What do YOU think?

So. I've mentioned previously that I'm reading this werewolf book called "High Bloods" by John Farris. It takes place in about 20 or 30 years, I suppose, give or take a decade. Anyway, I was reading said book the other night when I came across this paragraph:

"In the dining room Paulo joined a tall, formidable-looking woman with his olive coloring. She wore all black: sweater, leather gloves, high-waisted slacks. She had been watching a TV monitor I couldn't see, but when Paulo spoke to her she turned and gave me a flat incurious stare. She said something to Paulo. He opened a pewter cigarette box on a table and lighted one, then took the cigarette from his lips and placed it between hers. Something wrong with her concealed hands; rheumatoid arthritis? The fitted gloves could only have worsened her pain. But maybe her vanity required them."

I've been letting this paragraph rumble around in my head for several days, and I still don't know what to make of it.

I have to be honest and say that when I read about the black gloves, my first thoughts were "burns or prosthetics." Not RA.

I could write about how offended I am by this paragraph, or how I don't know anyone with RA who wears gloves, or how I hope that in the next three decades they manage to find a cure for this freakin' disease. But mostly, I'm just... confused.

What are you guys thinking?

Comments

[Wren]

That WAS a very strange passage, Kim. I've had rheuma for 22 years, but I've never worn gloves in order to conceal my hands. Nor would I, should they become more disfigured over time. I'm certainly not ashamed of them.

I DO wear therapeutic gloves -- black Thermoskin ones with cut-out fingertips. The compression, warmth and gentle support they give is very soothing when my hands are sore and twingy. I think this author has no idea what rheumatoid arthritis really is. Nor has he ever spoken to anyone who has it. What a shame.

[Remicade Dream]

I'm not so much offended as mystified. What a random reference to RA! Anyway, not having read the rest of the book, I take it more as a statement about that particular character, who seems odd and mysterious and vain, than as a generalization about people with RA. But I agree with Wren that the author probably has no concept of RA!