- Dr. Jason: Yeah, she was a great scholar. Wrote tons of books, articles. She was the head of everything. People used to hug the walls when she passed. I had a lot of respect for her. More than I can say for the entire bio-chem department. She gave a hell of a lecture. No notes, not a word out of place. It was impressive. A lot of students hated her, though.
- Susie: Why?
- Dr. Jason: She wasn't exactly a cupcake.
- Susie: She hasn't exactly been a cupcake here either. Miss Bearing, Jason and I are here, we'll insert a catheter to collect urine. It won't hurt, so don't worry.
- Dr. Jason: Like she can hear you.
- Susie: It's just nice to do. I wish they'd all go full throttle, then we'd have some data. She's not what I imagined. I thought someone who studied poetry would be more dreamy.
- Dr. Jason: Not the way she did it. Her course was more like boot camp than English. John Donne was incredibly intense. Your whole brain had to be in knots before you could get it.
- Susie: He made it hard on purpose?
- Dr. Jason: It has to do with subject matter. The Holy Sonnets we worked on mostly were mainly about salvation anxiety. That's a term I made up in one of my papers...but I think it fits pretty well. He's this brilliant guy, I mean brilliant. He makes Shakespeare sound like a Hallmark card. And you know you're a sinner. There's a promise of salvation, the whole religious thing. But you can't deal with it.
- Susie: How come?
- Dr. Jason: Because it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. But you can't face life without it, so you write these screwed-up sonnets. Like a game to make the puzzle so complicated.
- Susie: What happens in the end?
- Dr. Jason: The end of what?
- Susie: To John Donne. Does he ever get it?
- Dr. Jason: Get what?
- Susie: His salvation anxiety. Does he ever understand?
- Dr. Jason: No way. The puzzle takes over. You're not even trying to solve it anymore. Fascinating, really. Great training for lab research. Looking at increasing levels of complexity.
- Susie: Until what?
- Dr. Jason: What do you mean?
- Susie: Do you ever get to solve the puzzle?
- Dr. Jason: No. When it comes down to it, research is just trying to quantify...the complications of the puzzle.
- Susie: You help people, you save lives and stuff.
- Dr. Jason: Sure, I save a guy's life...and the poor slob goes out and gets hit by a bus. Yeah, I guess so. I just don't think about it that way. I guess you can tell I never took a course in poetry. If there's one thing we learned in the Century Poetry...you can forget all about that sentimental stuff. Enzyme kinetics was more poetic than Bearing's class. Besides, you can't just go around... thinking about that meaning-of-life stuff all the time. You'd go nuts.
- Susie: Do you believe in it?
- Dr. Jason: Believe in what?
- Susie: I don't know...the meaning-of-life stuff.
- Dr. Jason: What do they teach you at nursing school? She's out of it. Shouldn't be too long.
- (Wit, 2001)
