Jeremy Jeresky New Blog

On The Cutting Edge
I found it interesting that the first image which we saw on last mon lecture was the Nip/Tuck promo. Its an interesting show, fiction non the less but based on reality. Its obvious that the writers of Nip/Tuck must obtain an extensive amount of research into the specifics of contemporary plastic surgery, which will give a great veracity and corproreality to the show itself, but as well gives a great deal of insight into this overall practice. I,ve never seen the characters of this show apply methodoligies of the "proportions of the aesthetic face", but I have seen them apply a post operative interview process. "so, what do you want to change about yourself?" This interview process is actually a standard in plastic surgery procedures, according to emedicine, a website that I checked out. Written by Anthony Sclafani, director of the departmentof Otolaryngology, New York Medical College www.emedicine.com/ent/topic36.htm Actually, the interview process is alot more stringent in real life as Dr. Sclafani writes that "evaluating the patients psychological condition is essential". Who knows if all doctors actually do this, after all in the United States, its a business and standars are no doubt all over the board. Who do you think the "DR. Nick" character on the simpsons is based off of?
The intriuge of shows like Nip/Tuck, Extreme Makeover and The Swan play mostly on our inertest and our compulsiveness in viewing a certain gore and unatural metamorphesis. A natural metamorphesis would be the growing from child through puberty to middle and then old age. But radical reconstructive and plastic surgery inherant to these shows and many others presents us with an unatural alternate metamorphesis, which, I think is indicative and particular to modernism.
I say this because, even though Balsamo talks about the fashionable prediliction of women for the "pert" or upturned nose of the 40's and 50's, such paradigms have been active in societal imagination for much longer.
And this is were question 1 of our group discusion especially resonates a mesure of signifigance.
Keeping in mind the first two Nip/Tuck images we saw last Mon, I coincidently studied a classic short story this week in my English 314 class. The relevance was staggering. "The Birthmark" was written by the Brittish author Thomas Hawthorne in 1850. It is a story about a scientist named Alymer and his new young wife Georgiana. Georgiana, although immaculatley beautiful bears a small pixie like hand shaped birthmark on her cheek. Alymer, possesing the scientific mind, (this is where the story begins) one day asks her "Has it ever occured to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" , She replies "No, indeed, to tell you the truth, it has been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so". Alymer becomes obsessed with a scientific and personal perfection to a perpetual youthful idealization of life. He convinces his wife to see the deathly blemeshed nature of her apperance. "I am convinced of the perfect practibility of its removal" he dispels. "If there be the remotest possibility of it," Georgiana pleads, "let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me, for life-while this hateful mark mkes me the object of your horror and disgust, life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy, Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep science!"
Through a series of concoctions Alymer devises an elixer "bright enough to be the draught of immortality" to remove the birthmark. Georgiana drinks it and the pixie shaped hand slowly fades from her cheek. As Alymer revels in his accomplishment Georgiana succombs to its side effects and instantly dies.
A tragic ending "The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame."
As all stories reveal a message, we can derive several morals from this tragic tale. Should intracacies of nature be dabbled with? Can science solve all of our problems? espescially of the most humane? Is prying into natures secrets a good thing? What about living in the moment and excepting imperfections and individual apperances? A uniqueness ? Like all classic literature, this short story does'nt give us a didactic messeage to confront, rather we are left with an ambigous rational of foreseeable options to look at in life. The stagering line is that most of these questions and insights are just as prevelant now. The fact that Hawthorne wrote about the scientist, the rational male, who performs the "surgery" on the female, In this case his wife brings us back to question 1 and the Nip/Tuck promo. Balsamo states that cosmetic surgery enacts a form of cultural signification where we can examine the literal and material ideas of beauty. Are these ideas created and perpetuated by men, to be yet materialized on the woman? Balsamo futher writes that cosemetic surgery is said to improve self esteem, social status and sometimes even profesional standing. Certainly the idea of wanting to look younger and stave off natural ageing is another motivational factor. Statistically, are there more men plastic surgeons than women plastic surgeons? I couldnt find any stats on this but I imagine this might be changing as the Cutting Edge article was written over 10 years ago. Certainly the media plays an enormous role in causing the female body to become an object of heightend personal surveillance. Hyper- saturated images of females, be they models or movie stars swarm us from every concievable angle of our lives and we cant seem to avoid these, we know that these images are touched up and hyperreal or a simulacra, but they have an indelible impression on us. Recent studies have revealed that men are becoming an increasingly prolific market interms of plastic surgery and other such new treatments such as Botox and hair restoration and removal. The dynamic is changing. Still the themes of Hawthorne's BirthMark pervade and can allow us to negotiate a moral discussion of this oh so complex,now post modern phenomena.