The Bluestocking, vol 208
the enormous opportunity to enable omnichannel commerce.
Happy Friday!
Hope you enjoy the Fabergé egg erotica further down.
Helen
The Big Misunderstanding About Havana Syndrome (New York Magazine)
Every one of us is susceptible to “nocebo” effects — uncommon experiences we errantly associate with particular stimuli, but that are real nevertheless. For instance, in the placebo arm of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial, 47.4 percent suffered fatigue, 41.9 percent headache, and 11.0 percent new or worsening joint pain. Similarly, new research has found that the muscle pains commonly attributed to cholesterol-lowering statin medications are mostly, if not entirely, nocebo effects. Indeed, I suspect that such experiences are simply a part of being alive. Early in the pandemic, I developed a fear of contracting COVID-19 and infecting the patients and staff at the ICU where I work as a physician. With that anxiety emerged physical symptoms I’d vaguely define as sore throat and chest heaviness. After testing negative, I slowly came to realize that these were sensations I had always experienced from time to time, but which had become more intense due to this fear — and the focus it engendered. This kind of brain-body connection might explain Havana syndrome symptoms for some.
I’m getting very into psychogenic and sociogenic illnesses, and Havana Syndrome is such an interesting example—when the affected population is teenage girls, we are much more accepting of the idea it might be social contagion, but… military guys? Surely not. Of course, the point is (as this article demonstrates) we all experience physical symptoms related to our mental states.
Jurassic Park with the dinosaur replaced by a cat. The best thing about this is the fact that if cats were 20ft tall, they would be more scary than T-rexes.
Quick Links
“This is a carpenter’s egg.” All the surviving Fabergé Imperial eggs, ranked.
I still sing this in my head every time the Succession theme plays. (Though I like the Pusha T version too. And the Beethoven original.)
I’m quoted in this piece about why Hollywood is “shunning sex”. I think there are a number of things going on: a) America has always been quite prudish and an NC-17 certificate is seen as the kiss of death in commercial terms; b) big-budget franchises dominate the slate and they need to be family-friendly; c) the use of gratuitous softcore tit exposure has fallen precipitously because it feels asymmetric and icky. GIVE ME WANG OR GIVE ME DEATH, as Patrick Henry said in his speech to the third Virginia Convention.
A smart thread about the echoes of terrorist tactics—goad your enemy into a response which hits civilians, and then recruit off it—in the American panic over critical race theory in schools.
“The following day, guests joined the couple for a picnic lunch at the Log Cabin on Presidio, overlooking the city—IV drips were at the ready for anyone in need of help recovering from the night before. . . . best man Frederic Trohler and Ivy’s rescue Chihuahua mix, Blue, supplied the rings at the request of Speaker Pelosi. . . . So while Bon Jovi’s wedding ballad “Living on a Prayer” was played, at this wedding, the bride was jumping up and down with John Galliano on the dance floor while guests chanted “Woah, we’re halfway there!”” I love an absurd rich person wedding. Stay for the hat in picture 81. (I also love the tweet of this story which just said: “Vogue publishes editorial arguing for a wealth tax.”)
Damon Albarn covers the Human League.
“At the end of each day, I tried to pause when I knew I could keep working—a practice known as “parking downhill” (I wish I could remember where I first heard this term in a writing context! It’s a genius tip)—so that the next day there was no hour-long staredown with the document, no wild grasping at literally any excuse (“Let me just make some more coffee/brush this dog/outline a totally unrelated YA novel first”) to avoid jumping back in: I knew exactly where to start.” I wonder if this writing advice works. I’ll report back. (The Atlantic)
Looking again at the Milgram experiment.
“Multiple big tech companies insist on having PR staffers quoted as “sources familiar with the situation” even though they are paid spokespeople for the most powerful companies in the world. . . A major delivery company spokesperson, asked when the company would be profitable, insisted that the following statement only be paraphrased on background: ‘We’re investing in the enormous opportunity to enable omnichannel commerce for local businesses.’” One for the journo-nerds: The Verge is updating its “on background” policy. The examples are amazing, and heavily suggest that tech PR are abusing off-the-record conversations with reporters to launder their opinions into the public domain without attribution.
See you next time!
Your comment about psychogenic illnesses and ‘military guys’ got me thinking of an absolute brain-changer of a book (didn’t you have a newsletter about those some time ago?): Elaine Showalter’s Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture, which makes you see the world in a wholly different way. She’s especially good on Gulf War Syndrome and sublimation (if that’s the word I want) of unacceptable and “unmasculine” war trauma into much less stigmatisable physical symptoms.
Whilst psychogenic illnesses certainly do exist, I would be wary about the confidence with which certain medical professionals claim they are widespread. Speaking as somebody who has had three family members misdiagnosed as such: one who had an (admittedly rare) autoimmune condition, a spouse whose doctor packed her off for three years of CBT because he missed the family history of epilepsy, and a sister whose nursing training meant she was able to bully her GP into getting a blood test for her ongoing fatigue ('you're just stressed') and was then rushed into hospital because her thyroid levels were such that 'we're surprised you're not in a coma'.
There is a long history of medicine writing off anything they can't explain as hysteria, especially in women* - later repackaged as 'conversion disorder', 'functional neurological disorders' or 'medically unexplained symptoms'. Given how often these diagnoses turn out to be wrong (the pre-Pylori view of stomach ulcers, the pre-MRI literature on the 'multiple sclerosis personality'), and how ineffective treatments to correct 'false illness beliefs' are (see the recent NICE rowback on treatments for ME), one would think the profession wouldn't still immediately leap to a psychological explanation if they can't immediately explain something. Yet still they do.
*I can't remember the exact statistic, but it's something like a 3:1 female/male ratio for 'functional' diagnoses; interestingly the rate of autoimmune conditions is a similar ratio, and many of those with systemic autoimmune conditions spend years having their concerns written off as just anxiety. Beware the medical misogyny here.