I've begun re-reading THE TOUCH, the original version from 1986. I love all the in-depth medical touches (pardon the pun), the protagonist is, of course, a doctor. I was struck by the speech that Dr. Bulmer gives before a Senate subcommittee in Washington. It reminded me of something I'd posted quite a while ago about a couple of FPW's other books. Here is Dr. Bulmer's speech, in part:

"...I really hate to bring it up before a committee such as this, but here goes. As doctors we must - we need to - keep [I]touching people, and by that I mean an actual laying on of hands, even when it's not necessary. It's letting that person know that there's another human being among all this hardware....There are diagnostic bonuses that come with touching...It's not something you get from a textbook, it's something you can only learn by doing. It's hand's on medicine, and too few doctors are doing it today." [/I]

Here's what I wrote a couple of years ago. I was struck, yet again, by Paul's use of hands in his imagery.

maggers Wrote:[COLOR="Red"]
I thought I'd resurrect this thread and post a comment I'd written elsewhere on the board but couldn't find. I pulled it from my own files...


SPOILER ALERT FOR “THE HAUNTED AIR” AND “MIRAGE”











I was struck by an interesting visual link between two FPW books.

In “The Haunted Air,” when Charles and Gia are trapped in the basement by the ghost of Tara Portman, they fall into a deep pit. As the dirt walls begin to crumble, Charlie gives Gia one of the “crosses” from the stones in the wall, and she uses it to create hand and foot holds in the dirt walls. As she does so, she comes across bones of children buried in the cellar. Fighting back her fear, Gia continues to dig and begins to rise toward the lip of the pit. Suddenly ghostly little hands emerge from the dirt walls and grab Gia and Charlie, preventing them from escaping. Using the “cross,” Gia slices her way through the hands that continue to multiply, until dozens of little hands are grasping her and it seems she will never get out alive.

In “Mirage,” Julie is in the volcano of Samantha’s mind. She is desperate to connect the severed ends of a bridge that traverses a lava flow and which is a critical connection between parts of Sam’s unconscious mind. After digging deep within herself and tapping newly discovered parts of her own emotional psyche, Julie sees a response from Sam. The response comes in the form of little hands on either end of the ruptured bridge, reaching out and caressing Julie. At first, the hands are those of a tiny child, but they begin to multiply and blossom into dozens of hands from every phase of Sam’s life, little girl through adulthood.

FPW is a physician, a man with healing hands. The laying on of hands is part of medical care, not in a mystical fashion but quite literally. Every physician must use his/her hands to examine the patient.

The imagery is unique and interesting, don’t you think?[/COLOR]

There's always lots to get from re-reading FPW's books.