Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Laboratory >

Superman to fly again?

10:30 / 12.09.02

Superman regains movement.

This was the first web link I could find and its not real good but, from the article in our local paper, it looks as though Christopher Reeves has regained the ability to move his elbows, wrists and fingers and has been able to breathe without his ventilator for a little over an hour. Apparently the improvements are the result of experimental "electronic stimulation" of his muscles and nerves.

XXII:X:II = XXX

13:40 / 12.09.02

I first read some clip about this Tuesday or yesterday, in a series of headlines on apple.com taken from cnn.com. However, this was as the headlines appeared:

NATION ON HIGH ALERT FOR 9/11 ANNIVERSARY
* VP Cheney Moved to Undisclosed Location
* Christopher Reeve moving fingers, toes

Man, fear will make you do some mighty funny things, won't it?

14:28 / 12.09.02

* VP Cheney Moved to Undisclosed Location
* Christopher Reeve moving fingers, toes
Coincidence? Is Cheney some kryptonite based V.P?

I think that was some of the only good news this week had in store for us...
(Oddly enough, Bizzaro Christopher Reeve is doing just fine)

02:48 / 14.09.02

The story, from CNN.

It's funny--I never thought much of Christopher Reeve as an actor: I thought he was a stiff. I was just a kid when those movies came out, but even to my impressionable young mind, he was nothing special. His Superman wasn't an inspiring figure at all. But when he seemed to lose everything, he started growing into the role of a hero.

A hero? Sure. When he was first injured, and he insisted that he would one day walk again, I shook my head--he's in such denial, I thought, it's so sad.

But it wasn't denial. Plain and simple, he just never gave up. And that's the mark of a hero--to persevere, and hope for triumph, in the face of impossible odds.

Superman did not make me believe a man could fly. But Chris Reeve makes me believe that a paralytic may pick up his bed and walk.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:56 / 17.09.02

Far be it from me to sully this heart-warming tale of human endurance, but the Man of Steel is also mad as Hell and not gonna take it any more.

If M.O.D.O.K was powered by Catholicism, he'd be Dubya.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

11:38 / 17.09.02

I know. Rocks, don't it. And you know, if he gets outta that chair, Mr. Reeve will one day be President, if he wants the job. I'd like to think he could be anyway, actually.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:21 / 17.09.02

Reeves has consistently left doctors flabbergasted by the improvements in his condition. Even his survival was something of a medical miracle: the man's skull was separated from his spinal column, FFS. If anyone alive can beat this, it's him (helps being rich and famous too, if you'll pardon the cynicism).

And I dig what Jack Fear's saying. I don't really do the hero thing, but Christopher Reeves is an inspiring figure in all kinds of ways.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:05 / 17.09.02

If anyone alive can beat this, it's him (helps being rich and famous too, if you'll pardon the cynicism).

Well, of course it does. Forgive me for not ascribing this entirely to the rays of our yellow sun, but most quadriplegics can't afford to spend a quarter of a million dollars a year on nursing care and equipment. That includes an hour of manipulating his muscles to keep them supple, an hour of electrostimulation....I'm honestly not sure that there is another case on record of somebody still relatively young being in such a good position to push the envelope of physical therapy in the face of paralysis.

Nick: As far as I know, Reeve has never shown any interest in being president, and considering Bob Dole had to take great pains to conceal his physical weaknesses, running America from a wheelchair sound like one of those "maybe in our lifetime, but a fair bit later on" things

14:17 / 17.09.02

What about FDR? I think that what Christopher Reeve's done is quite amazing, mainly in the sense that he's forged farther ahead than anyone & lit a signal light for everyone else. I don't necessarily think that means he has the right stuff to be president, apart from that he would never have the proportionate resources to apply to the world's problems. Maybe it's too bad, but it seems like a president leads by staying well in view and not by striding so far ahead where people can't see them.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:21 / 17.09.02

You mean FDR, who took pains to ensure that the American people never saw him in a wheelchair? I'm not even sure he walked with sticks - he used to prop himself against things for photoshoots.

14:42 / 17.09.02

People know now, though. If anyone said now that you can't run America from a wheelchair, I would say What about FDR. Unless your point is that you can run American from a wheelchair, only no one can know about the wheelchair. Although what Nick said was that CR could be president "if he gets outta that chair."

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:12 / 17.09.02

And added, "I'd like to think he could be anyway, actually". Which was what I was responding to. If Christopher Reeve could regain full mobility then he would doubtless be in with a shout at least of heading up a health agency, becoming a congressman, senator...who knows? He certainly has had a lot of face time one way or another, and Americans do love a triumph over adversity.

What they don't seem to love is a failure to triumph over adversity. And that includes learning to live with your disability and be comnfortable with it. IIRC, Dole kept his paralysed arm out of sight as much as he could, McCain avoided anything that demonstrated that his hands couldn't grip...and that was as a result of being a frickin' war hero.

Likewise, I would say that....well, FDR. Put it like this. Round about the time of Watergate, IIRC, the reporters were at Nixon's door and his wife emerged, clearly drunk, and berated them. Nixon came out, herded her back indoors, apologised to the press. And nobody mentioned it in their report. And that was in the 70s. The possibility of fulfilling the Presidential engagements calendar these days, in front of a lupine press, and concealing polio or similar woudl be utterly impossible.

You're right, though; I should have said, "I can't see somebody in the near future becoming President in a wheelchair, much less with a respirator, unless he could somehow perpetrate a vast con trick on the people of the United States and the world's press that he was in factr hale and hearty".

New thread in the Switchboard!