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I Ain't Even Here, Sergeant. I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

2023-09-05 · letter vlog · John · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Health, Global development, Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore, timely hook

Using the family metaphor from Rushmore, 'I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming', John describes being immersed in writing about how tuberculosis, once a disease wealth never warded off, came to be seen, in the rich world, as a curable disease of poverty, shares news that generic bedaquiline prices will fall by over 50%, and argues that what he loves most about writing is escaping himself.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The Rushmore line 'I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming' as the family metaphor for creative immersion; John is there now

  • ★★★ John says a soldier's line in Rushmore, 'I ain't even here, Sergeant, I'm in Cheyenne, Wyoming', became his family's metaphor for deep immersion in writing or art: creative expression is escaping the prison of the self. — 00:00:00 · Cheyenne, Wyoming

    “It's a way of escaping the body type prison of myself”

  • ★★ John discloses that he is currently not really here but in Cheyenne, Wyoming, deep in a writing project. — 00:00:22 · Cheyenne, Wyoming

00:00:29 — Chapter 2 not working; generic competition will cut bedaquiline prices by over 50%

  • ★ John says that a couple of nights ago he said in his sleep that chapter two is not working, and adds that it is not. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John recalls that a couple of months ago Nerdfighteria helped raise the alarm about Johnson & Johnson trying to extend the patent on its antibiotic bedaquiline. — 00:00:31 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John reports the Stop TB Partnership has announced that in most high-tuberculosis countries generic competition will cut the price of bedaquiline by over 50%, which he calls amazing news. — 00:00:40 · tuberculosis

00:00:58 — Tuberculosis went from a disease of wealth to a curable disease of poverty; disease is social as well as medical

  • ★★★ John says that until quite recently tuberculosis was, in Charles Dickens's words, the disease wealth never warded off: kings and the richest man of the 19th century died of it; then it suddenly became one wealth almost always wards off. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says tuberculosis was long seen as a disease of civilization, wealth, privilege and success, but the rich world now sees it as a disease of poverty and marginalization, which he finds weird. — 00:01:15 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John argues this shows disease is not just a medical phenomenon but a social one: how we imagine diseases matters. — 00:01:32 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says his Cheyenne, Wyoming has been figuring out how tuberculosis's change happened and how to tell its story. — 00:01:40 · Cheyenne, Wyoming, tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says that in the 21st century the deadliest infectious disease is curable, which is unprecedented: the deadliest diseases of the 20th, 19th and 18th centuries were not. — 00:01:45 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says telling that true story differs from making one up, but not much: in fiction, essays or video scripts he is trying to make sense of a world that resists sense. — 00:02:05

00:02:23 — What John loves most about writing: something to think about, an escape from himself

  • ★★★ John says piecing things together into sense is fulfilling, but what he loves most about writing is that it is something to think about: escaping himself and worrying about something else for a while. — 00:02:23 · Cheyenne, Wyoming
  • ★★ John says that at 11pm, instead of his usual worries and mortifications, the story lets him leave his body, a flesh sack that is also a bacterial colony. (playful) — 00:02:45 · Cheyenne, Wyoming
  • ★★ John says immersion eventually takes over, so he even dreams of Cheyenne; it can be intense but does not last long. — 00:03:00 · Cheyenne, Wyoming
  • ★★ John is sure that next week (week of 11 September 2023) he won't be in Cheyenne all the time because something he has been working on will be happening, but he is not allowed to talk about it yet. — 00:03:08

00:03:21 — A project John can't talk about yet, the moral of Cheyenne, and praise for Hank's beard

  • ★ John says he hates it when YouTubers tease something they can't talk about, but he really can't. (playful) — 00:03:24

  • ★★★ John concludes that Cheyenne, Wyoming is a metaphor, not a real place: go there whenever you can, but don't stay forever. — 00:03:31 · Cheyenne, Wyoming

    “Go to Cheyenne, Wyoming whenever you can, but don't stay there forever.”

  • ★★ John praises Hank's new beard: Hank looks different because he is different, moving through a profound, difficult experience and looking good; he might go full Tom Selleck. — 00:03:38 · Hank Green

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a later comment, asked whether the thing he could not talk about is the livestream, John answers yes. — creator comment
  • ★ The description's p.s. asks viewers to subscribe to a better world at good.store. — video description · Good Store

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Cheyenne, Wyoming · tuberculosis

Also: Bedaquiline · Charles Dickens · generic drug · infectious disease · Johnson & Johnson · Rushmore (film) · Stop TB Partnership · Tom Selleck

Only in the description or credits: Good Store

Also centred on Cheyenne, Wyoming: Cheyenne, Wyoming · why we make art

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