Agony And Absurdity Adventures In Cancerland

Living with breast cancer can be absurd. Often, though, the absurdities are kept behind the curtain and shared only with other women living in Cancerland-the tactless comment from a co-worker about how attractive we used to be when we still had hair, breast implants that explode or prostheses that are left behind, accidentally, in the vacation house, and a new wig that makes a woman feel more like Tina Turner than herself. You'll never hear more raucous laughter than that coming from a room full of women sharing their breast cancer experiences. And, in a hot second, that room can turn into a puddle full of tears, given the agony of cancer-saying goodbye to parts of ourselves that are taken in the name of treatment, or to our sisters who do not survive this disease. In bringing these stories forward, we share the painful, the profound, and the ridiculous. We heal, too. And, through these stories, we hope to increase the understanding of the young patient and survivor experience, and to illuminate the dark spaces for those who will walk this path in the future.

"Living with breast cancer can be absurd. Often, though, the absurdities are kept behind the curtain and shared only with other women living in Cancerland--the tactless comment from a co-worker about how attractive we used to be when we still had hair, breast implants that explode or prostheses that are left behind, accidentally, in the vacation house, and a new wig that makes a woman feel more like Tina Turner than herself. You'll never hear more raucous laughter than that coming from a room full of women sharing their breast cancer experiences. And, in a hot second, that room can turn into a puddle full of tears, given the agony of cancer--saying goodbye to parts of ourselves that are taken in the name of treatment, or to our sisters who do not survive this disease. In bringing these stories forward, we share the painful, the profound, and the ridiculous. We heal, too. And, through these stories, we hope to increase the understanding of the young patient and survivor experience, and to illuminate the dark spaces for those who will walk this path in the future."--Page [4] of cover.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence. Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.

Unlike any other volume focusing on women’s health issues, this collection brings together a wealth of cross-disciplinary perspectives to bear on the intersection of breasts and medicine. Among other works on similar subject matters, the academic versatility of this volume is unparalleled. This collection can serve as a textbook in a wide range of courses including those in philosophy, women’s studies, biology, psychology, literature, history, and medicine.

"Cancer can kill: this fact makes it concrete. Still, it's a devious knave. Nearly every American will experience it up-close and all too personally, wondering why the billions of research dollars thrown at the word haven't exterminated it from the English language. Like a sapper diffusing a bomb, Jain unscrambles the emotional, bureaucratic, medical, and scientific tropes that create the thing we call cancer. Scientists debate even the most basic facts about the disease, while endlessly generated, disputed, population data produce the appearance of knowledge. Jain takes the vacuum at the center of cancer seriously and demonstrates the need to understand cancer as a set of relationships--economic, sentimental, medical, personal, ethical, institutional, statistical. Malignant analyzes the peculiar authority of the socio-sexual psychopathologies of body parts; the uneven effects of expertise and power; the potentially cancerous consequences of medical procedures such as IVF; the huge industrial investments that manifest themselves as bone-cold testing rooms; the legal mess of medical malpractice law; and the teeth-grittingly jovial efforts to smear makeup and wigs over the whole messy problem of bodies spiraling into pain and decay. Malignant examines the painful cognitive dissonances produced by the ways a culture that has relished dazzling success in every conceivable arena have twisted one of its staunchest failures into an economic triumph. The intractable foil to American achievement, cancer hands us -- on a silver platter and ready for Jain's incisively original dissection -- our sacrifice to the American Dream"--

Now in paperback, the Wall Street Journal best-selling guide to charting a path from cancer to wellness through a toxin-free diet, lifestyle, and therapy--created by a colon cancer survivor. Millions of readers have followed Chris Wark's journey on his blog and podcast Chris Beat Cancer, and in his debut work, he dives deep into the reasoning and scientific foundation behind the approach and strategies that he used to successfully heal his body from stage-3 colon cancer. Drawing from the most up-to-date and rigorous research, as well as his deep faith, Wark provides clear guidance and continuous encouragement for his healing strategies, including his Beat Cancer Mindset; radical diet, and lifestyle changes; and means for mental, emotional, and spiritual healing. Packed with both intense personal insight and extensive healing solutions, the Wall Street Journal best-selling Chris Beat Cancer will inspire and guide you on your own journey toward wellness.

The Promise of Happiness is a provocative cultural critique of the imperative to be happy. It asks what follows when we make our desires and even our own happiness conditional on the happiness of others: “I just want you to be happy”; “I’m happy if you’re happy.” Combining philosophy and feminist cultural studies, Sara Ahmed reveals the affective and moral work performed by the “happiness duty,” the expectation that we will be made happy by taking part in that which is deemed good, and that by being happy ourselves, we will make others happy. Ahmed maintains that happiness is a promise that directs us toward certain life choices and away from others. Happiness is promised to those willing to live their lives in the right way. Ahmed draws on the intellectual history of happiness, from classical accounts of ethics as the good life, through seventeenth-century writings on affect and the passions, eighteenth-century debates on virtue and education, and nineteenth-century utilitarianism. She engages with feminist, antiracist, and queer critics who have shown how happiness is used to justify social oppression, and how challenging oppression causes unhappiness. Reading novels and films including Mrs. Dalloway, The Well of Loneliness, Bend It Like Beckham, and Children of Men, Ahmed considers the plight of the figures who challenge and are challenged by the attribution of happiness to particular objects or social ideals: the feminist killjoy, the unhappy queer, the angry black woman, and the melancholic migrant. Through her readings she raises critical questions about the moral order imposed by the injunction to be happy.

This volume brings together scholars from across disciplines and continents in order to continue to analyse, query, and deconstruct the complexities of bodily existence in the modern world. Comprising nine essays by leading and emerging scholars, and spanning issues ranging from literature, history, sociology, medicine, law and justice and beyond, Talking Bodies vol. II is a timely and prescient addition to the vital discussion of what bodies are, how we perceive them, and what they mean. As the essays of this volume demonstrate, it is imperative to question numerous established presumptions about both the manner by which our bodies perform their identities, and the processes by which their ownership can be impinged upon.