Autobiography and anaesthesia: Ernest Hemingway, Storm Jameson, and me

Notes

• 1992 . “Aesthetics and anaesthetics” Walter Benjamin's Artwork Essay Reconsidered.” . New German Critique , 62 Fall : 3 – 41 . For others who make this connection in diverse ways see, for example, Terry Eagelton who argues that “the aesthetic might more accurately be described as an anaesthetic” (Ideology 196); and Susan Buck‐Morss's discussion of the relationship in
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• 1994 . Bearing the Pain: Anaesthetics of Impersonality in Modernist Fiction, , Ann Arbor : UMI . While this paper explores new autobiographical possibilities for my work it does draw upon arguments made in the dissertation. Please see my, diss. (Brandeis U, 1994,
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• Weeks , Robert P. , ed. 1962 . “Introduction” . In Hemingway: A Collection of Critical Essays , 7 En‐glewood Cliffs : Prentice . For a variety of views on Hemingway's use of autobiography in his Fiction, see:
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• Donaldson , Scott , ed. 1990 . “Introduction” . In New Essays on A Farewell to Arms , 18 New York : Cambridge University Press .
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• Bell , Millic‐ent . 1984 . “A Farewell to Arms: Pseudobiography and Personal Metaphor” . In Ernest Hemingway: the Writer in Context , Edited by: Nagel , James . 107 – 108 . Madison : U of Wisconsin Press .
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• Fetterley , Judith . 1977 . "A Farewell to Arms: Hemingways’ “Resentful Cryptogram,” . In The Resisting Reader: A Feminist Approach to American Fiction , 46 – 71 . Bloomington : Indiana UP . I agree with Sandra Spanier who works to “reframe” the novel to show that Catherine too, “embodies the controls of courage and honor that many have called the ‘Hemingway code'” ("Hemingway's Unknown Soldier” 75–108). For other recent readings of the character of Catherine Barkley see:
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• Smith , Carol H. 1984 . “Women and the Loss of Eden in Hemingway's Mythology” . In Ernest Hemingway: The Writer in Context , Edited by: Nagel , James . 130 Madison : U of Wisconsin Press .
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• Staley . British Novelists 73 In her desire for inclusion Jameson creates “characters [who] develop through family and community relationships—often in situations fraught with great conflict and ambivalent emotions”
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• John Adriani , M.D. 1970 . The Pharmacology of Anesthetic Drugs , 30 – 33 . Springfield, IL : Charles C. Thomas . Nitrous oxide (Nitrogen Monoxide) analgesia occurs in a 20–40% concentration with oxygen. Early in her labor Catherine is getting low percentages of nitrous oxide analgesia that provide a high flow of oxygen to both mother and baby. Nitrous oxide is not a potent anaesthetic; it must be used in dangerously high percentages of over 80% nitrous to 20% oxygen to produce surgical anaesthesia. For anaesthesia, the deeply unconscious state that is described in the novel, 85–90% nitrous oxide is required. If these high flows are maintained or used intermittently over a long period of time, the nitrous oxide can have direct effects on material circulation. For pharmacological effects see:
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• 1992 . “Effects of nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation on the maternal circulation during vaginal delivery” . In Acta Anaesthesiol Scand Vol. 36 , 175 – 81 . For recent studies on the effects of nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation in obstetrics see:
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• Lebowitz , Phillip W. MD , eds. November 1982 . “Anesthesia for Obstetrics” . In Clinical Anesthesia Procedures of the Massachusetts General Hospital. , Second Edition , November , 256 – 75 . Boston : Little, Brown and Co. . In addition to the nitrous oxide that Frederic gave to Catherine, she probably had ether for her caesarean section. The prolonged inadequate ventilation she experienced while receiving high flows of nitrous oxide would have washed out the nitrogen and much of the oxygen in her lungs and tissues. This may not have been recognized by the anaesthetist since, at the time of this novel, anaesthesia and oxygen therapy were only in their formative stages. For a detailed discussion see: Chapter 16:
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