Duryea-Gode Disease is a genetic disorder characterized by the carrier having uncontrollable impulses toward literally tearing themselves apart in ghastly spectacles of self mutilation; which on rare occasions can even lead to the dismemberment of others. One such case is Lynn’s, the diver of the narrative, father. A man who skinned her mother alive? before digging through his rib cage in a feverish attempt to pry out his own heart. Viewed as ticking time bombs the ostracization of the carriers is rampant. The main treatment for prevention being a specially formed diet, casually referred to as dog biscuits, which makes the afflicted easy enough to spot that keeping their status under wraps is all but impossible.
Several ‘’treatment’’ facilities exist for the housing of patients with DGD once they begin to drift, or their urges become apparently untethered. Something which normally means a box with a luxurious name placed away from society, lined with padded walls utilizing restraints as mandatory attire to keep patients from disgorging themselves. Lynn has swung her way into medical school on a scholarship from such an institution, though the reputation DGD’s have for being particularly productive and creative didn't hurt her any. A reputation not unrecognizably applied to the non neurotypicals in our own realm. Possessing traits deemed personally destructive and therefore pushed towards the margins, but often have populations lauded as being gifted artists or scientists. Perhaps intended as an exaggeration there remains a palpable history of self mutilation running through mental illness. While not associated with any one illness in particular cases of peeling of the skin, lacerations of the flesh, removal of fingers,¹arms, ears, and eyes are beyond well documented. A common enough practice before the advent of the label, though more closely associated with the idea of religious sacrifice. ‘’“...tearing off their own limbs because of religious feelings and in order to pay homage to gods who demanded this sacrifice.”’’² DGD are known to feel as if they are imprisoned within their own skin, as Lynn describes ‘’“She bit her own arm and.. Swallowed the flesh she had bitten away…. They try so hard, fight so hard to get out…. [of] Their restraints the disease, the ward, their bodies.”’’³DGD harbour overwhelming desire for escape from the situation in which they are entombed, actualized by throwing pieces of themselves outside of themselves. A freedom achieved if just through a differentiation between themselves and their surroundings, madness only removing obstacles to an impulse. “Freedom from all selfish calculation,” ⁴
Worthy of note is the case of Gaston F, a reader of Nietzche and the Biography of Van Gogh,⁵who at the age of thirty wandered into a cemetery on December 11th 1924. Where he began to stare at the sun until such a point that he was given the directive to remove his left index finger; upon which he promptly bit through down to the bone then tore away using his other hand. After an unsuccessful evasion of the police for the act he is quoted as saying “It did not seem very hard… after contemplating suicide to bite off a finger. I told myself: I can always do that.”⁶ Van Gogh himself had a rather interesting relation with the sun. Transitioning from sunsets, to full sun, to no sun, to suicide throughout his carrer. While still living he would often paint wilted sunflowers, a rotten disappointment opposed to the brilliant ideal that once shone in his painted skies during his stay in a mental institution. Though he is still perhaps most famous for his own severed gift of love which society hardly has the ears to accept. A brilliant rejection of the values in which he was encased.⁷
Both cases here involving the sun as an ideal. A solar god which demands sacrifice, and generally one which makes a show of disemboweling itself. The sacrifice is then a coerced attempt to align oneself with this ideal term, a full promethean commitment to which would inevitably end in the practitioner's death.⁸ A true will to nothingness sufficient to become active, a burst of creativity directed at self destruction.⁹ The impulse synonymous with creation directed at self mutilation.
As the story unfolds, Lynn accompanies her DGD boyfriend, Alan, on a trip to the facility that is providing her scholarship to visit his mother who, he assumed, had died from the disease years prior. On arrival they are greeted by a situation unlike any of the other institutions which they have witnessed. Instead of uncontrolled DGD being placed in restraints and isolation to separate them from their ability to injure themselves or others they are given opportunities to pursue creative work. Projects which their vast reservoirs of violent impulses can be thrown into. Procured through an establishment of an environment that minimizes factors that cause these forces to be acted against the self.
The Facility head, Beatrice, acts as an important piece in the maintenance of such an environment. Her place as the “queen bee” is to smooth over and redirect patient forces when they encounter turbulence. As a child of two DGD patients¹⁰ she releases a pheromone which breaks through the barriers to reach her patients, giving her a kind of chemical charisma which allows her to communicate successfully to even the most closed off in the facility. Alan’s mother being one of these cases. Suffering from significant cognitive deterioration as a result of a long period of neglect at another facility where she was left to tear away the majority of her face, including the removal of both eyes.¹¹ Beatrice has managed to bring her back into a state where she has regained limited speech and spends the majority of her day sculpting.
When Alan meets his mother it is Beatrice who brings her out of her task and returns her to it. Gently removing mis mothers hands from the clay, directing her towards her son for the conversation, then returning her hands to it so as to resume with minimal distraction. A weaver with a firm love and exhaustive patience, meeting them where they are and offering encouragement to those in her care to act in a manner which allows them opportunity to throw pieces of themselves outwards without literal self annihilation. A role which one finds themselves falling into rather than orienting themselves toward, as Lynn discovers upon observation of Beatrice's workings and a compulsion in a fashion to continue them herself. A drive toward refreshment in helping the gifts that DGDs have as creators and problem solvers flourish.
The gift itself arrives from what sets DGDs apart. Their violent urges which allow them to each have a potential for overcoming. Presented as necessity to think and act differently in ways that reject established values and accept levels of risk and torment. something that isn't present in those that would set them apart. Neuro divergents can be seen in a similar light. Having a different set of base needs (diet), thriving in unorthodox environments with fewer obstacles to bind their forces upon, and with interaction from individuals on similar or adaptive wavelengths to successfully facilitate their preferred flavor of communication and encouragement. Factors which distinguish them as superior creatives and problem solvers when the right conditions are met, because of, rather than in spite of, the violent tendencies they possess that are deemed to be self destructive.