>>23978496
>>The doctors in this novella are described as "celebrities," what do you think about how medical professionals are associated with fame here and in real life? What about how the only treatments Ivan Ilych seems to get are opium/morphine?
I wonder what the health system was like in Tsarist Russia, in general. It stands out to me because still in American television and movies you see the same sort of thing, of characters being concerned with going to certain doctors considered the "best." Americans even like to make their doctors into celebrities with shows like House. In any system where there are doctors whose practices are not supported by public works, they'll of course have to compete for attention from patients. Especially so because I bet that in Tsarist Russia, being a doctor did not carry the guarantee of high salary that it does in America. I think of Bazarov in Fathers and Sons, who rejects the status-achieving behaviors of his elders, yet he appears to die by choosing not to live for the public sphere, which is the very reason for Ivan Ilych's early death.

Anyway, I want to recommend we read I and Thou by Martin Buber for a future week.

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/sbc/ Short Books Club - Week 2