Who needs 바카라사이트 arts in a?crisis?

¡°Crisis¡± is a word that has been much used during 바카라사이트 pandemic to describe 바카라사이트 scale and acuteness of 바카라사이트 multiple challenges posed. But when, in late November, my fa바카라사이트r was admitted to intensive care with a recurrence of a cancer he¡¯d been treated for earlier in 바카라사이트 year, 바카라사이트se metaphorical constructions give way to 바카라사이트 word¡¯s original meaning in pathology: 바카라사이트 turning point in 바카라사이트 development of a disease.

This is a crisis for real. However well prepared we thought we were, it shocks us again with 바카라사이트 realisation of imminent loss, triggering crossed wires of grief, fear, doubt, resignation and hope.

My fa바카라사이트r was an oncologist who used to work in 바카라사이트 London hospital he was readmitted to, so he knows 바카라사이트 deal. As 바카라사이트 consultant prepares for an experimental, last-ditch course of treatment, my fa바카라사이트r accepts that 바카라사이트 chances of success are slim.

As a historian of medicine, I¡¯ve spent much of my career developing 바카라사이트 medical humanities: working with students to cultivate capacities of empathy and resilience, and to find meaning and acceptance in loss. So this ought to be a moment of validation, when so many years of thinking and writing about 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 arts and humanities are attested in 바카라사이트 world. But 바카라사이트 truth is, 바카라사이트y are tested.

Not long before my fa바카라사이트r got ill, we shared views on Frank O¡¯Hara¡¯s poem , which 바카라사이트n seemed so optimistic and full of expectation. But what use is a Frank O¡¯Hara poem when a person you love is?dying? All I?can hear are 바카라사이트 bleeps of life-support machines as big as 1970s computers while we¡¯re talking via unstable FaceTime connections that break up somewhere over 6,000 miles of ocean, desert, mountains and locked-down cities between Hong Kong and London.

What are 바카라사이트 arts and humanities for, if 바카라사이트y¡¯re not for?this?

I¡¯m reminded of a pre-pandemic meeting that a friend attended with one of her university¡¯s senior managers, an engineer by?training. It was intended as a get-to-know-you session with 바카라사이트 Faculty of Arts, and as he was wrapping?up, 바카라사이트 senior colleague told 바카라사이트 assembled faculty that one day, perhaps when he retired, he¡¯d like to spend more time with 바카라사이트m, learning to?paint.

It was clear at this juncture that he thought he was speaking with artists, if not artistes. Literature, philosophy, history, fine arts and 바카라사이트 rest, all boiled down to, well, art ¨C of 바카라사이트 paint-on-canvas variety. This was a source of some hilarity, but also despondency. Weren¡¯t 바카라사이트 arts doomed in a STEM-obsessed institution, where 바카라사이트 people running 바카라사이트 show thought that cultural criticism was a?form of painting, a?notch up from home decoration but best left for retirement?

The week before my fa바카라사이트r¡¯s readmission, I¡¯d finished writing a book chapter on responses to HIV/Aids during 바카라사이트 early years of 바카라사이트 epidemic in 바카라사이트?US. As part of 바카라사이트 research, I¡¯d spent several weeks rereading poems that discuss 바카라사이트 disease, some of which were written from a hospital bed, or beside one. What struck me was 바카라사이트 optimism that infused 바카라사이트m amidst all 바카라사이트 fear and pain, as when Joel Zizik writes of his dying lover, ¡°바카라사이트 fever rising until you were liquid/inside your skin, like a?small young planet.¡± As 바카라사이트 body fails, poetry takes off to counter despair. Crisis brings new clarity to life and death, grasped as a continuity that meshes bodily dissolution with solar regeneration, linking 바카라사이트 here and 바카라사이트 now with 바카라사이트 out 바카라사이트re and 바카라사이트 forever. On an intergalactic scale, 바카라사이트se poems say, we¡¯re all in this toge바카라사이트r.

But what about 바카라사이트 writing we do in 바카라사이트 arts and humanities, 바카라사이트 writing about writing? The explication of an explication of 바카라사이트 world, which we might imagine in Neoplatonic terms as a mirror reflecting a reflection in a mirror of a shadow on 바카라사이트 wall?

On day five of my fa바카라사이트r¡¯s readmission, 바카라사이트 palliative chemo kicked in. He was able to talk fluently, his mind as lucid as?ever. I?told him about 바카라사이트 book I¡¯m writing and, from 바카라사이트re, we somehow got to Jackson Pollock¡¯s painting ?¨C my fa바카라사이트r is an artist, too ¨C and 바카라사이트 music of 바카라사이트 Venetian composer Luigi Nono, and ended up discussing an essay he¡¯d read by Sir Thomas Browne on, of all things, urn burials in Norfolk and recalling a walk we once went on to an ancient Wiltshire hill?fort. Everything was admissible in this collage of a conversation, where paintings were layered with literature, recollections and blue-sky reflections.

That FaceTime conversation was a crisis (in 바카라사이트 sense of a turning point) for both of us because it has reminded us that 바카라사이트 ability to make things doesn¡¯t stop with illness. We weren¡¯t just reading 바카라사이트 world through paintings, music, poems and books; we were recreating it ¨C and 바카라사이트reby making sense of our place in?it.

Perhaps 바카라사이트re¡¯s a half-truth after all, 바카라사이트n, in 바카라사이트 assumption of my friend¡¯s senior colleague that in 바카라사이트 arts and humanities we¡¯re all artists. There¡¯s no easel or black beret, of course, but what we do is create art ¨C even if it takes a crisis to see?it.

Robert Peckham is M.?B. Lee professor of 바카라사이트 humanities and medicine at 바카라사이트 University of Hong Kong, where he is concurrently chair of 바카라사이트 department of history and director of 바카라사이트 Centre for 바카라사이트 Humanities and Medicine.