured are in working families. Learn more: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/inaction/diminishing/index.html

8.The Trends are Troubling: Without reform, health care costs will continue to skyrocket unabated, putting unbearable strain on families, businesses, and state and federal government budgets. Perhaps the most visible sign of the need for health care reform is the 46 million Americans currently without health insurance - projections suggest that this number will rise to about 72 million in 2040 in the absence of reform.

Learn more: www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/CEA_Health_Care_Report.pdf

Lucy

In the fall of 2002, Katie called me from work to say that a co-worker was looking to give away two kittens and did I want her to bring one home? We had been talking pets for a few months and while my loyalties at the time leaned dog, the practicality and self-sufficiency of cats made them a better choice for our urban Chicago Uptown digs. Actually, Katie suggested we get the apartment ready and she bring home a kitten two days later but I was undeterred: bring both home at the end of your workday (on the orange line "El," from the end of the line all the way north to red-line Montrose) and I'll make sure they come home to a cat-ready apartment! I took the bus to Petco and bought cat litter, two litter boxes, cat food, cat climbing toys, cat treats, cat nip, food and water dishes, a play toy that consisted of a long wand with a furry thing at the end, and little furry round things filled with catnip. I took a cab home.

Katie arrived home with tiny kittens in a big white pillow case. They were no bigger than the palms of our hands (here's a 2002 photo of our holding the kitties, upon their arrival). One was wiry, aggressive, and loud. Assuming she was a boy, we named her "Chet" after Chet Atkins, one of our favorite country-western guys. The other was quiet, reserved, larger, and covered in incredibly soft white fur. We named her "Lucy" in honor of Lucinda Williams, whose Car Wheels On A Gravel Road was a staple of our CD playlist that summer.

Chet and Lucy were a big part of our lives for the next five years. They moved with us from Chicago to Miami, and on to Romania. We went through the many stages of animal care, from delousing to fixing to litter box location, to some play (they were, after all, cats) to brushing to let-us-be-cats-and-you-know-more-or-less-leave-us-alone. Truth be told, they were easy kittens. Lucy, in particular, had a kind of Ben "Big Baby" Davis quality: big and athletic, she could clear an easy four feet leaping into the air after said dangly cat toy. She took the lead batting at and hiding catnip-filled mice. Lucy was a quiet alpha cat who suffered no grief from Chet. Every few weeks Chet would test, unsuccessfully, the natural order, trying to claim Lucy's favorite spot in Chicago on top of the computer monitor, under the desk lamp; in front of the big sliding glass door in Miami; on top of the yellow leather chair in Romania. Lucy didn't like to be picked up or pet all that much, and unlike Chet she never let anyone put her on her back. But she would sidle up to the bed and sleep near my head, or stretch out under the lamp while I wrote in Indy, resting the pads of her feet against my arm. Lucy was affectionate on her own terms, which I always respected. The last few months, she got in the habit of waking us up in the mornings to go turn on the tub faucet, so that she could drink from it (a habit that followed her to every apartment where she lived). Then, she would return to the bed and climb up on top of my chest and sit there, purring, while I slept.

I wonder, now, if her climbing up on my chest was comforting to her because she had internal pain. Or, worse, if she was doing her best to communicate, in "cat", to us that something was wrong. However it developed, Lucy died of liver failure last Sunday. Cait and I came home to find her nearly-catatonic, unwilling to move too much, and the wonderful, sympathetic Dr. Wong at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists confirmed confirmed our worst fears. Dr. Wong was kind to give us as much time as we wanted to say goodbye; I've said this a few times in emails to friends and family, but it surprised me how much I had to say to Lucy, how much I wanted to communicate as best, and probably ineffectively, as I could. Cait and I cried a bunch. The vet let me hold Lucy as she died, which meant a lot to me.

For me, pet eulogies have always ranked up there with paeans to old cars and invocations of fertility deities at dinnertime. Truth is, Lucy was one of my best friends. I really miss her. I'm shocked that she's not sleeping on the red chair in the next room, or wandering in to mew and get a quick chin scratch. Lucy lived with me in five cities, on two continents, for seven years. In that time, she was a great comfort in all sorts of situations. Just knowing she was there, and would be there, gave a kind of continuity to a life that featured some unexpected transitions. More than that, I liked Lucy. She was easygoing, friendly, independent. She made cute noises when she yawned. Most of the time, she looked at me with this kind of "Really, what?" look on her face. If a stranger came over, or if there was a storm, she'd hide under the bed or in Cait's closet, in a shoebox. Unlike Chet, she didn't give Cait a hard time when she moved in and she made immediate friends with Cait's sister, Jilly.

I've been listening to Death Cab for Cutie's "Scientist Studies" a lot these last two days. Especially, the first two lines get me: "What ghosts exist behind these attic walls? There's got to be a simpler explanation." Strangely, Chet seems generally unfazed by Lucy's absence, though I think in the long haul, it's going to be a transition for her. So, keep both of my kitties in your thoughts. And, here's a poor recording of what otherwise sounds like a great live version of the song (drunken setting aside):

Check Out My New Blog!

If you're interested, I've started writing another, different kind of blog for a new news website, The Faster Times.

In theory, I use professional wrestling as a lens to consider contemporary political and cultural issues. Of course, as Homer Simpson once noted, in theory, Communism works--in theory--but if you're interested all the same, check it out:

http://thefastertimes.com/prowrestling/

And, of course, check back here for new How To Like It posts!

June 23rd

Today is the second anniversary of Katie's death, the day when many people lost the central person in their lives. Today is a day for grieving the absence of a beautiful and unique person who inspired friends, family, and colleagues to love themselves, to believe in themselves, to do good work in the world, and to not take life too seriously. Katie was a fair and kind person, and her certainty about the world around her made her a natural leader wherever she went. After her death, so many referred to her as a best friend and as a mentor. Katie also had as clear a sense of the fragility of living as anyone I have ever met. In regular back-and-forth conversations about life, death, and the afterlife, she spoke in certain terms about life offering no guarantees and certainties, how this lack of certainty made life beautiful to her. The scope of Katie's impact in the world, and then of her violent death, alternately mended and tore apart great swaths of our lives' fabric. I can think of, first, no greater tribute, nor, second, of something with which it is so difficult to make peace.

For me, today is also the day that I watched Katie die, and that I was unable to stop her from dying. When I remember publicly June 23rd, 2007, I remember a beautiful day, a ridiculously difficult hike, a magical mountaintop hostel that sold Cokes, and then a short hike across the ridge back from dinner under a beautiful and clear sky. When I remember the day privately, I remember a great deal more. I do not mean to bear the martyr's sack-cloth and walk about the public square wailing and gnashing my teeth, but Katie's death was violent and senseless, and this, still, makes me feel great anger and despair about the indiscriminate potential of the natural world.

Robert Kennedy often spoke of the "inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility toward the suffering of our fellows." Katie liked to joke that she joined the Peace Corps because she got stuck under a mall speaker playing, on repeat, John Lennon's "Happy XMas (War Is Over)". And yet, from her early life-guarding and camp counseling, to the Peace Corps, to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, to FIU's Public Health school, to her AIDS/HIV and family violence work for IOCC in Romania, Katie consistently chose to work with people in need. It is a part of Katie that we work to keep alive in the world, internationally and locally, through The Katie Memorial Foundation (KMF).

There is an imperfection to the world that makes it hard to live in, from our knowing that whatever joins us does not always keep us together, to our understanding that gestures which become repetitive struggle to feel fresh and vivid. Katie was a real person, and I do my best to remember her as living flesh and blood, full of humanity. I am fortunate to know that she is a spirit in my life, and to believe that her love is a guiding presence in my life, guarding and keeping me, accountable to no human comprehension, only that other imperfect idea that frustrates me so, faith.

Katie would be uncomfortable with so much tribute. I think she would resent that anyone's focus be so backward-looking. Another way to say this is that it's easiest for me to think of Katie, most days, saying about this blog and my writing about our life together, "If you have to do it, do it, just don't think you're doing it for me." If I harden the delivery (and I don't think I do), I've got the message just about right. Katie lived a sometimes difficult life without expectation of restitution or coming glory. She lived, very well, in the present. So it makes sense that, to honor Katie, we live without making her or her death a crutch, that we at least intend to live a beautiful and rich life, and that we be grateful for or make peace with, the life we lead.

I'll close with one of the songs that Katie loved, which reminds me of her, Susan Werner's "Barbed-Wire Boys."

Chapter 5 (vii-ix) and Chapter 6 (i-vii)

If our construction of the afterlife is structured by our experience of the mortal world, then we, as readers, can forgive Elliott his certainty that heaven bears out certain "class distinctions" of serpahim, cherubim, archangels, and angels.  Picking up on Marcus's comment, to see Larry's generous substitution of invitations as generating sympathy for, and pathos towards, Elliott, I'll add that Elliott has a consistent worldview of how things are, and should be, and so is pretty threatened when that worldview doesn't play out.  Heaven may prove a mixed bag, indeed, so here's hoping the crossing over, at least, goes smoothly.  

I feel a good deal of ambivalence, however about this passage from 5.9:

"An old, kind friend.  It made me sad to think how silly, useless and trivial his life had been.  It mattered very little now that he had gone to so many parties and had hobnobbed with all those princes, dukes, and counts.  They had forgotten him already."

I like that Maugham suggests the reader might skip Chapter 6, "since for the most part it is nothing more than the account of a conversation that I had with Larry," and how he immediately adds, "...except for this conversation, I should perhaps not have thought it worth while to write this book."

Isabel and Gray inherit most of Elliot's fortune, and in doing so, seal off again the hermetic seal that is their world.  Their daughters are attractive and curious, and so seem set upon Isabel's path, and it is there that Maugham loses interest in their story for the chapter.  Instead, by chance, he meets Larry, they have dinner, and over the course of an evening, Larry fills in the backstory and explains, with great reference, the philosophy he's been undertaking.  Seduced by Larry's openness and charm, Maugham reveals much of his own thinking about the world, religion, and cultures; for a character we've understood mostly through tone, to this point, it's a welcome opening up.

I don't know the best way to parse this part of the novel, except to point out passages that I particularly like.  So, here goes:

"I'd known that men had been killed by the hundred thousand, but I hadn't seen them killed.  It didn't mean very much to me.  Then I saw a dead man with my own eyes.  The sight filled me with shame...because that boy, he was only three or four years older than me, who'd had such energy and daring, who a moment before had had so much vitality, who'd been so good, was now just mangled flesh that looked as if it had never been alive." (Larry, explaining his reaction to the death of Patsy)

"'Our wise old Church,' he said then, 'has discovered that if you will act as if you believed belief will be granted to you; if you pray with doubt, but pray with sincerity, your doubt will be dispelled; if you will surrender yourself to the beauty of that liturgy the power of which over the human spirit has been proved by the experience of the ages, peace will descend upon you." (Father Ensheim, appealing to Larry to join his monastery, after leaving Bonn)

"'A god that can be understood is no God.  Who can explain the Infinite in words?'" (Larry, starting to discuss Hinduism with Maugham)

"'But how can a purely intellectual conception be a solace to the suffering human race?  Men have always wanted a personal God to whom they can turn in their distress for comfort and encouragement.'

'It may be that at some far distant day greater insight will show them that they must look for comfort and encouragement in their own souls.  I myself think that the need to worship is no more than the survival of an old remembrance of cruel gods that had to be propitiated.  I believe that God is within me or nowhere.  If that's so, whom or what am I to worship--myself?...The multitudinous gods of India are but expedients to lead to the realization that the self is one with the supreme self."

 (Larry and Maugham, discussion Hinduism)

Chapter 5, i-vi (The Razor's Edge)

NOTE: The following blog post references, tastefully, sexual situations that happen in the chapter.  Reader, be warned!  :)

Sophie arrives to Paris, engages our attention, and then disappears, all within the first six sub-sections of Chapter 5.  What we later learn of her, I'll leave aside for now, but simply put, our gang of four find her in a ratty Parisian nightclub, doped up, drunk, and in the company of unsavory, swarthy men, and a few pages later she is struggling to stay clean while engaged to Larry, whom she eventually leaves a few pages after that when she falls off the wagon.  So much plot unfolds throughout Chapter 5.  That plot is difficult to discuss in too much detail, because so much later information in the book changes our perception of these events.  For now, I'll stick to some broader observation:

1. I have read The Razor's Edge, I think, four times before this undertaking, and this is the first time I feel like I've really noticed how sexually-charged the first half of Chapter 5 is, from Sophie's exotic Paris underworld scene, where

"Men danced with podgy boys with made-up eyes; gaunt, hard-featured women danced with fat women with dyed hair; men danced with women...with a solemn intensity in which there was something horrible."

to Isabel's backseat orgasm, driving back to Paris from Chartres, while staring at Larry's tanned arm hair:

"Something in Isabel's immobility attracted my attention, and I glanced at her.  She was so still that you might have thought her hypnotized.  Her breath was hurried.  Her eyes were fixed on the sinewy wrist with its little golden hairs and on that long, delicate, but powerful hand, and I have never seen on a human countenance such a hungry concupiscence as I saw then on hers.  It was a mask of lust.  I would never have believed that her beautiful features could assume an expression of such unbridled sensuality.  It was animal rather than human.  The beauty was stripped from her face; the look upon it made he hideous and frightening.  it horribly suggested the bitch in heat and I felt rather sick.  She was unconscious of my presence; she was conscious of nothing but the hand, lying along the rim so negligently, that filled her with frantic desire.  Then as it were a spasm twitched across her face, she gave a shudder and shutting her eyes sank back into the corner of the car.

'Give me a cigarette,' she said in a voice I hardly recognized, it was so raucous.

I got one out of my case and lit it for her.  She smoked it greedily."

a scene which ends with Isabel cornering Gray such that Maugham says, "I guessed that he would have a passionate bedfellow that night, but would never know to what prickings of conscience he owed her ardor."  What a funny, deliberate and showy noun: prickings!

2.  Sophie MacDonald emerges as a walking trainwreck of a woman, ruined emotionally at about the same time that Gray's father changes his investing strategies (enabling future ruin), Larry sets off for "the East," Isabel's mother gets diabetes, and Elliot moves to the coast.  All four characters' fates are intertwined at about the same starting point.

3.  Unlike Isabel and Gray's retreat to Europe, where they maintain appearances, Sophie's reaction to catastrophe is not to closedown shop and perpetuate her former life, but rather to undertake the self-cure through drug and alcohol abuse, and lots of sleeping around.  So, Sophie immediately seems sympathetic and honest in a way that Isabel and Gray seem caught up in appearances, though, of course, frantically-desireful Isabel is really the one at fault beside  feckless, impotent Gray--whose whole body achieves less wife-ly carnal effect than Larry's shiny wrist--who happily and fatly dawdles along for the ride.

4.  Isabel resents Sophie for her violation of social mores, and finds in her an easy straw-man to bat down again and again.  And yet, Isabel insists that Maugham take all of them on a "tour of the tough joints" that he knows.  So, if are we to think that Isabel knows she'll find some easy humor at these bars, then does it follow that she expects Sophie to turn up?

5.  The collapse of Sophie's hermetic world of husband and child, at the very least, makes us sympathetic to any and all horrible following behavior.  And yet, Sophie asks for no sympathy.  She's resigned to wander from coast to coast, living off her small inheritance.  She doesn't turn to an Uncle Elliot to fix things.  In this way, she's clearly aligned with Larry, who's also content to wander from place to place, and accept circumstances more or less as they present themselves--a distinction that, romantic rivalries aside, must drive Isabel up the wall.

6.  I like this quote from Maugham, "There was a time when the black sheep of the family was sent from my country to America; now apparently he's sent from your country to Europe."

7.  Interesting also that Maugham frames Sophie's husband's death in terms of heaven and hell.  This makes a Christ-like reading of Larry all the more readable in their interaction.  Unfortunately, his desire to rehabilitate her away from the sins of alcohol feels beside the point: the drinking isn't the problem so much as the thing that leads to the drinking which, if left unaddressed, only, perhaps fatally, exacerbates the latter.  I wonder if this reflects 1940s-era thinking about alcohol abuse, or if it's a deliberate plot choice for Maugham.

8.  Of course, it turns out, Sophie is a poet!

9.  Pride emerges as a kind of marker for the novel in this chapter: Larry's healing powers with regards to Sophie; Isabel's certainty of her claim on Larry's virginity; Elliot's belief that his existence is vital and necessary to the world; Isabel's certainty that women who go "to pieces...can never get back."  Again, Maugham uses a throwaway scene--his conversation with Isabel following Larry's engagement to Sophie--to reinforce his thinking here, and to make more explicit her Mary Magdalen-Christ dynamic with Larry:

"The devil was sly and he came to Jesus once more and said: If thou wilt accept shame and disgrace, scourging, a crown of thorns and death on the cross thou shalt save the human race, for greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  jesus fell.  The devil laughed til his sides ached, for he knew the evil men would commit in the name of their redeemer."

10.  Maugham has the final world on Isabel ("Come off it, Isabel.  You gave [Larry] up for a square-cut diamond and a sable coat."), but, as we know, Isabel is not a woman to lose at much of anything, at least not on her own terms.