The Art of Medicine

Who said "Ars longa, vita brevis" [Life is short but art is long] ? It was a Greek physician, namely Hippocrates, and although he was referring to the "art" of practicing medicine, we generally use this famous phrase as an appreciation of the durability and complexity of self-expression through drama, painting, movies, and music.

The Roman philosopher Seneca translated this famous statement into Latin, and its common usage is also a truism: our earthly activities have a finite duration but creative work can transcend the boundaries of time, geography, and ethnicity. An easy example: theater pieces dating back 2000 years often surprise modern audiences with their topicality and psychological insights (for example Lysistrata, The Trojan Women, and The Bacchae).

As a physician since 1980, I have always had special interest in artistic works that address medical and health topics. Often the author/composer/poet discusses the topic directly--a favorite might be the role of Dr. Astrov in Uncle Vanya, a stand-in of sorts for playwright Anton Chekov (himself a general practitioner). Other times the focus might be on illness as a metaphor for the tragic arc of a pitiable character; successful performances of Puccini's La Bohème should have the audience in tears when Mimi succumbs to tuberculosis.

I will be sharing some of my lifelong favorites with you on my website--and in upcoming personal appearances--and I'm thrilled to have accumulated a wealth of entertaining, insightful, and quite contrasting selections drawn from diverse sources. The title for this performance anthology seemed to suggest itself: The Art of Medicine.

Up first: ten contrasting literary works that address the topic of health in completely different ways. I’ll leave it up to you to discover how, letting the authors speak for themselves. The settings are quite different (a Civil War hospital, bucolic Tennessee, cholera-infested Venice) and so are the characters (drunken medical students, Medieval true believers on pilgrimage, an artist doomed by tertiary syphilis). To come: two songs from 1929 about health issues, one naughty, one frightening. But the focus is similar: our fragile bodies, the human spirit, and the gift of life.

The Art of Medicine: where science ends--and poetry begins.

Enjoy!