By Tom Lynch
Everybody worries. Some more than others. Some have reason to do so. Some do not.
The great paradoxical affliction of hypochondria has become a laughable curse; sometimes it simply elicits mocking, sometimes Woody Allen wakes in a cold sweat and proclaims to the dark, lonely room, “I’m dying!”
But under the hysterical sheen of the surface lies a deep sadness and hatred—yes, hatred—of knowledge. If we were all ignorant to all things, we would have no stresses. But if one was to attain the front-to-back knowledge of his bodyworks, how could he not go insane? How many panic attacks has WebMd.com caused since its launch? Most likely, the number is comparable to the number of lives its helped.
Famous men and women in history have suffered from hypochondria: iconoclasts like Andy Warhol, authors like Marcel Proust, men of science like Charles Darwin. Irish author Brian Dillon’s new book, “The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives” (Faber and Faber), analyzes nine historical figures—Warhol, Proust and Darwin, but also James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Florence Nightingale, Alice James, Daniel Paul Schreber and Glenn Gould—and their varying degrees of consuming psychological illness. Dillon doesn’t poke fun at his subjects; quite the contrary, actually, as at times he’s in agreement with their worries. But his book is no research paper either, as its littered with humorous anecdotes and factoids, the sort of things only fit for the secret lives of the famous. Read the rest of this entry »
Brian Eno’s famous quote on The Velvet Underground—”Only five thousand people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band”—may be the greatest compliment one could bestow upon an artist, and still seems appropriate in music today, as the band’s influence carries on steadily in independent music. The band, formed by Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker—and championed/managed by Andy Warhol—was at the forefront of underground music in the 1960s, balancing a profound gentleness with ravaging experimental noise. The Velvet Underground had four records with Lou Reed in charge—five if you count the later-released “lost album” “VU”—and all are incredible for different reasons. Whenever someone says he thinks The Velvet Underground was the best band of all time it’s met with skepticism, because that’s the cool answer to give, and that’s too bad, because The Velvet Underground was most likely the best band of all time.
