Kevin's Watch

Do any of you think you would be able to live a lepers kind of life? Would any of you last as long as Thomas lasted without losing any body parts. (Thomas didn't actually lose any body parts after he found out about his leprosy)
Does anyone think they could keep the will to live, after you lost all the people you cared about. Could anyone say they wouldn't get passively or actively suicidal. At the start of LFB, Thomas was remembering the doctors speak about a lepers lifestyle. Mentions how lepers, because they need to mantain a strong will to live, are in the most need of human support and solace. So many of you will have to live life without support or help from anyone. Lepers are often put down as criminals and people think of them at malicious things. They are hated and feared in their community.
That would be horrible. I would lose the will to live, I'm not shamed in admitting that, because I think that most people would. Would you?

I'm pretty lazy. I'm not sure I'd make a good leper. I've never been that afraid of death, and being cut off from society (especially my wife and son... *checks hands and feet for purple spots*) would make it even less so. The part that would possibly scare me into that kind of self-discipline/ self-preservation would be the fear of disfigurement.

But then, I'd think the modern leper might have it a lot easier than TC did. Locally/socially, I don't know. People still seem to be prone to freaking out over possible infections (West Nile, SARS, etc.), but I think it's safe to say the level of medical/emotional treatment is more than it was back then. And my last point... Online, nobody knows you're a leper.

I hate doctors and hospitals enough that I probably would do anything to stop having to go there. I'd probably be as compulsive with my self-discipline as TC just so I wouldn't have to go near them.

Leprosy doesn't seem to be the big bad that it used to be with all the support and assistance currently available. I could probably keep it managed in a way that no one would know.

There are scarier things in the world these days.

Hard to say, but I think not. People can usually take a lot more than they think they can, when they do not have a choice.

Trivia: About 3000 people die from lepra every year, but there are annual reports of about 675000 new cases. Not very lethal, even in developing countries would be my estimate.

Just make your friends on-line.

Truthfully, I always thought the weak part of
Covenant's story was that he was such a
pariah to EVERYONE. He had no parents, no
siblings ... no friends who gave a damn about
him?

Maybe I'm overestimating myself, but I'd like
to think that if I had a friend who'd had such a
devastating thing happen to him I'd try to keep
in touch with him ....

Yeah, i'm with you Kaos!

If my family stayed by me, then i think i could make it - though i agree with Caer Sylvanus that it would be fear of disfigurement that kept me vigilant.

If my family and friends ditched me...well, it might be skydiving without a parachute time

Im vain as crap...one of my many flaws, so i would not be happy about getting leprosy. whether or not i could make it, i dont know. i cant make a guess on that kind of thing cuz i have no experience with anything like it. i have actually met a leper, and he wasnt very disfigured. he was a cheerful person most of the time, but i was told that he sometimes got upset because people were wary of his prolonged presence. i feel really sorry for people who have to deal with that kind of stuff. its very sad. i pray none of you or myself ever has to deal with something so trying.

I could manage being a leper, I think. I don't really need people in the real world, and all my friends are online, and a good third of them think I'm a leper anyway.

I don't think you'll be able to go online too much, because your fingers are numb; so it would be a lot harder to type. In LFB, when Thomas thinks about his past, I remember the thing that happened which would make him realize he's got leprosy was writing his second book. I know that sounds stupid and unimportant, but if you have leprosy, you got to take away from anything that could hurt you.

It's hard to visualise, isn't it? i'm looking round my studynow...the pointy ended table and bookcases...the footlocker near the door that i aways bump my shin on when i'm tired...all those unwashed clothes and mess strewn about the room...it would all have to go.

Your point is well taken, first Mark. The total life change that leprosy would mean is not something i'm sure i would survive after all.

But, i still think the support and love of my family and friends would be the deciding factor. Jesu, poor Covenant!...

First Mark:


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I don't think you'll be able to go online too much, because your fingers are numb; so it would be a lot harder to type. In LFB, when Thomas thinks about his past, I remember the thing that happened which would make him realize he's got leprosy was writing his second book. I know that sounds stupid and unimportant, but if you have leprosy, you got to take away from anything that could hurt you.

Except we know that that Covenant still wrote. He wrote about
another seven novels-- plus three manuscripts-- in the last ten
years of his life. If he could spend that much time typing a novel,
then he could spend it online.

Isn`t there a cure for leprosy now? I thought I read something about it in an encyclopedia..in that case, it wouldn`t be so bad to get leprosy, when I would get well afterwards.

Um, i don't think so

Last time i checked, the powers that be still didn't know what caused leprosy, or how it is transmitted - two vectors that are vital to be able to start determining a cure...

Isn`t it a bacteria that causes leprosy, or Hansen`s disease? I read about this doctor (Hansen) who discovered that bacteria.

Microbacterium Leprae, IIRC

I believe that is the name. It's the one in the chrons, at least, and I'm sure SRD did his homework.

Dag son of Dag wrote:Isn`t it a bacteria that causes leprosy, or Hansen`s disease? I read about this doctor (Hansen) who discovered that bacteria.

Check out my topic on "the cause of Covenant leprosy"; it gives a lot of info on leprosy. On the second topic page list.

The World Health Organization also has a website about leprosy with quite a lot of info, just use Yahoo or Google. There's lots of info about the disease. Apparently, a cocktail of drugs usually halts leprosy's progress (kind of like remission, I gather), but that combination of drugs wasn't available and used widely until sometime in the mid-80s, it seems.

We are going off the actual topic, would you be able to live life as a leper, Alright, not modern day lepers, but how Thomas lived.