by John W. Armstrong
25 Words or Less:
We’ve reached the end of our celebratory sample wee(k), it’s been an amazing first year, thanks to everyone who’s been part of it! Now this:
Cover Art:
Unexpectedly tasteful. Not as good as the alternative, though.
Formatting, Grammar & Spelling:
Professional, no errors noted, British English. A first on all three counts this week.
Prose:
Hard to believe I’m about to write this, but: the tone of The Water of Life is… scholarly. It quotes doctors. It sites other texts. It makes lay observations about the state of medicine (not on the central topic, certainly, but) which I have no objection agreeing with, in principle. It reads a bit fusty (first published in 1971, the foreword reads 1944), but I imagine in no way dissimilar to any other work of the period.
Characterisation & Dialogue:
Two experts are quoted at the beginning of the book: first, Major C. Fraser MacKenzie, C.I.E., whose no doubt cornerstone work in Health Through Homoeopathy (June, July 1944) has surely revolutionised modern medicine. Already, Armstrong’s book is proving itself more influential than Smith or Scazzero‘s for me – because if I ever decide to give urine drinking a shot, you can bet it’ll be diluted to homoeopathic levels…
The second, Dr. W. H. White, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., just makes me want to watch Breaking Bad again.
Narrative:
Was I enticed by the story so far? No. Well, not Yes anyway. Maybe. I’m only kidding: No. As with the other urine imbibing experts, John W. Armstrong is going on my too-underused Blacklist, but in this case it’s a formality: he only wrote this one book. However… well, I must confess that I feel both a little guilt about that, not to mention a sneaking temptation to give more of the thing a read.
Unlike his successors, Armstrong at least champions the “science” of what he believes – and what great breakthrough to the scientific mainstream wasn’t lengthily pissed on by the straights before finally winning acceptance? There’s some school yard smirks to be had at ye olde remydies for which the waters of living, if not life, formed a key part (“especially being warm, or new made”). If you believe what you read, every body considered healthy between 1600 and 1850 probably reeked of ammonia, whether they suffered “the dropsie” or not.
On the other hand, judging by the table of contents, most of the book consists of case histories in which Armstrong’s Secret Ingredient is put to work on everything from gangrene to cancer, and ultimately this book is where clowns like Waggle and Shake find their toe hold. The impression that comes across in the Foreword is of a 1940s version of Deepak Chopra – erudite, engaging, well-meaning, perhaps genuinely (and here the comparison may fracture) not seeking to profit from an over-eager flock…
…but when you get down to brass tacks, he still thinks drinking pee is a good idea.
Observations:
“In all seriousness”, I could imagine that at the now forgotten core of Urine Therapy there is some notion not totally alien to human health, and dressing up the absence of actual learning with claims of divine inspiration is a fairly standard move on the part of the ignorant – see urine reviews one and two… Sure, not everything expelled from the body is inherently toxic, and reclaiming such things is probably a good idea – however, making a one person human centipede out of yourself is unlikely to be the rediscovery of it.
Conclusion:
I’m relieved… to have come to the end of this week of sample sampling sample reviews. 365 days ago I posted the first Sample Review – roll on year two!
Rating:
THE BLACKLIST
= Technicalities =
Title: The Water Of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy
Author: John W. Armstrong
Publisher: Ebury Digital
Price: $8.21 (April 2015)
The Sample Reader 