Surviving Survival

July 16, 2011 11:42 AM

The Summer 2011 issue of Stanford Medicine Magazine is about "Surviving Survival": The Woman Who Fell To Earth / Khmer Rouge on Trial / A Kid Again / Her Stroke of Insight / RxErcise

Download a pdf here.

posted by zarq (11 comments total)

Some of these articles look interesting, and I look forward to reading them. This post is kind of weird, though. It feels more like PR copy announcing the latest issue of a magazine than it does like a metafilter post.
posted by dersins at 12:29 PM on July 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've only read the first one, but it's completely fascinating. And emotional. Thanks for sharing/finding these.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:36 PM on July 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

dersins: "This post is kind of weird, though. It feels more like PR copy announcing the latest issue of a magazine than it does like a metafilter post."

Since I actually write PR copy for a living, I can assure you that if that had been my intention, I would have included hyperbole.
posted by zarq at 12:43 PM on July 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

Since I actually write PR copy for a living...

Ah, that makes more sense, then. For a minute there I was worried your account had been taken over by netbros.

Seriously, though, I've had a chance to read a couple of the articles now (skydiving and cambodia) and they're pretty great. Thanks for this.
posted by dersins at 1:01 PM on July 16, 2011

I'll be honest, I find death by falling too subtle to really understand. I 'm fine with the basics: if you fall from heights you get injured, your speed/danger is proportional to the square of the distance fallen, etc, but even still - it's a kind of injury that I'm generally skeptical about. I mean, it's so easy to imagine falling NOT killing people. Articles where people survive 'fatal' falls makes me think at a low, childish level that maybe there's a way for anyone to plummet like that and land in one piece.
posted by serif at 1:07 PM on July 16, 2011

Heh. No problem. And, you're welcome!
posted by zarq at 1:33 PM on July 16, 2011

Jill Taylor is really incredible. Her book and the associated TED talk are, as cliche as it sounds, truly inspirational.
posted by mek at 2:20 PM on July 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

serif--

It's easiest if you just invert the actors. Rather than the faller hitting the ground, think of the ground hitting the faller. The very large, very hard, absolutely not reacting to being hit ground, slamming up into the faller at hundreds of miles an hour.

Way worse than a car.
posted by effugas at 4:03 PM on July 16, 2011

The Woman Who Fell To Earth was so sweet up until I read that he still has a driver's license. Someone who frequently loses his way and has visual deficits should not be driving.
posted by palliser at 9:30 PM on July 16, 2011

These articles are all very interesting--thanks zarq. (I like the format of the journal, too--it's very readable and easily navigated.)

mek: Jill Taylor is really incredible. Her book and the associated TED talk are, as cliche as it sounds, truly inspirational.

Aha, I knew that name was familiar. Jill Bolte Taylor was featured in the Words episode of Radiolab, in the segment A World Without Words. Riveting stuff. Reading that interview confirms my impression of her as an amazingly tranquil person.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:25 PM on July 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've bought and read "My stroke of insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor (when it was still available in pdf for $10) and I recommend it. Her language at places made me cringe - it was hard to read such vague phrases like "The essence of your energy expands as it blends with the energy around you" especially coming from a scientist (even if the meaning could have been extracted from them, given context). But her description of the experience of the stroke is unique as far as I know. Her book gave me insight into living through stroke and subsequent recovery. Something important for at least 10 percent of us (not counting the caregivers).
posted by hat_eater at 6:06 AM on July 18, 2011