All the stars are closer

[gwyn]

Yesterday was the third anniversary of my surgery for colon cancer. It's so strange, it being so close to the death of Chadwick Boseman from the same illness; mine was stage 1b (you can't stage the cancer till after the surgery), which is very far away in severity from his when he was first diagnosed. The surgery, even when laparoscopy, is major abdominal surgery, and depending on how much of tissue is removed, can lead to all kinds of strange changes to your innards, and it's very difficult in terms of recovery. Obviously, a young, healthy person like him will have a better time, even with a tougher diagnosis, than a middle-aged lady in less than ideal health. But it took a lot out of me, for a good long time. I simply cannot imagine doing what he did, taking the kinds of roles he did, when he was dealing with "countless surgeries and chemotherapy." To say he was a real life superhero and king is an understatement.

It's a pretty slow disease compared to a lot of cancers. But that's mostly with older people; we're learning that people younger than 45 often have a more aggressive illness. But even if the first few years were slower, I'm just so astonished at him making Black Panther and the Avengers movies while fighting it. The loss of him just hurts so much. I've seen most of his major movies (and enjoyed seeing baby Chadwick when we were doing our Justified rewatch last year), was going to watch Da Five Bloods soon, but I found myself scrolling through YouTube to watch clips of him in various roles, from Thurgood Marshall to Jackie Robinson to James Brown to T'Challa. (The other thing that struck me, in that feeling of strange connectedness, is that his birthday is the day after mine, which I don't meet people often who have birthdays around that time.) He will be so, so missed.

I was actually getting ready to start on the scene where T'Challa comes into the story on my new WIP, Reverie. So now I'm kind of stuck, because I have to fight not to get all teary-eyed, and actually write. There's no way this won't inform things, and change what I was writing, I think.

I said to minim_calibre Friday night that I wondered if that was why Marvel had pushed the next Black Panther movie out so far. I'd been kind of angry about the lengthy delay (before the pandemic), but now I wonder if they weren't either giving him a chance to have treatment and heal before going back to the role, or hedging their bets that he wouldn't get healthy enough and thus they wouldn't have to hire/pay the preproduction crew, if the movie stalled out for health reasons. Movies have to have a specific type of insurance for cast and crews in case they can't finish a movie; they have to have physical exams and usually answer a questionnaire about potentially dangerous activities they do (like riding horses, dangerous driving or if they fly planes, even if they're smokers or drinkers/use drugs). I'd like to think they might have pushed the dates for the movie out of kindness, but I don't have a lot of faith in the Disney/Marvel machine that it wasn't a more monetary concern.

I've been watching Black Panther and the other Marvel movies a lot lately for the story, just looking at everything I can get my hands on, although now I'm really kicking myself for not getting a hold on the Art of Black Panther book through the library earlier; I imagine the wait list now will be terrible, and I think it would really help with the story. (If you have the book, would you let me know, so I can maybe ask you some questions?) Now I'm going to go fix myself a drink and see if I can get a few words down on this story, at least, even though my heart's broken.

Comments

[kass]

Three years since your surgery! Wow. My sense of time is so scrambled since the pandemic started. And also since the end of VVC, I have this vague sense that I just saw all of my vidding friends and I will see you all again soon -- even though intellectually I know it's been... a while, and will be quite a while longer. But wow.

I have no wisdom to share, really -- just here to say thinking of you and sending love, as ever.

[mackiemesser]

That is one hell of a coincidental date...

I am just wrecked by the news and stunned at what he was able to accomplish while being so sick.

Black Panther: Art of the Film?

[dewline]

I have that book.

Re: Black Panther: Art of the Film?

[gwyn]

I wsa wondering if the book has any detail about the area where the palace or building the royal family lives in. I've seen it referred to as the Citadel, which seems to describe the area around the palace, and that the palace is in the Citadel. I'm a little confused about it and the layout in general and that's the part I'm writing right now, so it'd be helpful to know.

Re: Black Panther: Art of the Film?

[dewline]

There is considerable detail on the design and layout of the capital, Birnin Zana (AKA "the Golden City") in general. Several pages of cityscape imagery are included, as well as a map of the city itself with neighbourhoods labelled. The Citadel building itself doesn't get much ink and pages space, but the design of the throne room gets two pages.

[grammarwoman]

*HUGS* 3 years? Time is so weird. The news about Boseman's death hit me hard, too, for reasons.

[sperrywink]

{{{hugs}}} I'm glad to have you around for these last 3 years and am glad they caught your cancer early, even if it was exhausting going through the treatment and recovery. Because yeah, the loss of Chadwick Boseman was so tragic and what he must have gone through is astounding.