January 07, 2007
Joined
Ace's post on conjoined twins Abigail and Brittany Hansel got me thinking about an article I read many years ago in the then-fabulous New York Press about conjoined twins Lori and Dori Schappell.
I remembered it being one of the meanest, funniest, spot-on articles ever written--explaining why 7 years later I remember it so well. After googling around, it turns out that the article was written by J.R Taylor, whom I've mentioned here before and who blogs at Rightwing Trash.
In his piece on Lori and Dori, he reviews a documentary about their lives called Face to Face, which seeks to prove there really isn't anything too abnormal about their situation, and takes on our "self-esteem above all" culture. A sample:
As the t-shirts say, God does not make junk. He is, however, clearly capable of interesting pop art. It would be really nice if the horribly disfigured Dori could open her mouth and sing like an angel. But she doesn’t. She sings like a drunk barmaid. That’s not necessarily bad. I’d still buy her CD for the novelty value. She could open for Mr. Bungle out in L.A. Those guys love giving their audience a cheap thrill.Posted by Karol at January 7, 2007 03:25 PM | TrackBackBut could we have a documentary that explores all that? Couldn’t we even have a documentary that addresses the horrific physical pain that these two sisters daily inflict upon each other?
The answer is no. That would be mean-spirited. The lie is preferred. Heck, we don’t even like to profile Stephen Hawking without dwelling on his lovable human side. Otherwise, he’d be making us feel like underachievers.
Technorati Tags: Conjoined+twins
Do they have to alternate wearing blindfolds when they get to vote? Since they share a vagina, do they both have to consent to sex and if one gets married before the other, how does adultery apply? If one of them commits a crime, can you jail the shared body?
Posted by: Joe Grossberg at January 7, 2007 04:50 PMJoe: go to Ace's post if you want to consider all the enthralling hypotheticals. I just read about one page of such questions, and I doubt they left any possibility uncovered.
My question is that when they apply for colleges, what to do if one is accepted and the other rejected? I had a bunch of questions about having to share a schedule, and how they could manage to have a fulltime courseload if they have different majors, but online courses pretty much take care of that. If they invest in some good noise-cancelling headphones, one can listen to lectures for one course while the other sits in class.
The only issue is if one wants to go into surgery, as each has control of only one arm.
Karol: I didn't realize Rightwing Trash was written by =that= J.R. Taylor. He was one of the few people I would read regularly in NYPress even as my reading of that rag petered off. Boy, did they go through a rollercoaster of quality.
Posted by: meep at January 8, 2007 06:26 AMI can't wade through everything at Ace's right now, but I remember seeing these girls on TV when they were about six--Oprah covered it.
Posted by: Anwyn at January 8, 2007 12:31 PMYep, same guy, Meep. He is even more hilarious in person.
I don't know when you started reading me but I've done many a post on my past love for New York Press. When I graduated from college and returned to uber-blue state NY, it kept me sane.
Posted by: Karol at January 8, 2007 01:07 PMI remember that documentary because it got me hooked on the Reba song, "Fear of Being Alone."
Posted by: Dorian Davis at January 8, 2007 04:34 PM
