“A Blue Ribbon Affair”
Richard Selzer’s “A Blue Ribbon Affair” delineates the causal link between Death Instinct (Thanatos) and Sex instinct (Libido). Perhaps, it is the death instinct which informs Joyce’s outlook on life which is summed up in the sentences: “Nobody gets off the planet alive that is all I know. You only go this way once...Better make the most of if.” Joyce Renfrew’s immodest behavior at the morgue is triggered by the ideology that, once she is dead, she will not get the opportunity to have sex. So, the sexual intercourse she has with Bertie, even though it may not be based on love, is a way of making the most of her life before she dies like the corpse.
Having sex in a morgue, ordinarily, would be considered as a mystifying act. However, for medical workers such as Joyce Renfrew, sex instinct does not die even in an atmosphere, such as morgue, in which death dominates. The subtle transformation of the morgue into a romantic setting affirms the death and coitus are not disjoint processes; death and sex can converge in the least likely environments. Accordingly, the sex instinct motivates Bertie and Joyce to transform the morgue into a sex scene notwithstanding the dead bodies that are lying there.
The Consultation
“The Consultation” outlines the inseparability of doctors’ professional and personal spheres. The doctor seeks the prostitute’s service as a way of escaping from the professional life momentarily, but he ends up facing the same dilemmas and situation, of cancer, that he time and again stumbles across. Arguably, being a doctor is a walk of life that one should not seek to strive to run away from. A doctor’s professional and personal life are conjoined so, it is upon the doctors uphold steadiness professional and person lives.
Also, the title “The Consultation” calls for a deconstruction. Some critics may postulate that the doctor’s advice to Gloria amounts to a consultation; thus, he deserves that ten dollars that she offers after the conclusion of their escapade. However, some may argue that Gloria’s payment is not obligatory as she has already traded her body to the doctor; hence, the professional advice that he offers her is an additional service. Notably, the “word” consultation, even though it is part of the title, is mentioned once in the story, towards the falling action; this structuring is impactful on the reader, as it leaves the reader in suspense as to what the consultation, which is denoted in the title, would be about.
