[Marxism] Richard Greener on being paralyzed

[Louis Proyect]

Shortly after posting my thoughts on "The Diving Bell and the 
Butterfly", a flick that I could not watch because its stroke victim 
hero was just a little too close for comfort, I received this note from 
Richard Greener, an old friend and novelist who after receiving a new 
heart underwent an extended period of paralysis. Fortunately, he is okay 
now.

---

I haven't seen it and probably won't, for the same reasons you 
suggested, but your brief description reminded me of my own difficulties 
editing my second novel while paralyzed in the hospital.

I could only move my head. Maria had a system installed whereby I could 
push a feather-weight, flat metal plate with the right side of my head 
and activate a tape recorder. If someone turned the pages of my 
manuscript for me, I could then dictate indicating line number, 
paragraph and word to spot changes I wanted to make or to answer 
question my editor had asked.

All communication was between my editor and my wife. Maureen, my editor, 
would send her comments/questions via email and Maria would then relate 
them with page, paragraph, etc. After dictating my changes or 
explanations, Maria would take the tape and translate it to email form 
to send on to Maureen. Toward the very end of this process I was able to 
sit in a wheelchair and the index finger on my right hand was responding 
well enough to turn the recorder on and off. But I needed the recorder 
to be affixed to my right hand otherwise it would slip away an inch or 
two and that was too far for me to retrieve it.

I remember thinking that I would try to write another novel using this 
process and actually looking forward to it. I had no hope of recovery at 
the time. I thought I would spend the rest of my life hospitalized and 
paralyzed, tube fed and diapered. I owe everything to Maria who always 
said, even in the darkest days, that this was all temporary. I'm so lucky.