Why people thought tuberculosis was hot

Рет қаралды 3,948

Күн бұрын

Dying from tuberculosis, the disease formerly known as consumption, was a bloody, grizzly way to go. But surprisingly, just a few hundred years ago, the disease was widely considered an ‘ideal’ way to die. There were many myths surrounding the disease. Did consumption make you a creative genius? Did it give you extraordinary powers of seduction? Let’s find out.
See our video on Keats: • A short biography of J...
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:38 What is consumption?
5:21 Myth 1 - it caused male creative genius
7:48 Myth 2 - it was super sexy
9:17 Myth 3 - it's caused by romantic love
11:49 Myth 4 - a 'good and easy' death
13:08 Myth 5 - an ideal Christian death
15:09 Literature and cultural consumptive beliefs
19:16 Consumptive myths today
20:24 Conclusion
Written, presented, and edited by Rosie Whitcombe
@books_ncats Twitter & Instagram
Directed, produced, and edited by Matty Phillips
@ma_ps_ Twitter & Instagram
mphotos.uk/
Bibliography
Beddoes, Thomas, ‘Essay on Consumption: View of the Subject’, Essay on the Causes, Early Signs, and Prevention of Pulmonary
Consumption, For the Use of Parents and Preceptors (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799)
Byron, Lord George Gordon, The Complete Works of Lord Byron (e-artnow, 2019)
Clarke, Imogen, ‘Tuberculosis: A Fashionable Disease?’, Science Museum Blog blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/tub...
Daniel, Thomas M., Bates, Joseph H., Downes, Katharine A., ‘History of Tuberculosis’, Tuberculosis: Pathogenesis, Protection, and Control, ed. by Barry R. Bloom (Washington DC: ASM Press, 1994)
De Almeida, Hermione, Romantic Medicine and John Keats (Oxford: OUP, 1991)
Farley, Paul, and Symmons Roberts, Michael, Deaths of the Poets (London: Jonathan Cape, 2017)
Hammond, Mitchell L., Epidemics and the Modern World (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020)
Lawlor, Clark, Consumption and Literature: The Making of the Romantic Disease (London: Palgrave, 2007)
The Letters of John Keats, ed. by Hyder Edward Rollins, 2 vols. (Cambridge: CUP, 2011)
Roe, Nicholas, John Keats: A New Life (Cornwall: Yale University Press, 2013)
Sontag, Susan, Illness as Metaphor & AIDS and its Metaphors (London: Penguin, 2002)
‘Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, 1800-1922’, Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics, Curiosity Collections, Harvard Library curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/con...
Tuberculosis Symptoms, NHS: www.nhs.uk/conditions/tubercu...
WHO on Tuberculosis: www.who.int/news-room/fact-sh...
Music licenses
Local Forecast - Slower by Kevin MacLeod
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License: filmmusic.io/standard-license

Пікірлер: 31

@chrisogrady28 2 жыл бұрын

7:18 what a languishing beauty

@books_ncats 2 жыл бұрын

Isn't she just! 🐱

@Pratchettgaiman Жыл бұрын

The closest I've gotten to TB is a case of whooping cough, which has symptoms similar to TB (although TB's are much worse). It was neither easy, nor sexy, nor romantic

@books_ncats Жыл бұрын

I’m not surprised, it doesn’t sound pleasant!

@fabricdragon 5 ай бұрын

OOOh me too!

@CatMom-uw9jl 4 ай бұрын

I’ve had bronchitis several times, and that’s more than enough.

@SuziQ. 25 күн бұрын

Bronchitis, pneumonia, and dozens of strep throats, but not tuberculosis. Not sexy. 😂

@CalibanL 5 ай бұрын

I'm late to this video but I have to say, this is fascinating and I really want to contrast it with the (fictional) Hanahaki disease that is prevalent in a lot of fan fiction. If you don't know, it's a fictional condition in which a person who has unconfessed and/or unrequited love begins to grow flowers in their lungs. As it progresses thorns grow and they begin to vomit blood/petals until they die. Presenting as a wasting respiratory illness, centered on love and tragedy, cured by either confession or reciprocation. It's visibly poetic. What is interesting to me is rather than something that enhances the beauty/sex of someone it seems to push the ugliness of the whole "disease". I wonder if more modern readers crave a more... graphic image or maybe our advanced medical knowledge makes too kind a death hard to believe. Or the aspect of religion being far lessened. It's still heavily romantic just. Differently.

@mannu660 2 жыл бұрын

This was a great watch especially after just learning of consumption from the final peaky blinders season

@fabricdragon 5 ай бұрын

oh, current literaturean and mythic illness? the Korean girlfriend dying of something beautiful in the soap opera plots... hanumaki disease (death of the flowers, where instead of blood you spit up flowers due to unrequited love) etc

@pamsisler2396 4 ай бұрын

When I was young in the early sixties, I thought tb was romantic. Read many novels. Thank you for your knowledge.

@aliciamarie9704 Жыл бұрын

Your dear kitty is a well behaved delight to the eyes! 😊

@books_ncats Жыл бұрын

Thank you! She is an angel (most of the time) 😻

@TylerOMasta-nx8jg 3 ай бұрын

This is actually super interesting to learn about especially because recently i performed in a show called alice by heart (if you haven't heard of it or listened to it then you 100% should it is a stunning musical production) and one of the big plot points is that the main character, alice, has a childhood friend who she is lowkey in love with who is dying of tb. The parallels i drew from this romanticisation of the diseases from the romantic period that still showed within the show were super cool to think about. Its also cool because it has a good balance of the childhood being like sexualised and with the disease but also showing their hard truth of his disease.

@ungureanugabi2489 5 ай бұрын

I love your co-producer❤

@budthecollie 2 жыл бұрын

A really well researched and presented video.

@books_ncats 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks ☺️

@EllieVie8 2 жыл бұрын

Great video!! Super interesting and great to see a bit more of Mouse too! I guess a lot of people secretly dream of having a dramatic yet not too painful death surrounded by loved ones giving you sympathy and a perfect excuse to get your crush's attention hahaha especially if you can blame it on being too much of a good and creative person!

@books_ncats 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you 😄 yes, I can definitely see why people might subscribe to the myths rather than face the grim reality. Glad you enjoyed!

@TheGabeCapes 2 жыл бұрын

I am really enjoying these!!

@books_ncats 2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad! Thanks ☺️

@willowmakes 4 ай бұрын

mouse is almost too adorable 🫶

@Momnpop98 Ай бұрын

Thank you for this explanation. I had presumed consumption was alcoholic liver failure, which I thought was weird that children were dying from it also.

@SingingWithMyself-Frozen 2 ай бұрын

RIP Romantics you would have loved The Fault in Our Stars

@crk.resrhetorica 3 ай бұрын

This was very interesting!

@books_ncats 3 ай бұрын

Thank you! - Rosie

@Pallasathena-hv4kp 3 ай бұрын

They went to a lot of soirées, and hung around in crowded cafes? lol Reminds me of the famous courtesan Marie Duplessis. The opera by Verdi, La Traviatta, is about her and depicts a lot of what you discussed in this video. La Boheme too

@lyndsaybrown8471 3 ай бұрын

Hmmm... I wonder how much this influencer the movie Philadelphia. Instead of showing what would be considered a "good Christian death," the movie leans into the horror of AIDS and the true humanity of the person inflicted. Rather than lean into romantic idealism, it makes a point to be real no matter how ugly so that you can also see the true beauty of Denzel Washington's character's compassion for Tom Hanks' character. It's even called Philadelphia to highlight the point of brotherly, not romantic, love.

@books_ncats 3 ай бұрын

Hmm interesting, I can't comment because I haven't actually seen it, but thanks for sharing - Rosie