Stig Sæterbakken (1966–2012)
Author of Through the Night
About the Author
Works by Stig Sæterbakken
Ja. Nei. Ja. 1 copy
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Sæterbakken, Stig
- Legal name
- Sæterbakken, Stig
- Other names
- Saeterbakken, Stig
- Birthdate
- 1966-01-04
- Date of death
- 2012-01-24
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Norway
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Reviews
Exactly How [Dark] can Writing Get? — Elkins
The so-called Imaginary Situation may be the characteristic form of Child's Play. The role-playing child-doctor-astronaut-Godzilla images itself to be an earnest embodiment of the real thing (and perhaps even believes for a moment). This is also a manifest quality of some very good and very bad writing. "At death we will be together in the tomb," though Aida alights with vigor at curtain call (since it's so boring down there).
Sæterbakken, who has evidently never fallen asleep with gum in his mouth, appears to have imagined himself to have done so (and then to have put it on the page). Why else would he suggest that our chronically (and presumed terminally) ill bathroom-dweller continues to think/speak/write in the kind of goal-directed television-dialogue, which, for some reason, (unfortunately) appears to characterize Nordic prose. On the subject of somatic illness, our author may beguile a certain professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, though some of us, for better or (likely) worse, are living closer to the ground. Sæterbakken has a way to go if he intends to portray the (over)burden of disease. Are we to understand our Discontents' Dark-est Dia-logue as child's play or the real thing?
Imaginary History and Physical Note
I had the pleasure to meet and assess @NAME@, who is a pleasant gentleman with multiple chronic medical conditions and significant disease burden (Karnofsky Performance Score 30) who presents with frequent bloody bowel movements and BRBPR. Loose stools progressive over several days associated with abdominal discomfort which patient reports as mild with no modifying factors. Patient reports poor diet consisting almost exclusively of meat products, and denies recent dietary changes. Patient does not take any fiber or dietary supplements.
Family History: Reviewed and not pertinent
Social History: Retired hospital administrator (?). Lives in upstairs apartment with wife who provides all care. Confined to bathroom "by choice" (review this, concern for spousal abuse). No VNA or outside nursing assistance.
Review of Systems:
GEN: Fatigue, Denies fever, Denies weight loss; ENDO: Fatigue, Cold intolerance; HEENT: "Rotting gums", Denies gum/tooth pain, Denies pain with mastication; PULM: Denies cough, Denies SOB; CV: Denies CP, Denies Palpitations, Denies Syncope; GI: Frequent loose bowel movements, BRPBR, Denies N/V, Denies dysphagia, Denies odynophagia; GU: Chronic indwelling urinary catheter, chronic loss of sensation to penis; EXT: Weakness, Denies LE edema; NEURO: Complete loss of LE sensation and loss of sensation to hands, Denies HA; PSYCH: Denies SI/HI
Physical Exam:
GEN: Seated in wheelchair, mild distress; HEENT: Blindness, b/l lens opacification, Edentulous, dry mucous membranes, bolus of chewing gum present in oral cavity; PULM: poor inspiratory effort with impaired air entry, end-expiratory wheeze; CV: RRR, no MRG; GI: Obese, mildly distended, tender, Stool containment system in place (?!); GU: Urinary catheter in place, concentrated urine EXT: Wasting of b/l LE; NEURO: Poor cooperation on exam. 1/5 strength B/L LE. Loss of sensation to b/l hips, chronic venous statis changes with numerous small ulcerations. Subjective loss of sensation to b/l wrists, though able to easily unwrap chewing gum wrappers throughout exam.; PSYCH: Alert and oriented x3/4 (oriented to self, place, situation, NOT year), thoughts linear, goal-directed, mildly tangential, content of thoughts upset and resentful
Problem History9D90.6 Blindness; laterality: XK9J Bilateral; associated with: 9D96 Impairment of uncorrected visual acuity
8C03.3 Polyneuropathy in nutritional deficiency
GA90 Hyperplasia of prostate
MF50.3 Retention of urine
QF23 Difficulty or need for assistance with mobility
QF27 Difficulty or need for assistance at home and no other household member able to render care
HA40 Aetiological considerations in sexual dysfunctions and sexual pain disorders
HA00.2 Hypoactive sexual desire dysfunction, acquired, generalised
Associated with HA40.4 Aetiological considerations associated with relationship factors
6D70.2 Delirium due to multiple etiological factors
Assessment:
@NAME@'s loose and bloody BM's in the setting of poor diet and chronic constipation with mild impairment of mental status is concerning for sepsis secondary to diverticulitis. Differential diagnosis also includes GI bleed, Catheter-associated urosepsis, malignancy, and superficial erosion of anorectal epithelium from stool containment system for which there is no active indication. Patient currently unable to manage activities of daily living at home with evidence of poor diet and reported confinement concerning for spousal and elder abuse, and will require long-term placement. Patient will be transported by ambulance from clinic to ED for further evaluation. Although septicemia is life threatening, patient's overall presentation is encouraging, and the absence of obvious terminal pathology suggests potential for significant longevity pending recovery from acute illness and appropriate home care. Detailed plan as below:
#NEURO
#Peripheral Neuropathy
Likely secondary to poor nutrition, though also concerned about distant cauda equina in setting of possible incontinence
-Thiamine, B12, Folate levels obtained
-Thiamine, B12, Folate, and multivitamin recommended.
-Dietary supplement with Ensure TID
#HEENT
#Edentulous Oral Cavity
Does not have dentures at home
-Referral to dentist
#Blindness
#c/f Retinal Degeneration
#B/l Cataracts
-Encourage verbal communication
-Delirium precautions
#CV
#Chronic Venous Stasis Changes
-Wound care for leg wounds
#Concern for heart failure
-TTE
#GI
#Concern for diverticulitis
-Recommend CT Abdomen/Pelvis for evaluation of suspected diverticulitis
-Recommend removal of stool containment system, no current medical indication
#Concern for GI bleed
Also long overdue for screening colonoscopy
-CBC
-Nil Per Os
-Proton pump inhibitor IV twice daily
-GI consult for EGD/Colonoscopy pending CT A/P
#RENAL/ENDO
#Concern for Acute Kidney Injury
Reports only drinking warm soda
-BMP
-Recommend initiation of maintenance fluids while NPO
#Concern for hypothyroidism
-TSH, T4
#GU
#Concern for catheter-associated UTI
#BPH
-Urinary catheter removed and replaced
-Urinalysis sent (catheter source)
#ID
#Concern for Sepsis
-Blood cultures x2, CXR, UA as above
-Cefepime/Flagyl, avoiding vanc/zosyn in setting of unknown renal function
-MRSA nares
#Concern for Sacral wound
Patient with remarkably intact skin given reported absence of movement
-Wound care consult
-Turns Every 2 hours
-apply Mepilex
#PSYCH/SOC
#Concern for MDD
-Recommend initiation of SSRI
#Concern for Elderly abuse/Spousal Abuse
-Social work notified, requires further evaluation and likely placement in long-term care facility
Greater than 50 percent of this visit was spent in direct counseling, coordination, and patient care
@SIGNATURE@
@DATE@
CPT Billing Code 99204 (New Patient, Level 4 decision making)
Procedure Code 57102 (Replacement of indwelling urinary catheter)
"Is this tight [dark] enough for you?" — Pynchon… (more)
Is there something wrong with me? I thought that, far from being a grotesque descent into the depths of human hideousness, this was a fairly touching novel about how two people, even in the absolute depths, can get along okay. The invalid doesn't do anything too bad to his wife. The wife doesn't do anything too bad to his husband. Perhaps the obviously Beckettian set-up made me expect something a bit colder; perhaps the translation doesn't really do justice to Saeterbakken's prose, which seems, on the evidence here, to be quite jaunty. Perhaps I'm just not interested in physical disgust unmediated by intelligent reflection.
If I want to be disgusted, I'll read Swift's poetry. That way, I get way more disgusted, but amused, as well.… (more)
If I want to be disgusted, I'll read Swift's poetry. That way, I get way more disgusted, but amused, as well.… (more)
Ehh... OK, so this was never at the level of Knausgaard, but the surprise ending left me confused and somehow feeling cheated– almost enough to knock my rating down a star. Overall, though, the experience was definitely better than a three, so... (I may have to update this brief rambling once my head has cleared from the daze the book all of a sudden put me in.)
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- Works
- 33
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 373
- Popularity
- #64,664
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 10
- ISBNs
- 62
- Languages
- 9
To what extent is the author doing the right thing when he commits words to an idea which resists him. (The Idea, perhaps, balks at "commitment" in its adumbration of the mental asylum and flees.) What rough beast then results from the writer's compulsive technical Articulation. (I mean to over-write "Articulate" with the anatomical sense: connections between structures, flexion, extension at a joint, fixation, and the implied separation/disarticulation which precipitates a medical emergency.)
Saeterbakken's writing project appears to be motived by a horrible sensation without a voice, which inspires the prurient urge to produce the (lacrimal) emission. The novel is constructed from-back-to-front with this intention in mind. A lachrymal feeling is in search of a sad image which can excite it to produce more tears (similar to the lascivious feeling in search of the repetition of a prurient image), which appears to be the paradise-(innocence)-lost image of the child cowboy. We must contrive a way to tell this image to an interested third party (even better if they are an inverted family, an Other woman and with child). It goes without saying the child must now be dead, in part through our negligence, such that we can extract maximal pathos. We almost forget this scene, in which the son slowly ascends the stairs with a shiver of excitement, is impossible because we are already late for soccer practice (a practice at which he is now sure to excel due to the articulation of many extra weepy eyes and long legs). Likewise, narrative fixation on a "greatest fear," is intended to be realized as a kind of mantra within oneself - a slippery pebble of a feeling in search of a word, evading further analysis, which is articulated to walk on its hands.… (more)