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Bed Bugs in Literature
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This is a somewhat pointless story, but I really wanted to share it anyway. During the time that I suspected I had bedbugs, but was still afraid to check I was reading a book. The book was called Child of Darkness. It was a diary written by a single mother who lived during the 50's in the slums of Brazil. I found her diary to be fascinating, because despite the many, many differences I (a middle-class(ish), suburan chik from the United States in the year 2008) and this woman, Maria (an extrememly impoverished woman, living in unthinkable conditions in Brazil in the 1950s) there are so many issues which are universal for single women and for single mothers. She'd written so many thoughts about relationships and child rearing, etc which I've written in my own diary. Amazing....
What else we had in common which I didn't know at the time, was the bedbugs. She wrote often about trying to rest, but the bugs were bothering her. Despite all her hardship (no food, running water, etc) she devoted a good deal of her writing to complaining about the bedbugs. Now I understand why.
When her book was published, she made a great deal of money and was able to move into a house in the city. I told my PCO that I really need to find her diary from after she moved, because I want to know now if she brought the bed bugs with her. I certainly hope she didn't. Maybe the follow up diary has some BB eradication tips - lol
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Marixpress
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Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 305
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 11:40:11
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Thanks for the book recommendation! Sounds awesome. Here's one for you. The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. It's so good it deserves a sticky thread. Don't bother watching the crappy movie with the same name.
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Hi,
If you can hold on a little I will be getting my bed bug ephemera section of the website up and running.
I have several books, fiction and account based that cover bed bugs as a subject along with an amazing array of bed bug merchandise such as the Bed Bug game, childs story books, antique microscope slides and historical documents.
If you think that we have had civilisation for over 3,000 years as a percentage society has only had less than 0.1% of its time on the planet relatively bed bug free. Maybe they all just went away on holiday and are now back.
I think this is where they were:
http://wikimapia.org/3513287/Bed-Bug-Island-off-Bertrand-Island-in-Lake-Hopatcong
I actually have a postcard from there.
David
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Marix - I will definitely have to check out that book. I move in 10 days (woo hoo!!!!), but don't know when I will have a tv. I'll definitely be needing a good book :)
David - I remember that bed bug game being advertised when I was a kid. My bf & I were just talking about that the other day. There was a bed that vibrated & made all these lil plastic bugs jump around & you had to catch them w/ like tweezers or something. Yuck! What a horrible sadistic game. I wish I would've had it though, I guess I could've used the training. They are slippery lil suckers. I've missed/ dropped my share.
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Hi bugbattler,
That's the game, I have been buying them on eBay as corporate gifts for good clients at Xmas.
As I have said many times before you have to have a dry sense of humor to work with us.
David
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Itchy-Scratchy
senior member
Joined: Jul '08
Posts: 452
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 14:05:46
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David, that's hilarious that you buy that game as a corporate gift! Wonderful!
Bugbattler, the book sounds really interesting. I went looking for it, and I believe the title is actually Child of the Dark, by Carolina Maria de Jesus. Might be good to read a book that will make me appreciate my station in life.
Thanks for the recommendation!
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Itchy - Thanks for finding it. I'm always getting the names of books wrong. Once I recommended to someone who was interested in learning about the psycological troubles of adolescent girls that he read Angela's Ashes - duh! I totally meant Reviving Ophelia. Boy, I bet he was confused :p
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LJ
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Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 57
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 16:21:50
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I seem to recall a scene from an old black and white movie called The L-shaped Room, in which a young pregnant woman who's just moved into a rooming house discovers that she has bed bugs. One of the other roomers teaches her to battle them by quickly throwing back the covers and dabbing them up with a moist bar of soap! I'm pretty sure I have the right movie but its been years since I've seen it. Anyone else remember this one?
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BugsInTO
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Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 197
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 16:59:32
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Yes - I remember it. It had Leslie Caron. But, until you mention it now, I was so naive when I saw it all those years ago, I thought she was catching roaches! I think they are just called "bugs" in the movie, because she is playing the role was a french accents, so I think her english is supposed to be a little incomplete. It seems so obvious now - why would someone target a bed to be catching roaches.
Good memory, LJ.
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MyWorstFear
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Joined: Sep '08
Posts: 266
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 17:01:37
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LJ, I haven't seen that movie, but I do recall hearing that in "the olden days" the moist bar of soap was what people used. How and why it's better than a shoe is beyond me, except maybe it leaves less of a mess? In the movie, did they actually show live bed bugs? UGH!
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boliviana
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Joined: Mar '08
Posts: 6
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Nov 13 2008 18:30:00
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It was so funny to see this post today. Good timing. I was home today from work, sick in bed. I was laying around rereading Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquiel and in chapter eight, it not only mentions bed bugs, but gives a remedy. I couldn't believe I didn't remember a passage about bed bugs the first time reading it. Clearly I didn't have them then. At any rate the remedy in the book reads:
"The best way to eradicate them is to mix a glass of alcohol, half an ounce of spirits of turpentine, and half an ounce of powdered camphor. Rub this preparation everywhere there are bed bugs and they will disappear completely."
I think I will give it a go...
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boliviana - 7 minutes ago »
"The best way to eradicate them is to mix a glass of alcohol, half an ounce of spirits of turpentine, and half an ounce of powdered camphor. Rub this preparation everywhere there are bed bugs and they will disappear completely."
I think I will give it a go...I sincerely hope you don't smoke in bed or have a naked flame anywhere near that mixture. You may want to do a little research on the safety of it before you dive in.
David
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Aris
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Joined: Apr '08
Posts: 62
Posted 2 days ago
Thu Nov 19 2009 9:53:49
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James Baldwin's classic "Giovanni's Room," published 1956. The scene is set in a house near Coney Island, Brooklyn:
I fell asleep - for quite a while, I think. But I woke up to find the light on and Joey examining the pillow with great, ferocious care.
"What's the matter?"
"I think a bedbug bit me."
"You slob. You got bedbugs?"
"I think one bit me."
"You ever have a bedbug bite you before?"
"No."
"Well, go back to sleep. You're dreaming."He looked at me with his mouth open and his dark eyes very big. It was as though he had just discovered that I was an expert on bedbugs.
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Nice one, Aris!
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