It's here.

A couple of points about your very interesting post. First, Patrick's TB is strongly believed to be the chief reason Gerald gave up painting. There was more than a degree of Irish guilt and self-mortification here: Painting gave Gerald a tremendous feeling of pleasure and freedom -- he later said that when he was painting, it was the only time he was truly happy. So if he gave up his greatest pleasure and devoted himself to caring for Patrick, maybe God wouldn't take his son. But 2) part of the guilt was tied to the fact that TB was still associated with disreputable, "unsanitary" types -- the lower classes, the bohemians (and possibly homosexuals). Precisely the sort with whom the Murphys had cast their lot, violating the social mores of their class and time. So in its ramifications for that period, TB wasn't simply a matter of medical science (and life and death).

3), I understand that a drug-resistant TB is making something of a comeback. It may not be a minor bit of personal medical history, even now. And finally, 4) I find it a fascinating link to the entire history of the arts and TB (up to and including modern artists like Franz Kafka and Katherine Anne Porter) that Texas was long used as a giant TB sanatorium. A state known for its swaggering independence was full of the sick and dying, a haven for them, in fact.

Thanks for writing.

One of the striking things for me about the story is that now you could be a poor child with neither money nor insurance and show up at any hospital in Dallas, be diagnosed with TB, be put in a positive ventilation room (air vented outside the hospital), treated to initial repsonse for your TB and followed in the public health clinic to remission; it would be a minor part of your history. But the Murphys' son died of it. The time you are born in sometimes more than your economic resources or the genitility of your family determines your potential fates. It also highlights that, though the arts are all that you say they are in your worthy review, quiet work in science is also important.