College English in California found us studying the classic Underground
Man. It is a psychological piece of writing, devoid of punctuation and
other grammatical devices. The story is about a man complaining about his
liver. In reality, the liver filters out the body’s toxins. Everything
ingested must pass through this organ.

After pages and pages of unselfconscious, unmonitored non-grammatical
whining by this loner, in the end he remarks that his liver condition has
improved.

We’re led to believe it’s only the things we ingest physically which rocks
our health; but paradoxically, it’s the negative psychological debris
building up in our minds which intercepts the energy needed to run our
physical systems.

5/14/04