Rhinoplasty ...

[Dave Monroe]

>From Lauren Slater, "Dr. Daedalus: A Radical Plastic
Surgeon Wants to Give You Wings," Harper's. Vol. 303,
No. 1814 (July 2001), pp. 57-67 ...

"Sander Gilman, a cultural critic of plastic surgery,
writes that, in this group of doctors, there are a lot
of big words thrown around in an effort to cover up
the sneaking suspicion that their inetrventions are
not important.  One is never supposed to say 'nose
job'; it's called rhinoplasty.  Gilman writes, 'The
lower the perceived status of a field ... the more
complex and 'scientific' the discourse of the field
becomes." (p. 60)

Wisecracks, albeit ones with a kernel of truth, about
lit'rary criticism at al. aside, Slater is citing here
...

Gilman, Sander.  Making the Body Beautiful:
   A Cultural History of Aesthtic Surgery.
   Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1999.

And, while I'm at it, see also ...

Haiken, Elizabeth.  Venus Envy: A History of
   Cosmetic Surgery.  Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
   UP, 1999.

But the really interesting stuff here follows ...

"Rosen's ideas and aspirations ... go beyond what I am
uncomfortable with, though I acn't quite unearth teh
architecture of my concerns.  After all, he doesn';t
want to hurt anyone.  Maybe it's ebcause Rosen isn't
just talking abbout everyday beauty and its
utilitarian aspects.  He is talking EXTREMES.  When
Rosen thinks of beauty, he thinks of the human form
stretched on the red-hot rack of his imagination,
which is mired in medieval texts and books on
trumpeter swans.  At its outermost limits, beauty
becomes fantastical, absurd.  Here is where Rosen
rests.  He dreams of making wings for human beings. 
He has shown me blueprints, sketches of the scalpel
scissoring into the skin, stretching flaps of torso
fat to fashion gliders with rib bone."  (pp. 60-1)

"He once met a Vietnamese man with two thumbs on one
hand.  This man was a waiter, and his two thumbs made
him highly skilled at his job.  'Now,' says Rosen, 'if
that man came to me and said, "I want you to take off
my extra thumb," I'd be allowed, but I wouldn't be
allowed to put an extra thumb on a person, and that's
not fair.'" (p. 61)

"'Echolocation devices,' Rosen explains, 'implanted in
a soldier's head, could do a lot to enhance our
military capability.'" (p. 61)

"Rosen and his wife have invited me for dinner.  I
accept.  Stina is an artist.  Her work is excellent. 
'Joe is an inspiration for me,' she says.  'He brings
home pictures of his patients, and I sculpt their
limbs from bronze.'  In her studio, she has a riot of
red-bronze deformed hands clutching, reaching, in an
agony of stiffness.  She has fashioned drawer pulls
from gold-plated ears." (p. 62)

"She has a perfect Protestant nose ..." (p. 62)

"'It is only our Judeo-Christian conservatism that
makes us think this is wrong.'" (p. 63)

"We take Prozac, even Ritalin, to help transform
ourselves, but recoil when it comes to wings." (p. 63)

"Rosen desires to make incarnate the identity
diffusion that is so common to our culture." (p. 65)

"Plastic surgery is really neurosurgery, because when
a surgeon modifies your body, he modifies your
bendable brain." (p. 65)

"'If I were to give you an echolocation device, you
would devlop in part a bat-brain.'" (p. 65)

"Rosen's desire to meld human and animal forms ...
raise[s] some interesting questions about the
intersection of technology and prmitivism." (p. 66)

http://www.harpers.org/newsstand/preview.php3

Reminds me, in the current issue of Discover (Vol. 22,
No. 7 [July 2001]), article about antidepressants,
Prozac et al., actually physically altering brain
structure.  There's a big well-illustrated art book
(exhibition catlogue?) of some sort I have at home
called Science Fiction Aesthetics or somesuch, all
sorts of body modification stuff in there, but I can't
find bibliographic info. online, will report back ...



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