One of my obsessions, featured, for instance, in my major Jaimienne fics.
Today, I chanced to peruse the following excerpt from a certain literary fairytale by Oscar Wilde:
Behind him stood a brass-turbaned Nubian, naked down to the waist, and with heavy earrings in his split ears.
...
Then he drew a dagger from a belt of white leather, and stabbed the Nubian in the throat lest the slave should tell of his dishonour. The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.
As soon as he was dead...
At first, only the last words attracted me: "a red foam bubbled from his lips." Then, I realised that I had forgotten which kind of injury it had been and re-read the passage. Thus, I found out that he had been "stabbed in the throat". A pretty rare case, since every case of trauma-induced hemoptysis I had read of had been due to thoracic injury.
Never before had I heard of hemoptysis due to throat injury in fiction. Or had I? Yes, this is the second time. The first time, it was Renly Baratheon in the novels, where he was not stabbed in the back, but had his throat slit by Stannis!Dementor.
After the case of Novel!Renly, I heard of the bullet that struck Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a shot fired by a separatist university student. The event that not only triggered the Great War, but also shaped the course of the whole twentieth century. Anyway... The Habsburg bled constantly both through his lips and through the gunshot wound in his throat. He died quickly. This was the first time I heard of such a case in real life.
Like I said in another post where another secondary character dies of a throat injury (no mention of hemoptysis, though):
Already Homer (in The Iliad) had pointed out the throat as the place "where life can be quenched the quickest". It's a vital point, comprising the trachea and the spinal cord, the jugular vein and the carotid artery. Any major injury to the throat of a vertebrate would be lethal, ensuring a quick death through either air choke, blood choke, paralysis of the respiratory muscles, or hypovolemia/blood loss, or drowning in one's own blood. The breastplated warriors of the olden days would occasionally wear a collar (for instance, a frilled "Elizabethan" collar, like Francis Drake or 't Serclaes de Tilly) to shield such an important point: one of the most vulnerable and targeted by opponents.
Then he drew a dagger from a belt of white leather, and stabbed the Nubian in the throat lest the slave should tell of his dishonour. The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips.
As soon as he was dead...
At first, only the last words attracted me: "a red foam bubbled from his lips." Then, I realised that I had forgotten which kind of injury it had been and re-read the passage. Thus, I found out that he had been "stabbed in the throat". A pretty rare case, since every case of trauma-induced hemoptysis I had read of had been due to thoracic injury.
Never before had I heard of hemoptysis due to throat injury in fiction. Or had I? Yes, this is the second time. The first time, it was Renly Baratheon in the novels, where he was not stabbed in the back, but had his throat slit by Stannis!Dementor.
After the case of Novel!Renly, I heard of the bullet that struck Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a shot fired by a separatist university student. The event that not only triggered the Great War, but also shaped the course of the whole twentieth century. Anyway... The Habsburg bled constantly both through his lips and through the gunshot wound in his throat. He died quickly. This was the first time I heard of such a case in real life.
Like I said in another post where another secondary character dies of a throat injury (no mention of hemoptysis, though):
Already Homer (in The Iliad) had pointed out the throat as the place "where life can be quenched the quickest". It's a vital point, comprising the trachea and the spinal cord, the jugular vein and the carotid artery. Any major injury to the throat of a vertebrate would be lethal, ensuring a quick death through either air choke, blood choke, paralysis of the respiratory muscles, or hypovolemia/blood loss, or drowning in one's own blood. The breastplated warriors of the olden days would occasionally wear a collar (for instance, a frilled "Elizabethan" collar, like Francis Drake or 't Serclaes de Tilly) to shield such an important point: one of the most vulnerable and targeted by opponents.
The choice of the throat as the site of the death blow in this Wildean tale is also symbolic, since the throat contains the larynx, the site of speech/voice, and this Nubian guard slave was killed not to spread the word of his dishonour by defeat.
Hinter ihm stand, nackt bis zum Gürtel, ein Nubier mit einem Turban aus Messing, der schwere Ohrringe in seinen gespaltenen Ohren trug.
...
Dann zog er einen Dolch aus einem weißen Ledergürtel und stieß ihn dem Nubier in die Kehle, damit der Sklave nicht seine Schande erzählen sollte. Der Mann wand sich wie eine zertretene Schlange, und roter Schaum trat auf seine Lippen.Derrière lui se tenait debout un Nubien en turban noir, nu jusqu'à la ceinture, et portant à ses oreilles fendues de lourds pendants.
...
Alors il tira d'une ceinture de cuir blanc un poignard qu'il planta dans la gorge du Nubien, pour que cet esclave ne pût raconter son affront.L'homme se tordit comme un serpent sur lequel on marche, et une écume rouge moussa à ses lèvres.
Detrás de él se erguía un nubio, desnudo hasta la cintura, con turbante de bronce y pesados aretes.
....
Luego desenvainó una daga, y apuñaló la garganta del nubio, para que no pudiese contarle a nadie la afrenta que había recibido. El esclavo se retorció como una serpiente, y la roja espuma roja le salió a borbotones entre los labios.Detrás de él estaba un nubio con turbante rematado de bronce, desnudo hasta la cintura, con enormes aros colgando de sus orejas.
...
Luego sacó una daga de un cinturón de cuero blanco y la clavó en la garganta del nubio, por miedo a que el esclavo difundiera su deshonor. El hombre se retorció como una serpiente pisoteada y una espuma roja escapó de sus labios.To round it up... why did I get such an interest in human physiology? Long story short: it was wonder at the marvel that is our everyday life, and that of our ancestors in the past... and awareness of the fragility of health and life itself, how a disruption from within or from without can put an end to it all, and can even make the person who died live forever, as long as others remember that person who died violently, painfully, and/or strangely...
Understanding the way we get to live, to fall ill, and to die is as important as understanding the past or understanding the creative arts. Everything is tied together. Our psychic lives, our feelings, thoughts, inspirations... are but sodium ions passing constantly from synapse to synapse. Every artist's, composer's, writer's, designer's, even strategist's masterpieces... every great engagement in love, warfare, or creativity, is but the progress of these sodium ions, which can be used for good and for no good. We are free to decide whether right or wrong. Is freedom, then, also within these ions? We live on this petty teal planet in this ordinary star system... is there at least another sapient species out there?
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