Kurt Vonnegut's Short Story Rules

Here are Kurt Vonnegut's excellent rules for short story writing:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007; ) was an American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).He was known for his humanist beliefs as well as being honorary president of the American Humanist Association

Here are Kurt Vonnegut's excellent rules for short story writing:

• Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.


• Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.


• Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.


• Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*


• Start as close to the end as possible.


• Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.


• Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.


• Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Is Your Favourite Medicine Killing You?

by MONIRUPA SHETE

Many drugs that have been banned, withdrawn, or marketed under restrictions in other countries, continue to be sold in India.

Life, it seems, comes cheap for the health officials of our country. How else would you justify the existence of drugs withdrawn elsewhere in the world but still sold and prescribed in India?

Delayed Reactions

Doctors campaigning for the sensible use of drugs say that regulatory authorities in India have not addressed the issue of delays in withdrawing drugs. Eleven drugs - including cisapride, furazolidone, nimesulide and phenylpropanolamine - that have been banned, withdrawn, or marketed under restrictions in North America, Europe, and many Asian countries, continue to be sold in India.

Lax Officials

“Indian regulators are accused of laxity in not banning drugs,” says Dr Anant Phadke, city-based medical practitioner who has done extensive research on the issue. Dr Phadke however cautions that the belief that India has become a dumping ground for banned drugs is an issue too far stretched. “Regulations in India and US vary. In the US, drugs are not banned, they are withdrawn from the market. When a certain drug is found to have side affects, Indian regulatory authorities should also withdraw it from the market. Unfortunately that does not happen,” adds Dr Phadke.

Grey Areas

He explains that whenever a drug is banned by the Drug Controller of India, it should stop being available in the market. But there are times when a drug is banned yet continues to be sold for a few months till stock lasts. “There is a lot grey zone in the field,” says Dr Phadke. Dr Shirish Praya feels that drugs continue to be available over the counter because doctors keep prescribing it. “Till the time the drugs are not banned by regulatory authorities, no doctor can be blamed for prescribing it and as long as doctors keep prescribing, chemists will keep selling these drugs,” explains Dr Prayag.

Docs To Blame?

Many doctors, experts says, are unaware of the researches being conducted worldwide. “There have been campaigns against various drugs. Noted doctors keep themselves informed of the harmful side-effects of these drugs and do not prescribe them,” Dr Phadke argues. It is advisable to buy drugs only if prescribed by a doctor. Also, it is advisable to check out which company manufactures it from a reputed drug store. Remember, popping in some of these drugs can cause harm beyond repair.

Are you taking any of these?

ANALGIN: This is a pain-killer. Reason for ban: Bone marrow depression. Brand name: Novalgin

CISAPRIDE: For acidity, constipation. Reason for ban : irregular heartbeat Brand name : Ciza, Syspride

DROPERIDOL: An anti-depressant. Reason for ban : Irregular heartbeat. Brand name : Droperol

FURAZOLIDONE: An antidiarrhoeal. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Furoxone, Lomofen

NIMESULIDE: Painkiller, fever. Reason for ban : Liver failure. Brand name : Nise, Nimulid

NITROFURAZONE: An antibacterial cream. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Furacin

PHENOLPHTHALEIN: A laxative. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Agarol

PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE: For cold and cough. Reason for ban : stroke. Brand name : D'cold, Vicks Action-500

OXYPHENBUTAZONE: A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Reason for ban : Bone marrow depression. Brand name : Sioril

PIPERAZINE: Anti-worms. Reason for ban : Nerve damage. Brand name : Piperazine

QUINIODOCHLOR: An Anti-diarrhoeal. Reason for ban : Damage to sight. Brand name : Enteroquinol

Placebo : Cure By Illusion

Placebo : Cure By Illusion
K V Seetharamaiah
health.indiatimes.com

The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way.

A placebo (Latin for “I shall please”) is a medication or treatment believed by the administrator of the treatment to be inert or innocuous. Placebos may be sugar pills or starch pills. Even “fake” surgery and “fake” psychotherapy are considered placebos. Researchers and medical doctors sometimes give placebos to patients. Anecdotal evidence for the placebo effect is garnered in this way. Those who believe there is scientific evidence for the placebo effect point to clinical studies, many of which use a control group treated with a placebo. Why an inert substance, or a fake surgery or therapy, would be effective is not known

The Psychological Theory: It's All In Your Mind
Some believe the placebo effect is psychological, due to a belief in the treatment or to a subjective feeling of improvement. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect.

He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsch 1998).

"The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation." In an earlier study, Sapirstein analyzed 39 studies, done between 1974 and 1995, of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. He found that 50 percent of the drug effect is due to the placebo response.

A person's beliefs and hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibility, may have a significant biochemical effect. Sensory experience and thoughts can affect neurochemistry. The body's neurochemical system affects and is affected by other biochemical systems, including the hormonal and immune systems. Thus, it is consistent with current knowledge that a person's hopeful attitude and beliefs may be very important to their physical well-being and recovery from injury or illness.

However, it may be that much of the placebo effect is not a matter of mind over molecules, but of mind over behavior. A part of the behavior of a "sick" person is learned. So is part of the behavior of a person in pain. In short, there is a certain amount of role-playing by ill or hurt people. Role-playing is not the same as faking or malingering.

The behavior of sick or injured persons is socially and culturally based to some extent. The placebo effect may be a measurement of changed behavior affected by a belief in the treatment. The changed behavior includes a change in attitude, in what one says about how one feels, and how one acts. It may also affect one's body chemistry.

The psychological explanation seems to be the one most commonly believed. Perhaps this is why many people are dismayed when they are told that the effective drug they are taking is a placebo. This makes them think that their problem is "all in their mind" and that there is really nothing wrong with them. Yet, there are too many studies which have found objective improvements in health from placebos to support the notion that the placebo effect is entirely psychological.