{Morgue

By Gottfried Benn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp1XwHlDjQo

The world of medicine can be unpleasant and grotesque

Benn’s View

Everything white and sterile and gleaming.Under a sheet a moan and a stir.Abdomen painted. Scalpels are gleaming.“We are ready when you are, Sir.”The first incision. Like cutting of bread.“Clips!” A gusher of crimson red.Deeper. The muscles flaming and fresh,A garland of roses the vibrant flesh.Is this pus that started to spurt?Have the intestines perhaps been hurt?“Doctor, if you stand in the light,how can I keep that omentum in sight?Anesthetist, I cannot work,The guy is making his belly jerk.”Through the silence of mist and goreThe clatter of scissors dropped to the floor.The patient nurse, with watchful eye,Keeps sterile tampons in supply.“I can’t see a thing in all this rot!”“Off with the mask! Blood starts to clot!”“For Heaven’s sake! Hey, Mister, please,a little more pressure upon the knees!”Everything tangled. Finally found.“Cautery, nurse!” A hissing sound.Boy, I should say you were fortunate.The thing was about to perforate.“See this green spot? Three hours, I guess,and the mesentery would have been a mess.”“Sutures! Bandage! Jolly good show.”Everything closed. They wash up and go.Raging, rattling her bony sword,Death sneaks off to the cancer ward.

32 lines of gore Being a doctor can be dark and

frightening  “…A gusher of crimson red. / Deeper. 

The muscles flaming and fresh, / A garland of roses the vibrant flesh. / Is this pus that started to spurt?” (6-9)

 “Doctor,” “if you stand in the light, / how can I keep that omentum in sight?”  (11-12).

Appendectomy

Oprah learns about the omentum

The operating room description is grim and frightening

If the doctor’s are struggling this much, how will it end?

“Death sneaks off to the cancer ward”

Outcome

{Death in a Civil War hospital

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4pb_W_dSK8

The man:Here in this row are wombs that have decayed,and in this row are breasts that have decayed.Bed beside stinking bed. Hourly the sisters change.Come, quietly lift up this coverlet.Look, this great mass of fat and ugly humourswas precious to a man once, andmeant ecstasy and home.Come, now look at the scars upon this breast.Do you feel the rosary of small soft knots?Feel it, no fear. The flesh yields and is numb.Here’s one who bleeds as though from thirty bodies.No one has so much blood.They had to cut a child from this one, from her cancerous womb.They let them sleep. All day, all night.—They tellthe newcomers: here sleep will make you well.—But Sundaysone rouses them a bit for visitors.They take a little nourishment. Their backsare sore. You see the flies. Sometimesthe sisters wash them. As one washes benches.—Here the grave rises up about each bed.And flesh is leveled down to earth. The fireBurns out. And sap prepares to flow. Earth calls.—

 “… this great mass of fat and ugly humours / was precious to a man once, and / meant ecstasy and home” (6-8)

 “so much blood” (13) “They had to cut a child from this one,

from her cancerous womb” (14-15)

Man and Woman Go through a Cancer Ward

“Here the grave rises up about each bed.And flesh is leveled down to earth. The fireBurns out. And sap prepares to flow. Earth calls.—” (23-25)

Imagery and symbolism make medicine seem unpleasant and futile

The reader is forced to think about and consider his/her preconceptions of medicinal practice

Perhaps it is common to over-romanticize medicine?

What’s the Point of this Pessimism?

“Gothic Visions from Perotinus’ Time” by Marco Lo Muscio

Präludium und Fuge in A-Moll BWV 543 by Johann Sebastian Bach

Music: