Sure you remember her; she wrote “Nickeled and Dimed,” where she tried to live on minimum wages for a year. Who knew she was a microbiologist?
Her latest contribution to the conversation is “Natural Causes: an Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Our selves to Live Longer.” Bummer? No, an objective look at our culture of Eternal Youth, how your own cells call time, and why, in the grand scheme, you (I, she) don’t matter.
She is, you recall, a compelling writer, so don’t be put off by the biology. If I can follow it, anybody can. Short histories of the Health Industry, the creation and short lifespan of the Self, and the usual scientific squabbles are fascinating stuff. But the core of her argument is that every thing – from neutrons to the Universe – has agency. This included your very own cells! And sometimes your macrophages think they might want to help the cancer cells instead of eating them. Yikes.
Reminds me of this Laurie Anderson song.
Her other rather radical position in our KonsumerKuture is to criticize the physical fitness/wellness/health food industry. She admits she’s a gym rat herself, but thinks the pressure to “reverse aging” through pills, food, and exercise is vain, classist, and – as we all pretend not to know but know – ultimately futile.