of Louis Edward Sissman has not lacked admirers, among whom perhaps the most dedicated has been Peter Davi- son, his editor at what was then Atlantic-Little Brown and him- self a poet. Others include Hilton Kramer, James Dickey, Howard Moss, and S. J. Perelman, who enthusiastically declared: "Unquestionably a major poet and a man of dazzling talent. Sissman's range of evocation, his wit, and his sensitivity would clearly have appealed to T. S. Eliot, whose influence is manifest."Perelman...
ody-snatching space pods-they re-
semble squash with a thyroid condi-
tion and hormonal imbalance-first
invaded the earth in the mid-1950s, so we're coming up on a 40th anniversary. Fall asleep near one of them, and the malevolent pod will suck the life out of you, become you, assume your appearance, erase your human- ity, and leave your former body an empty husk. The vegetables have settled in nicely, and their presence explains a lot: the capacity of politicians to keep smiling; the diction...
virtually all of humankind yet felt
each individual in an absolutely private way.
What We Make of Pain
BY DAVID
Jeremy Bentham-the great-grandfather of modern utilitarian thougl~t~offers
a
useful jolt to normal opinion in his claim
that pain, far from constituting merely an unwelcome occasion to race for the medicine cabinet, holds sway over individual lives much as a sovereign power governs a state. Pain, that is, rules us not only when it appears in full regalia, displaying its power...
Jeremy Bentham—the great-grandfather of modern utilitarian thought—offers
a useful jolt to normal opinion in his claim that pain, far from constituting merely an unwelcome occasion to race for the medicine cabinet, holds sway over individual lives much as a sovereign power governs a state. Pain, that is, rules us not only when it appears in full regalia, displaying its power like a king at a banquet, but also when it remains behind the scenes, more or less invisible, its pres...
Throughout history, people have called for medical practitioners to assist in the deaths of patients suffering from intractable pain as a result of advanced dis- ease. But while many doctors themselves have advocated such assistance, including those of ancient Greece, Western medical practice has generally cleaved to the view of Hippocrates, who argued firmly against phy- sicians' "giving a deadly drug to any patient."
Not that the Hippocratic view has reigned unchallenged. Today i...
why do you write so much about pain? they ask me. To give it a name, I reply. And I am not sure what I mean. I try again: In October, when the leaves have fallen, from the trees, you can see farther into the forest. Now do you see? No? Well, what is your no- tion of pain? Pain is fire, a ravening, insa- tiable thing that insists upon utter domina- tion; it is the occasion when the body reas- serts itself over the mind; the universe con- tracts about the part that hurts; if the pain is not placated...
on two paychecks make it hard to cheer. Our authors explain zulzat is happening, and why. Paul Osterman surveys the prospects of the young. Paul Kruginan examines the impact of new technology. Thomas Muller sizes up the effects of immigration. Laura L. Nash considers the "virtual job" of the future.
PAUL OSTERMAN
e live in an age of anxiety seems truncated and unpromising. The news about jobs, and perhaps the media have cast them as an "edgy," cynical, greatest anxiety is f...
e live in an age of anxiety seems truncated and unpromising. The news about jobs, and perhaps the media have cast them as an "edgy," cynical, greatest anxiety is felt by and disheartened "Generation X," the first young people searching for generation in American history, we are con- their first employment. All the other dangers stantly told, that cannot look forward to a fu- and discontents of the world of work-from ture better than its parents had. A staple of the stagnant...
In his science-fiction novel of 1952, Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut imagined a future in which the ingenuity of engineers has allowed machines to eliminate virtually all manual labor. The social consequences of this technological creativity, in his vision, are disastrous: Most people, instead of finding gainful employment, live on the dole or are employed in pointless government make-work programs. Only the most creative and talented can find meaningful work, and their numbers steadily shrink as more and more jobs are automated out of existence.