Should you write about cancer?
A word about the sh*tstorm between
Lisa Bonchek Adams who has been writing a blog about the cancer she has been suffering and Guardian writer Emma G Keller and her husband, New York Times columnist Bill Keller,who object to the levels of information given in the pieces Adams has written.
Approaches to death are very much an individual matter and any public pronouncememnts about this are likely to stir controversy but it's worth considering two facts: one, there are 8 million Americans with blogs. There are bound to be some expressions of opinion that rile others. If not, it's so much wasted pixellation. Two: these kinds of confessional blogs, while not to everyone's taste, do lead to a greater engagement and openness about a subject, which affects us ALL: mortality.
In the UK, the death of a former contestant on Big Brother lead to more women presenting themselves for examination and the long-running column of journalist John Diamond (then husband of Nigella Lawson)provoked much greater awareness of cancer in men.
Speaking as someone whose sister died of the disease last year and who has written (albeit tangentially) about this in Memoir of a Gothic Girl, I would say it's far better to speak/write than to be silent.
Best cancer joke I know goes back to times when people would not even mention the C-word:
a character mentions his father...
A: How did he die?
B: The Big C.
A: What, he drowned?
Lisa Bonchek Adams who has been writing a blog about the cancer she has been suffering and Guardian writer Emma G Keller and her husband, New York Times columnist Bill Keller,who object to the levels of information given in the pieces Adams has written.
Approaches to death are very much an individual matter and any public pronouncememnts about this are likely to stir controversy but it's worth considering two facts: one, there are 8 million Americans with blogs. There are bound to be some expressions of opinion that rile others. If not, it's so much wasted pixellation. Two: these kinds of confessional blogs, while not to everyone's taste, do lead to a greater engagement and openness about a subject, which affects us ALL: mortality.
In the UK, the death of a former contestant on Big Brother lead to more women presenting themselves for examination and the long-running column of journalist John Diamond (then husband of Nigella Lawson)provoked much greater awareness of cancer in men.
Speaking as someone whose sister died of the disease last year and who has written (albeit tangentially) about this in Memoir of a Gothic Girl, I would say it's far better to speak/write than to be silent.
Best cancer joke I know goes back to times when people would not even mention the C-word:
a character mentions his father...
A: How did he die?
B: The Big C.
A: What, he drowned?
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