The people on the show who frequently get the sharp edge of his tongue and his attitude are patients. As in, people who are sick, in pain, vulnerable, scared, and who have been thrown against their will into the meat-grinder that is Organized Medicine.
you are making a lot of excellent points, and I totally get where you are coming from...but I've started to take a different perspective. I don't think we are necessarily supposed to forgive him because he is "diagnostic genius" - I think we are probably supposed to empathize because it is clear that he, too, has been vulnerable to the fragility of his own body and chances are? He didn't deal with at particularly well at the time (this is probably a massive understatement) and he isn't dealing well with the aftermath (I think last night's episode did a lot of work on this issue, I don't want to spoil you because it appears you haven't seen it?)
I'm not trying to convince you out of your reaction - I think that the text is fairly ambiguous in a lot of ways. I just think I've started it reading it in a way that allows me to understand how he can say such terrible things to his patients (to be fair he actually tries NOT to interact - he sends his interns as his "human face" and I suspect he actually knows what he is doing when he does that.) and still be a person I want to know *more* about.
Also, this was an excellent meta-post on a show I have a hard time thinking about analytically.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-17 12:26 am (UTC)you are making a lot of excellent points, and I totally get where you are coming from...but I've started to take a different perspective. I don't think we are necessarily supposed to forgive him because he is "diagnostic genius" - I think we are probably supposed to empathize because it is clear that he, too, has been vulnerable to the fragility of his own body and chances are? He didn't deal with at particularly well at the time (this is probably a massive understatement) and he isn't dealing well with the aftermath (I think last night's episode did a lot of work on this issue, I don't want to spoil you because it appears you haven't seen it?)
I'm not trying to convince you out of your reaction - I think that the text is fairly ambiguous in a lot of ways. I just think I've started it reading it in a way that allows me to understand how he can say such terrible things to his patients (to be fair he actually tries NOT to interact - he sends his interns as his "human face" and I suspect he actually knows what he is doing when he does that.) and still be a person I want to know *more* about.
Also, this was an excellent meta-post on a show I have a hard time thinking about analytically.