Managing Diabetes The Cultural Politics of Disease 1st Edition Jeffrey A. Bennett Instant Download
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Jeffrey A. Bennett
1. Critical Conditions 1
Acknowledgments 203
Notes 207
Index 239
vii
1
Critical Conditions
Besides, I think that the cicadas, who are singing and carry-
ing on conversations with one another in the heat of the day
above our heads, are also watching us. And if they saw the two
of us avoiding conversation at midday like most people, di-
verted by their song and, sluggish of mind, nodding off, they
would have every right to laugh at us, convinced that a pair of
slaves had come to their resting place to sleep like sheep gath-
ering around the spring in the afternoon. But if they see us
in conversation, steadfastly navigating around them as if they
were Sirens, they will be very pleased and immediately give us
the gift from the gods they are able to give to mortals.
—Socrates, Plato’s Phaedrus, 259A–259E
1
2 | Critical Conditions
walking past the trees that lined the path from Ballantine Hall to the
parking lot behind the Kinsey Institute, distracted by their rapturous
hymn. The cicadas’ ubiquitous and ethereal orchestration crescendoed
from a subtle whisper to an intense reverberation in a matter of steps.
They animated the branches by giving them a pulse, enlivening the
atmosphere with an energy that was somehow both electrifying and
soothing. The hum from the trees was nothing short of overwhelming,
imparting the feeling that at any moment they might conspire to over-
take the walkway and whoever happened to be occupying it. Though
invisible, they loomed large, effortlessly altering the scene with their
euphoric chorus.
In ancient Greece cicadas represented spiritual ecstasy, rebirth, and
immortality. Plato invokes the image of the cicadas in the Phaedrus
to symbolize both restraint and honor, narratively crafting a link be-
tween personal control and dignity. Plato’s protagonist Socrates tells his
companion, the book’s namesake Phaedrus, that they must resist the
song of the cicadas, not succumbing to laziness, but practicing restraint
against the pleasure-inducing cadence of the insects. Those familiar with
the text know that Socrates is obsessing over his libido more than he is
lauding some bugs in a plane tree. The storied philosopher reels in his
desires for the titillating youthfulness of Phaedrus as he advocates for
a disciplining of the passions and the virtue to be cultivated as a result.
Socrates hopes that the cicadas will relay to the Muses his moderation
and chaste disposition, and that he will be rewarded by Erato, the muse
of love, and Calliope, the muse of rhetorical eloquence. Desires con-
stantly encroach on Socrates, and he reproaches these temptations with
overt gestures of self-control.
The relationship between duty and pleasure, what scholars frequently
denote as hedonics, is a recurring theme in this book, which is dedicated
to the manifestation and circulation of diabetes rhetoric. The tension
between earthly desire and the platitudes of well-being is one I learned
firsthand when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes the same summer
the cicadas were resurrected in southern Indiana. Just a few weeks after
defending my dissertation (a study about the relationship between blood
and politics no less), the droning from the cicadas continued to stir as
I was hospitalized suddenly after lower-back pain left me unable to sit,
stand, or lay down comfortably. The pain was unlike anything I had ex-
Critical Conditions | 3
There were other complications that I could not foresee. Early on, my
pancreas was still producing trace amounts of insulin (a normal phe-
nomenon for those with type 1 diabetes) and when it interacted with
the insulin I was manually injecting, it caused me to have unusual bal-
ance problems. I remember on one job interview shortly after diagnosis
having a difficult time focusing on a senior scholar’s face as she posed
a question. Although I was supposed to be answering her inquiries
thoughtfully, I recall struggling to maintain composure and not embar-
rass myself during a dizzy spell. Driving and public speaking both be-
came precarious endeavors because any mild change in heart rate or
nerves left me unsure of whether my sugars were spiking or dropping
rapidly. A friend from graduate school warned my partner to monitor
me for depression, knowing that the first year after being diagnosed with
a disease, chronic or otherwise, can leave a person despondent. I never
pursued treatment or clarity about depression, worrying that any trace
of flexibility in my concept of self would suggest that I was unable to
contend with the multitude of changes I was juggling. Still, that first
year I slept more than was normal, I lost time in ways I never had, and
I became preoccupied with the life-altering ailments that awaited me.
Assurances that “there are worse diseases you could have” or “things
aren’t like they used to be” only made matters worse. In the years prior
to the Affordable Care Act, I also worried that formal recognition of
depression might be used against me in future health insurance mat-
ters. I grappled with the fallout of the diagnosis for years, consuming as
much information as I could about cures (and some scientist is always
curing some poor mouse of something), technological innovations, and
the prospects of a long and healthy life.
But what caught me most off guard in those first months were the
disturbing ways people in every realm of my life, from close friends
to complete strangers, communicated about diabetes. Even the most
well-intentioned conversations about diabetes quickly devolved into
recitations about the need to “take care” of myself, a variation of a
conventional narrative about personal responsibility and hard work.
The number of people who told me stories about relatives who had
diabetes, always in the past tense, was legion. On airplanes, in restau-
rants, during office hours, and at the gym (!) people implored me to
be attentive to my body. Although I rarely engaged with those who
Critical Conditions | 5
attempted to discipline what I ate, what some people with diabetes call
“hand slapping,” I commonly heard about death, folks who went blind
from sugar irregularities, and the trope of the irresponsible diabetic who
threw to the wind any thought of deliberate management. Sometimes
the subjects of these cautionary tales were older men who had lost a foot
to diabetes. At other times they were teenagers who died while in high
school. One well-meaning relative told me the story of an acquaintance
who had gone blind before dying from diabetes-related complications.
Noticing the look of dismay on my face, she quickly added, “He was
a crack addict too, though.” Of course, these stories of loss are gener-
ally heart-wrenching for the people sharing them. They disclose their
experiences in the hopes that my loved ones and me might avoid the
pain they endured and the misfortunes they witnessed. Still, it is little
wonder that depression hits hard in the first year after diagnosis. On
the one hand, people with diabetes are told their disease is not so bad;
on the other hand, it is conveyed repeatedly as fatal. Deciphering which
messages are pertinent to the immediacy of one’s livelihood can be a
daunting undertaking when attempting to stay well.
Along with these dispiriting exchanges I was fast learning that vigi-
lance did not always produce the results that I presumed and most
certainly did not ensure the consistency narrativized about diabetes
by others. I’m about as predictable as a human being can be. And yet,
repetitive practices did not engender the effects typically described in
medical literature. Early in my diagnosis I discovered that the same rou-
tine could produce glucose readings that were 100–150 points apart.2
I found that diabetes management is not merely about counting carbo-
hydrates and administering insulin but is complicated by factors such as
a lack of sleep, stress, exercise, caffeine, and a host of idiosyncratic cir-
cumstances. As Annemarie Mol notes, in the logic of diabetes care, “no
variable is ever fixed.”3 People with diabetes can mind these variations,
but the plasticity of the disease is readily glossed over by those who have
rigid predispositions about its effects. Even worse, these personal com-
plexities can be dismissed as merely anecdotal.4
The inconsistent outcomes that emerged from my daily activities
stood in sharp contrast to the facts I was cultivating about diabetes.
Methodical patterns were supposed to produce steady results. When
that did not happen, I found myself internalizing feelings of shame for
6 | Critical Conditions
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