Life Span, Body Mass and Literary Musings on Popular Literature

BrooklynDodger reads obits only when, as this time, the Times was open to the page, and there was nothing else near the throne. March 18, two important names from the Dodger’s past, Dick Radatz the pitcher, and Andre Norton, a science fiction writer, appeared.

At age 65, a white American man has a median of 16.6 years left, and a 50/50 prospect of living to 81.6. For a white woman, it’s 19.5 years and an attained age of 84.6. For black men, it’s 14.6 years and 79.6; black women have 18.0 years coming and an age of 83. These are medians, so half will do better, as with Andre Norton, and half worse, like Dick Radatz. At age 75, we still have upwards of a median of 10 years left. These numbers are way higher than life expectancy at birth. They give pause when planning for retirement income: social security and a defined benefit pension go on forever, but when your 401(k) is gone, it’s gone.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus04trend.pdf#027

Anyway, Dick Radatz was 6’6” and weighed 230 pounds as an all-star pitcher. He was the “monster.” The ultimate healthy worker. However, his body mass index was 26.6, which is overweight by CDC. [No wonder 2/3 of the country is overweight by their count.] What might have happened to him from retirement from baseball until now? He played in the pre-steroid era. Falls cause about 25% of hospital emergency room injury treatments. A collapse and fall, suggested by the newspaper account below, sounds more like an aneurism than heart attack.

Now to Andre Norton. BrooklynDodger purchased “his” books, only to find for the first time that “he” was “she.” The Dodger remembers looking through the paperbacks, where the difference between $0.25 and $0.35 for a science fiction novel was a significant matter. Norton was in the league with Asimov and Heinlein. Now the books are $7.99. Ultimately, the difference between escapist science fiction and escapist mystery literature is that the SF author has to create a world out of imagination, and then describe it, while the mystery writer only has to describe a world there is. The range of society and organic features of characters is similarly unbounded for the SF writer and defined for the mystery writer. The mystery writer, by contrast, is bound by the whodunnit plot framework, while the SF writer can explore a more character driven story.

Novelists successful in “serious” genres – Doris Lessing, Marge Piercy, Margaret Attwood [is there a problem these are all women? Are there modern male novelist examples] – seem less satisfying writing about anti-utopias in the science fiction genre.

Andre Norton was basically writing for teenage boys – or younger adults arrested at the misfit teenager stage. Kids who listened late at night to Jean Shepard and Long John Nebel on WOR radio. Does anyone else remember Long John and his endless interviews with L. Ron Hubbard, who the Dodger guesses was just starting out in those days? Flying saucer stories?



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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/sports/baseball/18radatz.html?

Dick Radatz, Pitcher With Power for the Red Sox, Dies at 67
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN Published: March 18, 2005

Dick Radatz, a dominant relief pitcher of the 1960's for the Boston Red Sox who was known as the Monster for his overpowering fastballs and fearsome physique, died Wednesday at his home in South Easton, Mass. He was 67.
His death was announced by his son, Dick Jr., who said his father evidently had had a heart attack that resulted in a fall down a flight of stairs and a head injury.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/books/18norton.html

Andre Norton Dies at 93; a Master of Science Fiction
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT Published: March 18, 2005

Andre Norton, a prolific and popular science-fiction and fantasy writer whose central theme was the rite of passage to self-realization undertaken by misfits or displaced outsiders, died yesterday at her home in Murfreesboro, Tenn. She was 93.
The cause was congestive heart failure, Sue Stewart, her friend and caretaker, said.