Helluva twist
CHARLES DICKENS and his writings are still being 鈥渋nterrogated鈥� (that鈥檚 the word in use) by scholars, at least one of whom is almost electrified by what might be there.
Jeremy Parrott, an antiquarian bookseller and a stalwart of the Dickens Society, says he has identified a supply of electricity that flows, in a literary way, through the people in Dickens鈥檚 novel David Copperfield. Parrott announced his discovery in the March issue of the Society鈥檚 Dickens Quarterly, with a jolting 27 pages of facts 鈥� and perhaps some conjectures 鈥� all wired together with the title .
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The Dickens Society encourages research into almost anything to do with Dickens. Founded in 1970, its list of past presidents flaunts many names that are Dickensian or near-Dickensian, among them Graham Storey, George Worth, Susan Shatto and Sally Ledger. Parrott, though neither a past nor a present president, is of equally Dickensian nominative distinction.
His paper 鈥渋nterrogates two key names鈥� 鈥� David Copperfield and Uriah Heep 鈥� 鈥渁nd discloses some previously unsuspected motivations behind their creation鈥�. Copperfield is the book鈥檚 youthful hero, Heep his nemesis. Parrott says that the name Copperfield is 鈥渘ot merely metallic but electrical鈥� and deduces that the name David was inspired by Humphry Davy, the scientist widely credited as inventing the field of electrochemistry. In the novel, the first time the hero is given a name, that name is 鈥淢aster Davy鈥�. That is Parrott鈥檚 big clue.
Parrott gives his own readers 鈥� us 鈥� a detective thrill ride. He says the name Uriah Heep links to then-contemporary science 鈥渋n previously unsuspected ways鈥�. What鈥檚 more (and here is the thrill part), Parrott explains that other characters use the words 鈥渃adaverous鈥� and 鈥渕onster鈥� to describe Heep, which links Heep to the 鈥渆lectrically-sparked monster鈥� in Mary Shelley鈥檚 Frankenstein.
In his conclusion, Parrott hurls at us, his readers, a literary lightning bolt: 鈥淐oupling David Copperfield with that 鈥榤onster in the garb of man鈥� Uriah Heep, some 30 years after the first appearance in print of Frankenstein鈥檚 electrically-sparked monster, empowered Dickens to create, through his alter ego DC, a character who can plausibly be viewed as the first android in literature鈥�.
Catatonia from Catalonia
Inspiration about medical knowledge can come from almost anywhere. Musical inspiration about the aetiology of pneumonia comes, for some people, from the song by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Some people call it . David died in 2012, Bacharach in February this year, neither from pneumonia:
鈥淲hat do you get when you kiss a guy?
You get enough germs to catch pneumonia.
After you do, he鈥檒l never phone ya.
I鈥檒l never fall in love again.鈥�
But what of other medical conditions? What about, say, catatonia? Inspiration about the clinical aspects of catatonia comes, for Feedback, from a recent primer in the journal Medicina Cl铆nica, called . Jorge Cuevas-Esteban, David Sanagustin and Mar铆a Iglesias-Gonz谩lez, who wrote it, are based in the Catalonia region of Spain. The following lyrics, Feedback鈥檚 tribute to their writings, can be sung to the same tune:
鈥淲here are the folks who write the facts 鈥�
The medical facts of catatonia?
All of them work in Catalonia,
In Barcelona, north-east Spain.鈥�
Unmasked advice
Imagine a restaurant host saying: 鈥淲elcome, diners! Tonight鈥檚 78-course roast beef dinner includes generous portions of rotten meat, cardboard and solids that we are unable to identify. We are commendable for including (rather than excluding!) these ingredients and for telling you that we include them. We did a vast amount of careful work.鈥�
As you digest that, consider the Cochrane Report that led to misleading public outcries, such as this one in The : 鈥渢he verdict is in: Mask mandates were a bust鈥�. The report appraises the major precautions against covid-19 infection. 鈥� that is, it gathers lots of numbers crunched by lots of earlier studies.
When the planet seeks the answer to an urgent, yes-or-no question about saving lives, a meticulously researched study from a respected source gets attention. But when researchers don鈥檛 yet have much of an answer, they can mask that void by amassing copious tangential details.
Good scientists spell out the limitations of what they know. This Cochrane meta-analysis is painstakingly honest to the point of near self-destruction. It mentions that most of the reports it analysed are from long before the arrival of covid-19. And it says: 鈥淭he high risk of bias in the trials, variation in outcome measurement, and relatively low adherence with the interventions during the studies hampers drawing firm conclusions.鈥� It confides that 鈥渢he low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect鈥�.
The report ends with a veiled plea for someone, anyone, to do 鈥渓arge, well-designed鈥� studies 鈥渁ddressing the effectiveness鈥� of advice about wearing masks.
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