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Mar. 17th, 2013 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zcat_abroadDear US crime writers,
Seriously? The minute you start in with anomalies in the bones (or total absence of the bones, 'cos in this case the killer took them) of the hands, face and feet, I know you're heading for leprosy. Does every pathologist, forensic anthropologist, etc., have to have a case of leprosy? I saw it coming 100 pages ago.
What is it about leprosy (or, sorry, Hansen's disease, because that's less... something... I can't work out what) that so intrigues these writers. I have seen it first hand, have met people with it, but I can't see why it keeps turning up in these books. Corpse presents with anomalies, and it takes ages for the anthropologist (Kathy Reichs) or the medical examiner (Tess Gerritsen) to work out what it is. This is a disease which still exists around the world, and so it should not be such a horror or surprise.
I shouldn't be so hard on them, because it is not an issue in the Western world any more, except that it has shown up in two books I happened to read, both by authors who are actually anthropologists and doctors, which suggests that it hasn't totally disappeared from the West.
There, I have had my rant.
Me
Seriously? The minute you start in with anomalies in the bones (or total absence of the bones, 'cos in this case the killer took them) of the hands, face and feet, I know you're heading for leprosy. Does every pathologist, forensic anthropologist, etc., have to have a case of leprosy? I saw it coming 100 pages ago.
What is it about leprosy (or, sorry, Hansen's disease, because that's less... something... I can't work out what) that so intrigues these writers. I have seen it first hand, have met people with it, but I can't see why it keeps turning up in these books. Corpse presents with anomalies, and it takes ages for the anthropologist (Kathy Reichs) or the medical examiner (Tess Gerritsen) to work out what it is. This is a disease which still exists around the world, and so it should not be such a horror or surprise.
I shouldn't be so hard on them, because it is not an issue in the Western world any more, except that it has shown up in two books I happened to read, both by authors who are actually anthropologists and doctors, which suggests that it hasn't totally disappeared from the West.
There, I have had my rant.
Me
