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dkw, your name sounds like it BELONGS in a book. It's just so...anonymous sounding.
My last name is cause for several guffaws, so I won't even put it here (hint, it's in my email address). That would be an awful thing for your book.
Here's a great Italian one for you, loosely based on my name: Cecilia Baldacci. she's a lovely 'Italian Bird' with hyperthyroidism that makes her constantly have sweat stains and excruciatingly severe body odor.
Then there's Cecily Fitzgerald. She has brain-splitting headaches, caused by her tendency to almost be a near diabetic. Definitely in the genes.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:As to have the stereotype feminist, my point was to be stereotypical.
I guess I was surprised. I'd never heard of that stereotype, and the most strident over-23 feminists I knew were beautiful, accomplished, educated mothers with happy children, and their husbands.
Is that really the stereotype? I've seriously never heard of that.
No wonder feminist is treated like a bad word. That's rot.
severe asthma since toddler. spinal and thoracic cage subluxation. nearly fatal allergy to cats. a red dot on the bridge of my nose Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Beautiful women do have confidence and also make pretty good feminists. But when we had satellite TV there was a free speech channel that aired a movie about feminists. Most of these women were actually ugly, and they hated men with a passion that was frightening.
But yes, there is the ugly feminist stereotype. There is also the bitchy female CEO type. I kind of combined the two. It certainly isn't the only stereotype. There is also the beautiful man hater hiding in a suit and bad haircut stereotype.
There is also the supermom stereotype.
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Those are some of the points I plan to bring up, which is why this will be a lot of fun to write. The makers wouldn't want to make everyone identical so the "ideal" dna would have to be broadly defined. There will be some genetic drift left alone. But would it "fix" overly violent men?
And no matter how I portray the effects on gay people, it'll get spun by the various interest groups, just as it would in real life. If homosexuality is proven to be completely genetic, gays will see it as justification that they're just as natural as anyone else and detractors will define it as a genetic malfunction which should be targeted and eliminated. If homosexuality is proven to be learned, gays will use that to prove it's not a disease, and detractors will scorn it is a self-indulgent lifestyle choice. I tend to see sexual orientation, like just about every other mental/physical trait, as a combination of genetics, learned behavior and choice.
What I plan to do is program the nanobots with a basic DNA strand and a carefully measured level of tolerance, which will probably require more research than I was hoping to have to do. Can it fix Down's Syndrome but leave handedness alone? Can it cure hemophilia but leave artistic ability, or take away the passed-on propensity for breast cancer but leave the passed-on affinity for atheletics? And so on.
There will be people it cannot cure because it doesn't get specific enough, and at some point I'll have to sit down and come up with a list of what stays and what goes.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Kat, sadly that is the stereotype that I am familiar with. For example, in college one self-professed feminist told me that I'm an ignorant slave to an oppressive male-dominated society when I mentioned that I was going to have my nails done. When she heard that I was engaged (this was the second time - not to Dr.M), she told me that I was setting back the womens' movement 50 years and that if I was going to be Betty Housewife (her exact term), I should drop out of college immediately and get lobodimized. I could go on and on about the ugly and ridiculous things she said to me. She also made a point of neglecting her physical appearance - not brushing her hair, not wearing clean clothes, etc. The incredible thing is that she could not understand why people didn't like her.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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But I've met the supermom stereotype. I've never met the other ones.
quote:the ugly feminist stereotype. There is also the bitchy female CEO type. There is also the beautiful man hater hiding in a suit and bad haircut stereotype.
Where do these stereotypes come from? Hollywood? I've never met any of them! The supermom I've met! The most strident feminist I knew in college was dating the most-adorable-boy-on-campus and was good at everything she tried. Even the professor who didn't have any kids took care of herself and had fabulous taste is classic jewelry. She picked up earrings and necklaces in markets when she traveled around the world.
That's so bizarre. Why are feminists a group that it is okay to stereotype?
Added: Okay. Maybe my experience was unique. Dang it, the longer I live, the cooler my college years turn out to have been.
Still, it's not cool to perpetuate ugly stereotypes.
Mrs. M, when I was in college, I had one professor shake my hand in congratulations when I told him I broke off my engagement. Good thing I wasn't devastated, because it was a little thoughtless, but it was just so funny. He was easily the most strident feminist I've known.
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I probably could do Lasik, but even if I had the money (hah!) I wouldn't take the risk. Too much chance of side effects and bad outcomes, even with experienced docs.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I suspect a great deal of the stereotype came from Andrea Dworkin, who could be the poster for strident, man-hating, never-looked-like-a-Barbie-a-day-in-her-life feminist.
People tend to make their impressions of groups from the extreme members of those groups, since they're usually the ones fighting the hardest to be heard. When the second wave of feminism hit in the 60's/70's the feminists getting the most press were the ones advocating the end of the housewife and the uselessness of the male for any reason whatsoever. More rational feminists who merely wanted equality and an end of gender bias didn't have as many good sound bites.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Hi, my name is Amy Teegarden, I'd like my asthma, allergies, myopia, depression, and endometriosis cured. And whatever skin disease it is that makes my fingers dry out and crack (Eczema, I think). Leave the lefthandedness if possible.
Does this mean I have to have my wisdom teeth out all over again?
posted
Ryan, you've got Huntingtons? How are you doing? My brother in law was diagnosed with it a few years ago. It had spread through a couple of his lymph nodes, and apparently wrapped around his heart, so it was a little way along when they discovered it, but he's doing fine now--probably better than he was before. Good luck with it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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My wife had LASEK surgery about a year and a half ago. It's a newer procedure differs slightly from LASIK, in that it has a longer recovery period, but also has a greater positive impact on the patient's vision (if anyone is interested in the details of how it's different I'll be happy to share them). She was right on the borderline between those who could have the procedure done and those who couldn't, but it worked out really well for her; she went from being legally blind without her glasses to having slightly better than 20/20 vision. Of course, she found the procedure so frightening that she bit down hard enough, during it, that she cracked one of her crowns. If you decide to have this procedure done, I'd recommend taking the valium they offer you before they get you on the table.
After watching the procedure and helping her out during the recovery (she was basically blind for about a week), I can categorically say that I will never have a procedure like that done on me. She's very glad that she had it done, but I would much rather just wear my glasses.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Lee Herndon. Least of my worries--nearsightedness. More importantly, I have scoliosis and kyphosis, for which I had my spine fused. Also, a couple of paralyzed vocal chords, which were basically carved out with a laser.
You know, it might make for a more interesting story if, rather than working from inserted "clean" DNA, it used the individual's own. It would cure injuries and contagious diseases, but genetic syndromes would be left untouched--and some corrective measures would be removed.
If you like the idea, feel free to choke me to death. (I don't know if my vocal chord problem is genetic, but it certainly could be.)
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Noemon, the only Huntington's disease I know of is a degenerative neuropsychiatric disorder. I don't think it can be expressed as wrapping around the heart or in lymph nodes.
And it's usually a very, very difficult diagnosis to deal with. Ryan, you doing okay?
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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You're right, CT, I don't know what I'm thinking of. I was talking about Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Sorry about that Ryan.
I do know someone with Huntingtons though; a friend of mine's best friend. His is pretty advanced at this point (he's about 50), but his morale has remained good.
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Maccabeus - I'm going to be setting this up pretty carefully to allow myself a plot that is light-hearted, with serious overtones. I suspect that if millions of people woke up with their corrective measures gone there'd be a lynching, at least. I want my macguffin (the cure) to be overwhelmingly benevolent and as incorruptible as my scientists can make it. If my hero gets sued and ridiculed and ruined after he heals the world, it's much easier to sympathize with him. If he really does slip and expose the world to something that causes as much or more harm than good, then I've gone into Robert Preston/Stephen King waters and I prefer the Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett/Tom Holt pool. And since I don't plan to write a 300,000 word opus, I have to pick and choose which issues I'm going to deal with. This situation, the morals and the science and the ethics, could be argued endlessly, but not by me. Not in 30 days, anyway My story is not going to be "man distributes ultimate cure, world is rocked" but more like "man distributes ultimate cure, gets sued for it."
So my scientists will build a generic DNA reference. It will be there for the nanobots to refer to if they come across anomalies, but it won't have any personal characteristics filled in so those will be left alone.
But please keep asking, this kind of thing helps me figure out plot points
[ October 17, 2003, 10:43 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Me too. He finally had to stop driving recently, and everyone was worried that he'd be depressed about it, but he just took it in stride.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
My family has a lot of genetic stuff floating around, feel free to choose from:
Substance addiction (alcohol, methamphetemines, nicotine, you name it)
Cancers (bowels, renal, breast, ovarian)
Allergies (big itchy hives! watering eyes! mucosa galore! fun for the whole family!)
Flat feet (boring, but annoying)
Let's give my dad all of this: Robin Allen (not his real last name ) Poor Dad. Also, once he got into a car accident and his big toe was nearly Sliced Off Entirely. He now has a dotted-line scar. Kind of interesting. And he has had his deviated septum fixed...I don't know what that's called...what would happen if it redeviated, would that happen?
Ooh, and my kid, Christopher Robin (yes, that is his real first and middle name, yes, I enjoy the Bear of Very Little Brain), has Enormous Tonsils! Make them smaller please.
I have chronic bronchitis. Boo! And my real name is Jennifer, and you should surely have a Jennifer in your story, because We Are Everywhere!
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
I am all ready a newspaper editor in L.A. in someone else's story (someone I don't know, BTW), but I would be proud to be a sicko in your story.
Put Andrew Rey down for asthma (wheezing at night; minor skin lesions just above the nails; major wheezing in the spring if I dare take a hike) and acid reflux (throw up sometimes when I eat too fast or gobble too large a piece of meat; general heart burn, especially before going to sleep). I also am becoming near-sighted and have a receding hairline.
If you need any more problems, ask me again in a few years. Posts: 2473 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Chris, what about the aspect of a parent whose adult child is cured of Down Syndrome, where the parent is all at once happy and sad? Happy for the new opportunity their child has on life, but sad for losing the person they raised and had come to anticipate being child-like long term.
I could see the havok it would raise just with people having to deal with good news. And heaven help the media...what would they report? I could see news organizations not actually suing, but making the scientists lives a living hell by trying to tear down their character. This is a fun plot line.
Here's my sicko: Rayne Rader, infant hip dysplasia, which is curable with surgery currently, but it sure would be nice if we could skip that part as it means 6 months of casts and braces. And Dwayne's Syndrome, which makes her look cross-eyed sometimes. If you could make her 6th cranial nerve grow in right, that would be nifty. It's supposedly genetic, though I don't know anyone on either side of the family tree with it.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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