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Interview with a man who cut off

Interview with a man who cut off his right hand in a staged accident because he felt that having "two hands was a defect in my body".

So it's irrational, but is it insane? It's true that a major amp makes your body less functional, so how can it be sane to do it? For me, I think the answer is in what I was going through before my amp. I was so consumed by the drive to lose my hand that I could scarcely function.

Now I've totally lost the desire to amputate anything. I'm totally used to doing things with a hand and a stump. It's true I need to ask for help like once a day, that I'm a bit slower at dish washing, keyboarding, and stuff like that, but is that worse than being seriously overweight, or being short of breath from smoking, or even trying to walk in stiletto heels?

Somewhat related: a demonstration video of Dean Kamen's mechanical arm, which he calls the Luke Arm after Luke Skywalker's sophisticated mechanical arm in the Star Wars movies. (via waxy)

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This entry was published on February 20, 2008 at 12:05 pm.

Tags for this entry:  interviews  deankamen  starwars 

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You're visiting kottke.org. All content by Jason Kottke (contact me) unless otherwise noted, with some restrictions on its use. Good luck will come to those who dig around in the archives. If you've reached this point by accident, I suggest panic. In memory of DFW, rest in peace. Thanks for everything.