Posted by Adam on February 5, 2000, at 18:55:46
In reply to Re: Depression and procreation - Deb, posted by Noa on February 5, 2000, at 15:19:46
I've read that book also, a long, long time ago. If Irving captures anything well, it is a picture of blue-collar despair.
If I understand the history of my ancestors, they left Canada to look for a better living, pretty much. Ironically, they found some of the same problems here: Being treated like second-class citizens by an Anglo aristocracy of sorts, at home the insurgents, here the establishment. Of course any francophone heritage has been so diluted by now nobody notices, and the mill has changed hands many times since the turn of the century. I never lived in that town, which these days is about as depressed economcally as any part of the state, and has a perpetual, sulfurous stink hanging over it.
My mother and grandmother died of cancer. So have many others on that side of the family. The cancer rate in that town is two or three times higher than the national average. In the old days, I guess, there were rooms in the mill where heavy metals were used in huge electrolytic tanks to extract chlorine from salt solutions. They wouldn't let you work in there if you planned to have children. Half the old men are deaf from the machinery. There's mercury in the water and in the fish, as well as PCBs and who knows what else. White houses turn yellow in two or three years after painting. Alcoholism, spousal abuse, a suprisingly robust drug trade for such a rural venue, poverty. Serfdom indeed.
Funny how, having watched a parent die of cancer pretty much before my eyes, depression scares me worse.
And the mere thought of living in that awful town.
> Wow, Adam.
>
> Reading about your family history reminds me of how much interplay there is between biological heritage and experience. For you, you are not only the first to address the biological problems and try to address them appropriately, but you have also made life decisions that change the patterns of experience. That has to make a difference in the outcome of future generations.
>
> I just started reading Cider House Rules, and your history reminded me of the setting. The book opens with a description of how the logging town evolved into a mill town, and how the welfare of the town was basically at the whim of the company the set it up. Sociologically, these conditions have to be bad news for how life evolves for the residents. It reminds me of something medieval--serfdom or something.
>
> I guess there is also the question of genetic isolation--which affects my ethnic group too (Eastern European Jews).
>
> The bottom line is, you have broken patterns and that is a plus. Of course, we all still need to be alert and ready for intervention if needed, but it seems there is reason to be hopeful that our progeny need not be doomed.
poster:Adam
thread:20155
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000128/msgs/20587.html