Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Life and Cancer: A Reaction Paper to "The Rhetoric of Cancer"

            The Rhetoric of Cancer is a documentary podcast of BBC, narrated by a man named Andrew Graystone, who himself is a victim of cancer. He talks about here his journey in his search for finding the right language to use when talking about cancer; for the masculine, military language people often use seems to liken cancer to this enemy of the body and the body as this warzone for this fight, this battle between the cells of the body and the body of the man.
In this journey, he meets with Dr. Wendy Makin of Christie Hospital, the hospital he was diagnosed in, to discuss how clinicians talk about cancer to their patients. He then meets with Natasha Hill, a director of brand and strategic marketing at Cancer Research UK to talk about the language used in advertising campaigns. He also discusses with Michael Overduin of the School of Cancer Sciences in Birmingham University about the language used upon discussing cancer at a research level. He also meets with Jim Cotter, a priest and writer who is also a victim of leukemia. And lastly, he shares all of his findings with theologian Dr. Paula Gooder who has a special interest about our relationships with our bodies, illness and death.
           Personally, what I liked the most about it was learning how cancer affected the lives of various people, not only those who became victims of it but to those who research about it, study it, diagnose it, etc. It affected those who have cancers themselves in the worst way, but it also somehow was a gift to them. Like how Andrew described it, it was like an unwelcome visitor to their lives, to their bodies who might lead them to their death but might also lead them to this enlightened life to live their lives to the fullest. In one way or another, they had to learn how to live with cancer and not battle it for it’s just their own, it’s part of their own bodies. Cancer is simply this visitor you want to be removed from your body, these particular cells to simply leave you. But it is technically not to be fought, not to be destroyed, because one way or another, it is part of you, your body and essentially your life.

Audrey Anne A. Arocha

2012-51626

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